Four million spectators at the Grand Prix in 2017

For its first season at the helm of F1, Liberty Media has strived to put fans back at the center of its strategy. This has resulted in significant progress in the use of social media, which was clearly neglected by the previous shareholders.

At the end of this year of learning, the FOM revealed that this strategy had worked, as the number of spectators increased by 8% compared to 2016, even though this season only had 20 races compared to 21 the previous year. With an average of over 203,000 spectators over the weekend, nearly four million people attended the circuit for the F1 event.

But as often, the devil is in the details. The number of spectators over the weekend includes Thursday, when more and more organizers open the pit lane doors to bring fans closer to the drivers. Silverstone went the furthest with this concept, since, for the first time, the F2 and GP3 free practice sessions took place on this day to free up track time for the celebrations of Renault’s 40 years in the sport, as well as for the two-seater F1 track rides. However, this strategy does not seem to have necessarily borne fruit, as the event lost 5,500 spectators compared to 2016.

The FOM also highlighted Baku, where the weekend’s spectator number reportedly increased by 58%. However, it should be noted that the organizers themselves had announced an increase of “only” 30% for race day, reaching the respectable figure of 71,541 fans on that Sunday alone. This remains below the annual average, which stands at 76,722 people according to FOM data, and is by far the lowest attendance of the year.

The title of the most visited Grand Prix of the year goes to Montreal, which also experienced the largest increase in attendance. An additional 60,000 spectators joined the 300,000 from the previous year, allowing it to overtake Silverstone. There is also a significant increase in attendance at Spa-Francorchamps, clearly riding the Max Verstappen wave. Thousands of Dutch fans traveled to the Ardennes to see their favorite driver.

Red Bull has also strengthened the activation of its home Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. Although it is far from any major city, which poses many accommodation problems, 145,000 spectators gathered around the Austrian circuit.

In the category of bad news, we find Austin, with a decrease of 12,000 people, representing 5% of its visitors. Despite this, the American event remains among the top, with the seventh highest attendance of the year.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr