RACING’S RENAISSANCE

“I THINK PEOPLE ARE JUST LOVING THE SPORT RIGHT NOW… …IT’S BECOMING BIGGER AND BIGGER…”
CHARLES LECLERC

SILVERSTONE. AUGUST 2, 2020. An eerie silence has fallen over the Northamptonshire circuit just five minutes before the British Grand Prix is due to get underway.

After the roar of a Spitfire above has faded away, aside from the low hum of generators on the starting grid, there’s very little sound. Swathes of empty blue seats surround the track, while fields that are normally full of tents and cars remain untouched. You might not be able to see it, but Formula 1 is booming.

And it’s doing so in a way every sport wants to, with a younger demographic. Over the past five years, as the global fan base has been measured at half a billion, the average age of those fans has dropped by two years to 37.

Nearly a quarter of people who call themselves F1 fans are aged between 16 and 24 – an increase of 6% since 2017 – and 40% of the total are female, itself a rise of 8% in that time. F1 is reaching a wider, younger and more diverse audience, but more than that, it is connecting with them.

“It’s a perfect storm, in a positive way, with a number of factors coming together, ” declares F1’s motor sport managing director Ross Brawn. “We have new tracks which are exciting and interesting, a new generation of drivers who are very engaging on social media, a new car which tells the fans that we do care about the racing, and the Netflix coverage of . Put all those together, plus people wanting to get back out and watch live sport after Covid, then, yes, we are pleased about the way things are going. It’s up to us now to maintain it, and develop further, and not forget why we are seeing this surge in popularity.”