Formula 1 has always been perceived as a European championship, and the Montreal Grand Prix has long benefited from this aura of prestigious exoticism to establish itself as an event that shines throughout North America. The sudden interest in F1 in the US promises to be a game changer. It is already appealing to a whole new section of the global automotive industry.
In 2022, F1 reaches audiences all over the planet. Everywhere ? Yes. Including in the United States, second market automobile of the planet after China.Even if the country has occasionally hosted F1 races in the past, it almost completely escaped this Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship. So much so that within large automotive groups such as the German Volkswagen (VW) , it is now understood that the global reach promised by F1 surpasses any other marketing campaign that would cost the same.
Better still: being present in the Formula 1 circus will sell enough cars for the adventure to be downright profitable, we think at the head of VW. “We simply no longer have any argument against it,” the CEO of the Volkswagen group, Herbert Diess, laconically summed up last May when asked how the decision was taken within the multinational to associate with F1, from 2026, its subsidiaries Porsche and Audi.
According to the Reuters agency, Audi plans to extend 500 million euros to join forces with the McLaren team. Porsche should become a close partner of the Red Bull team. The latter intends, as a result of this new partnership, to reduce its presence in other motor racing championships with less… planetary influence.
Performance and technology
The irony of seeing a car manufacturer that is investing tens of billions of dollars in the electrification of its catalog of vehicles join forces with a championship that embodies excess and excessiveness escapes no one. . This is, it seems, the thing to do to convince buyers who are looking for this image of performance when they shop for a new car, explains the professor of marketing at HEC Montreal Renaud Legoux.
“Manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in electrification, but they don’t want to lose that image of performance and excitement that comes with driving, especially as electrification begins in this time by selling top-of-the-range models, a market where this notion of performance is very important in the eyes of buyers,” says Mr. Legoux.
“And right now, with its North American market penetration reaching new heights and its international reach, F1 is perhaps the best way to make brands like Audi and Porsche more visible” to these consumers and enthusiasts. performance ready to trade displacement for electrons.
High-level marketing, therefore. One thing is certain, the interest for a group like Volkswagen to enter F1 is not that of a technological contribution promised by the development and the fine-tuning of a single-seater worthy of winning a Grand Prix like the one that will take place. on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit on June 19.
“In fact, building a single-seater and assembling a new car are two very different things”, continues Renaud Legoux, who appreciates more the historical background of this championship which was born in 1950. There is certainly an aura of prestige and exclusivity associated with F1. The same can be said of the Montreal Grand Prix. The old Forum where the Canadiens won so many Stanley Cups is not the only place in Montreal where there are a few ghosts…
The Villeneuves, father and son, left a lasting mark on the city in general, and on Île Notre-Dame in particular, which still inspires motor racing enthusiasts today. “There is a whole mythology in Montreal” that has developed around the circuit that the owners of the championship will probably want to try to reproduce in the other North American cities that now plan to host F1 on a regular basis: Austin and Miami.
Reality TV on four wheels
Performance image, therefore, international influence and… a bit of reality TV, with that? It seems that an incursion into the daily lives of drivers and teams who travel the world in a level of luxury that is rarely equaled elsewhere is the ingredient that has been missing so far to “sell” F1 to the American public. Because the sudden rise in popularity of F1 over the past two years also coincides with the broadcast of a documentary series on Netflix which has also had enormous popular success internationally, including in the United States.
The fourth and most recent season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive reached a record number of viewers last year, consistently ranking in the top 10 most-watched shows weekly on Netflix in no less than 56 countries. Unsurprisingly, this series which gives unprecedented access to the backstage of Formula 1 has been renewed for a fifth and a sixth season… at the very least.
Liberty Media, which bought the Formula 1 rights from eccentric Brit Bernie Ecclestone in 2017, is co-producer of Drive to Survive. The Colorado-based company says it saw ticket sales for the United States Grand Prix jump 15% in the days following the launch of its first season. This success has not slowed since.
The popularity of F1 on American TV has also benefited from this enthusiasm. The average viewership for an F1 race at Uncle Sam’s house was 547,000 viewers in 2018. This average rose to 672,000 after F1 arrived on Netflix. In 2021, an average of 934,000 Americans watch F1 on TV, a 71% increase from four years earlier. Last month, the inaugural Miami Grand Prix attracted the largest audience in American television history for a live F1 race, with 2.6 million viewers.
Liberty Media is doubly pleased with the success of its strategy of repositioning a motor racing series which, just five years ago, was seen more as reserved for wealthy elderly and decadent billionaires. Because not only is F1 popular now, but it may well be for a long time. 40% of its audience in the United States is currently between the ages of 18 and 24. Another quarter of its clientele is in the 25-35 age group. Of the lot, 18% are women, which seems low, but is still double what this proportion was in 2017.
F1 is even beginning to interfere in areas of the United States where Nascar has until now completely ruled motor racing. Many F1 fans look down on Nascar, a series where drivers keep turning in the same direction on oval circuits with few surprises.
In Texas and Florida, in particular, interest in F1 has never been higher. Here again, Liberty Media can congratulate itself for having been able to target a younger clientele. His TikTok account created in 2020 now has 4 million subscribers.
This happy mix of motorsport, online documentary and social media explains the renewed success of F1, which has never been so accessible. Naturally, it still faces significant challenges to ensure the sustainability of this success. Starting with the environmental issue. A carbon neutral F1, is it possible?
Only the future will tell. Because for everything else, the prestigious motor racing championship seems to have found the right answers. Its audience is constantly growing. Its pilots have become superstars again. And even an auto industry in full electric shift is under the spell.