Formula 1 is really bad at learning from other championships, if only because of the curse of “Not Made Here” Syndrome, which is usually caused by clever people believing it is impossible for anyone to be cleverer than they are. This handicaps progress. The best way to move forward is to examine one’s product all the time and see what others are doing and do it better… F1 is failing badly at the moment with the younger generations. Where is the sport’s presence on Facebook, and on Twitter? Where are the fans of tomorrow? What can the circuits afford to do to make the fan experience more enjoyable. In NASCAR they take this very seriously and it is interesting to note the latest innovation at Charlotte Motor Speedway where there will soon be the world’s largest high definition video screen, which will measure 61 metres in length and will be 24 metres high. Situated between Turns Two and Three, on the outside of the backstretch, the screen will be visible from the vast grandstands opposite the pits. The screen will consist of 158 panels with nine million bulbs, supported by a steel frame 100 ft high.
On a more bizarre note, it is worth noting that the International Speedway Corporation, which owns Daytona, is currently supporting a bill, that is currently passing through the Florida state legislature to allow speedways to have their own columbariums. This does not have anything to do with carrier pigeons (despite the derivation of the word) but rather means that fans can have their ashes housed in urns at the race track after they die. People rent niches in which the urns containing their ashes are placed, usually behind a small memorial plinths. The rentals can run to as much as $4,000 for 20 years, with the families having the option to continue at a later date.
Such facilities can quite easily hold thousands of niches in a relatively small space and when one translates that into numbers there is the potential for considerable revenue. At the same time there is the potential for such a venue to become a visitor attraction if celebrated motorsport personalities decide that they would like to be thus interred…
joeblogsf1 
It could certainly learn a few things from MotoGP circus but wont because the “old boy” brigade in charge.
I want mine scattered on the apex of Paddock hill bend at Brands in the wet.
But why not, this would appeal to hundreds of racing fans of all types and formulae, a great marketing ploy. Apart from specifying bizarre music for the cremation, this is one way to make sure you are remembered, we can’t all be illustrious jounos!
Deadly serious business, NASCAR…
In her book “One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR swept the nation” Liz Clarke writes how one NASCAR fan requested that Richard Petty drive the North Wilkesboro track with his ashes in the passenger seat. The King was willing to honor the man’s request. Now that’s a money making plan for Bernie: charge fans on a sliding scale $10,000 for a Ferrari ride down to $1.80 for HRT.
My main reason for choosing a grandstand whenever I visit a grand prix is to see the screens that are often placed so that they are only visible from the grandstands. On the rare occasions I’ve paid only for general admittance I haven’t had a view of a screen and it’s very hard to follow the race without it.
I think F1 are doing OK right now re embracing the future – their Android and iPhone app that streams the timing screen to you wherever you are (and for free, surprisingly) is fantastic. But yes, I’m surprised no official presence on facebook or twitter (not that I’ve looked).
One innovation that I thought may be of use to F1 is the double round races you see in Australian V8 Supercars.
True, not the best class of racing, but in the early rounds, instead of having one 50 lap race, they have two 25 lap races.
Let’s face it, often the middle stint is the most dull. The leader is out on long lasting tyres and the order is mostly decided.
What if they made the first round of the championship a double round? They could give half points per race and it’d improve interest and give everyone a much better idea of where they are for the season.
Tyre restrictions would still apply and the starting order for the second race would be the same as they finished in the first.
The strategy would be considerable. Blow the allocated tyres on winning in the first race, or conserve for the second? Minor car trouble? limp it home and get fixed for the second race.
Just a thought anyway. Better than setting up sprinklers on the track.
Joe, you might be interested in this recent article, well blog:
http://blogs.forbes.com/elainewong/2010/12/20/why-some-of-the-worlds-biggest-brands-still-dont-get-facebook/
Nascar actually allows the tracks to make money though… Bernie would never let an F1 venue turn a profit and afford to pay for such things as the largest HD video screen. WOuld he?
Hi Joe,
Have a search for NIH on the web. Not Invented Here is the term more commonly used. I’ve never seen Not Made Here used anywhere except this posting.
NIH describes many organisations, notably Apple computer and if reports are to believed also Google.
Stephen
The real areas where the US series trump F1 is in their harnessing of the web to reach out to fans and allow them to watch races live online and their more reasonable ticket prices – to take the wife and two kids to an F1 race probably costs as much as taking them on a summer holiday abroad. It’s hardly encouraging a new generation of fans…
NASCAR
National
Assoc of
Stiffs
Cadavers
And
Religious-internment
Joe,
Didnt you know that I had made arrangements to have my ashes sprinkled on the inside of Degner 2 corner at Suzuka ? Just before the bridge .
I wouldnt mind having my ashes interred in the woods at Spa somewhere on that beautiful pathway between eau rouge and pouhon.
“F1 is failing badly at the moment with the younger generations. Where is the sport’s presence on Facebook, and on Twitter?”
Formula 1 is on Twitter Joe: http://twitter.com/F1
Though like all companies on Twitter, there’s little point in following it unless you just want a stream of press release style articles.
As someone who’s aged 21, and has only been a fan of motorsport for just over 6 years, I’m continually bemused by the notion that F1 is ‘failing badly’ to attract and entertain ‘younger generations’. I know a lot of people my age and younger that are interested in Formula 1, especially (here in the UK) since Lewis Hamilton came along.
I’ve always found that discontent for F1 is generally found amongst older people. Those who were ‘fans’ (or viewers, at least) of F1 in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, that look back on the past with rose tinted glasses, constantly disappointed that current F1 doesn’t live up to their glorified view of what F1 used to be. Maybe F1 should do more to keep these people on-board, rather then worrying about the young who enjoy F1 for what it is now?
If it is anyone’s job to attract and appease the young, I don’t feel that it’s that of the teams or FOM to do, or that they can. In my view, the main responsibility fall’s to the host broadcast of F1 in each nation. Taking our experience here in the UK, the BBC’s coverage really has done a lot to reach out and include more casual viewers, especially those in the 10 to 25 age group (a large age group, I know!), both male, and probably more interestingly for F1, female audience. ITV’s coverage, while good in the early years, was fairly flat and uninspiring between 2001 and 2008. It did little to attract new viewers. The BBC style and remit was totally different, it brought a bit of character to the sport, something your average Joe could be attracted to. They also brought in more cross promotion, with, for example, Jake Humphrey phoning into the Radio 1 breakfast show on the Friday of a GP to talk F1, effectively a 15/20 minute F1 advert going out 6 to 8 million people. The UK F1 viewing figures only prove the success of the BBC’s approach to the sport.
Obviously the above is very UK-centric, but it’s a formula that has been proven to work. Can it be as successfully implemented in other countries, is there the will/possibility to do so in other countries? I guess that’s where Bernie comes in…
F1 has never promoted itself, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t, but neither does it mean it should chase other motor sports into downward spiral of ‘Disney Wrestling on Ice Factor’ either.
Keeping its head above the tacky, may yet turn out to be the best way of differentiating itself from the many copy-cat series.
But it’s about time F1 appointed a full time promotions team, placing the championship in TV shows and movies etc, would do it no harm whatsoever.
WOW. Burial at a NASCAR track. I suppose one shouldnt be too surprised by the idea, given the amount of…err…southerly sourced fans of the sport (southern states being on the whole poorer and less educated -this is a fact – than much of the rest of the U.S.). They get enormous tattoos and buy anything branded with their favorite drivers’ number as it is…I guess Lowes could start offering ‘build your own coffins’ with a special burial deal at Charlotte (a.k.a. Lowes Motor Speedway)
OTOH, I could definitely picture myself requesting burial at, say, the Nurburgring (Nordschleife, of course) or Eau Rouge, or even that great unused section of elevated track at Monza (throw up some side walls under the sections and suddenly you’ve got room for thousands of rabid Tifosi in special carbon fiber Ferrari urns). The mind boggles at the possibility of continuing to generate income off your dead fans well into the future.
Just the next logical step after this: http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/11621/man-buried-in-car/
I must be getting old.
Paying upwards of ÂŁ100 a skull to go to a sporting event, so you can watch it in HD on a wide screen, just doesn’t make sense to me.
But then I’ve never understood people who spend the entire sporting event recording it for posterity on their camcorders or phones.
Must be getting old.
Doesn’t necessarily mean I’m wrong though….
Interesting observation as I was recently trying to find a Facebook preseence for F1, but I could not find an official page. Rather odd, given that MotoGP, NASCAR, the ALMS, the Grand-Am, and IndyCars have very active sites. These sites tend to engage fans in a dynamic way with videos and contests. It isn’t clear to me why F1 is so behind in these developments, other than perhaps hubris.
I’ll start with a swipe at social media. How quick was the migration from MySpace to Facebook? How quickly will todays teens get about to reading FB’s terms of service which effectively grant perpetual access into their lives, via any means . . and if i had a “legit” Choicepoint account, i could be reading what Joe spent on his credit card last month.
Everyone surely looks back and imagines halcyon days of their youth. Adults take a while to catch up, fortunately. But when the slow to learn 30 and 40 somethings who never “got it” when they were kids are finally revolting at circumregulation of the minutiae of our lives, via The Daily Mail, no less, guys and gals, the game is down solely to how much attention you might be paid.
What F1 lacks, and most closed wheel US racing still celebrates, is the leftfield entrant.
That’s just not an easy transplant.
But we so need utter crackpots in the sport. There’s beauty in the aero end runs, mirth in diffuser regs, but where’s the nuts and guts?
Really, not much in the new teams. Corporate and not good corporate. Want to see a good corp play? Try the Project Four reverse takeover using Philip Morris money. Hardly any good tricks since.
Maybe because i’m on a stint of re-reading Brock Yates, who was writing full on in the years of my childhood, i am wishing for more utter nutters and monsters in F1.
Maybe because i was steeped in commerce early, i rate BE and Max as kind of nutters, in their own ways, but that simply isn’t cool for kids.
Countering the negativity, brought by emotion causing me to spill a drink over the nicest keyboard i ever owned, grr, i’ll try some ideas:
– percent of all revenue to bring non syndicated tracks to FIA safety specs.
– try non championship sprint races of 20 laps for anyone who can pass scrutinering
– let test and reserve drivers run those races
– darn well make it a free to air web video stream, allowing repeats on demand
– then you can pay for the blimming testing, oh and whittle out possible new entrants!
Joe, in tech, i usually hear “NIH” as in “Not Invented Here”, see Bell Labs, but i’m a pedant as you know . . .
best to all,
– j
While I whole heartedly agree that F1 could learn some things from other series, including NASCAR, I also think that not every idea is worth copying.
Creating a tourist attraction out of a cemetery in the middle of a race track seems at best vulgar.
Next you’ll be suggesting that Charlie Whiting start every race with a chant of “boogity, boogity, boogity” over the PA.
Let’s at least pretend to keep things civilized, please.
Joe, you should keep this to yourself… you can make a fortune selling these ideas to the 57 old farts running F1.
Facebook and Twitter should be a no-brainer. Columbariums should get massive support. I’ll gladly have my ashes kept at Monza!
One other area where F1 fails miserably is online. During the week at sidepodcast people were blown away when I showed them how baseball presents love data.
F1 likes to present itself as a high tech sport but its online offering is from an earlier century than baseball’s. How can we be in the position where people on an F1 site are spending time trying to figure out how baseball generates the curve of every pitch in every game n real time. I wonder when F1 will be able to do anything similar or when someone at the top of the sport will actually realise there is a need to catch up.
F1 leads the world in a global motorsport.
Agree with you that Formula One could be doing more with the internet, particularly in the new and emerging markets such as China.
Formula One is a vibrant, colourful and photogenic sport.
The TV pictures from the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Shanghai are good examples of this. (not that i wish to take anything away from the other circuits, Monaco leads in this department)
The big question now is how do we get these new fangled electric engines to sound like a Cosworth!?
Formula One; aerodynamics always change and hi-tech motorsport continues to evolve.
Speedway is in danger of becoming a dying sport…
What do they do with the ashes after 20 years? Much better just to throw them out. Mine will be going to Road America, some of my friends to Indy. Hell, there are more ashes in a portable grill, so no pollution worries there.
1. autograph signing sessions at every grand prix
2. youtube channel with insider reports from the teams
3. twitter feed from race control
4. cars to get downforce from (limited) ground effect rather than aero to minimise penalty from following another car
5. FOM TV pitlane reporters at each pit box
6. only 6 pit crew per pit box
7. one pit box per car
8. Softer tyre compound should have fully painted sidewalls
9. boost button 20 uses per race (don’t care what method is used for the boost)
10. Hosting fees for races should fall by 5% every year so promoters are incentivised to invest in the races
Don’t they already have a columbarium in Bahrain? Just asking.
Too many here seem willing to completely sacrifice the sport in favour of spectacle.
Tom, The glory days of F1 are over. Back in the day when Nigel Mansel and Co were king, there was something to watch.
With engine’s getting smaller, a recession, corruption, people leaving, smaller budgets, Everyone trying to look green, the inevitable will happen sooner or later.
If someone is doing OK, or better than you, it’s time to get the note book out. In this case…… It’s the American’s.
@Titus Pullo – $1.80 for HRT hmmm any refunds if team doesn’t get the car on the grid??
@Bojan – Thanks for the article, was really a good read.
@Joe – F1 has traditionally catered to elites and the playboys and wishes of common fans have always been lowest on the priority list. Those associated with F1 think, sending an occasional questionnaire to fans where they are supposed to pick up answers from the choices given to them by FOTA/FOM means actually making Fans feel that they are needed.
About Nascar Venues investing in unique things to appeal to their audience, well if those associated with F1 read your article will ask the circuit owners to do those things if they care about the fans. Personally having my ashes deposited at bus stop chicane (or what used to be bus stop chicane) at Spa or crossover point of Suzuka would be something I’d think about .
Bizzare selection of methods to reach out to younger fans. Both times I’ve been to F1 races (Montreal and Abu Dhabi), I’ve seen plenty of young people. From kids to teenagers to the targeted 18-35 demographic. If F1 wants to increase their exposure they need a better presence in pop culture, a *much better website and look to the National Football League as a mentor not NASCAR. The NFL is highly protective of its image yet, it’s the most popular sport in the U.S. (the most lucrative and challenging market in the world) where every team has a strong chance of winning every year and those that don’t are still pocketing loads of money.
Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller are reportedly looking into F1, with ways to x-lax-factor it up …. Oh dear!
F1 doesn’t need to be on Twitter or Facebook, because the brand itself isn’t what’s important to followers. What is important? It’s the teams and drivers, and you’ll find virtually the entire grid of drivers on Twitter, and some on Facebook too.
So if fans can follow their favourite drivers what does ‘F1’ offer them in addition to this? Not a lot.
The same is true of the FA Premier Leauge, teams and players are on Twitter, but I’m not even sure if the Premier Leauge are on Twitter, not that I would care though, because teams and players are.
I really don’t see an issue with F1 in it’s current guise, as long as it attracts the worlds best manufacturers and drivers it will by default always be the premier motorsport, and that in itself will be sufficent to maintain it’s position as the most watched form of motorsport.
@Phil what do you think F1 could learn from MotoGP? The only thing I’d like to see would be enabling celebrations from drivers on cool down laps, a bit of emotion is nice to see! Although i’d not want Jerez style biased Marshalls in F1…
Wilhelm Loots,
Nah
forget Joe getting a tip in the pot for the ideas . .
all about righteousness . .
Free Elections for FIA prez!!! 🙂
. . .
But *Everyone*
are we not simply explaining to the world in our comments just exactly why F1 is up it’s own whatever?
You have to make some part of this accessible to the kids, without forcing them tio ask their parents for a month’s salary, which restricts the group to who are sons and daughters of dedicated fans anyhow.
Dunno ’bout you, but it totally sucks if you’re 15, and you have to beg dad to take you to a race, which involves perilous logistics now.
Just right now, there’s a veteran generation of F1 fans and authors, literally dying out, who knew how the sport was something you could literally walk up to, and shake hands with. They’d never have gotten into it, i think, under prevaling circumstances, and we’d have lost a history.
I have friends just a tiny bit older than me, who could get off their butts and get down to a track as a kid, just like that, and walk up to their heroes. So it’s not so very long ago. That gives me hope, that that is in current memory. I’m thinking of one lapsed fan for a start.
I have no idea in the slightest how my crackpot idea to expand track action could happen commercially. I lament every day that there seems to be a generational shift wherein all the business types who had real nuts are gone or nearly gone, across the board. So, even with advertising hat on, best columbian powered pitch setting, i cringe at getting something off the ground.
Mollycoddled. That’s it. Bloody bunch of wimps. Me: primus inter lousy pares.
But a classic cyclical business shakedown would hurt who we care for in F1, and that would not be good, even if that looks like the proverbial (but technically untrue) frog in pan on stove inevitability.
– j
@joesaward
There is a massive F1 presence on twitter. I follow a number of teams and personalities, including you Joe.
In fact I’ve had to cull some sources as there was just too much information coming in!
Regards,
@leighpontypridd
LeighJW
I am talking about official F1 things
Thanks Joe, delighted to find a blog where… Punters can read about Pigeons and Plinths.
Read it out loud…
Plinth is a much under-used word, that deserves recognition.
I totally agree with the observation Joe.
Though I’m not sure F1 is “failing badly” in talking to the youngest, I agree that the secrecy around everything in Formula 1 fails to make our sport more popular.
Where’s the visual impact of Formula 1? It’s almost impossible to get good pictures or videos, there’s no official presence on twitter or Facebook. Teams try to make a better job in those kinds communications, Maclaren might be doing the best job, but overall it’s still not all great.
Communication in social media is my job, and I’m young too. I’m a huge fan of Formula 1 but I wish I could get a job out there to really leverage the fan base around all these teams!
Dear ALL
Josh- PPPPLLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE, NEVER contemplate taking anything from v8 supercars and adapting it to f1.
V8 Supercars is one of the dodgiest, bodgiest forms of “Motor racing” on the planet. Comparitively, f1 is unsullied (though everything is relative).
Just the thought sends shivers up and down my spine.
Cheers
MarkR
This is a great idea. Bernie could continue to make money even after his death. I can see a long queue of people paying to pis…… I’m sorry, I’ll stop now. Please, only joking.
Thibault,
I totally agree about unavailability of archive tape.
But i do not think it is all Bernie’s fault.
My late business partner spent 40 years negotiating with the BBC on behalf of culturally significant composers and performers, the kind of C.V. which those of my generation simply dream about, for the sheer pleasure. You want broadcast? Hmmmm . . . and bear in mind that in the 70s and 80s, broadcast distribution deals were done national to national, not via independants. The BBC was the be all and end all, or the kiss of death. They enjoy vast legal protection. They can broadcast your music, and haggle later for one example.
Nick would spare not an expletive, for the BBC’s grabby statute empowered flypaper nastiness towards copyright. He saved at least one major composer’s career by getting them out of the clutches of the BBC. The joke was the sequel to his memoirs would be an appendix of every swear word in every language ever spoken, dedicated to them.
So, when Bernie started out, immediately post Balestre, do you think the wheeler dealer had such a good position against the infinitely funded, self considered divinity of the BBC burocrasy, who at that time would, on a good day, have Murray up in the small hours in an edit suite, trying to provide commentary for rush edits out of sequence for a 30 minute slot?
And then there’s the complexity of commentary rights . .
BE took control by the mid – late 90s. When you see that copyright logo flash animation start appearing before any real action, will set the date. I’d hazard too, he wants to trade out of the excruciatingly onerous perpetual licenses the BBC expected as standard. It just misses so much of note, so much which explains how we got here, and you really need that in the package.
Do you think BE would turn down the PPV revenue from not only a well heeled older market, but also the market who is old enough and busy enough not to pirate this stuff? Or are we waiting for Intel’s i3/i5 platforms to become ubiquitous, which hardware support encrypted streaming with no local keys? There was the usual silly furore about that feature in the new chips, but compared with what of our culture is mothballed, i say bring the tech on.
But, in perspective, technology is generational, only feasibility is on a decade or so schedule, not implementation, and the real targets for computing now are much more pressing problems we’ve stored up as a race on our ever less green and blue planet.
– j