Is Netflix the reason for "fans" behavior?

[lio007]

I started to follow F1 from the Canadian GP in 2011.
I really enjoyed it from the getgo, the sporting and technical competition on and off track.
Sure, there have been opinions and there were some heated discussions, but by far not to that radical extent which we have to witness in the last couple of years.

I thought about what could be the reason for that and I have the impression it started when F1 got a lot of attention and also became quite popular by the Netflix series.

What do you think might be the root cause?
I'm really interested in forum members' opinions that are F1 followers for already quite a bit of time.

[dans79]

I started to follow F1 from the Canadian GP in 2011.
I really enjoyed it from the getgo, the sporting and technical competition on and off track.
Sure, there have been opinions and there were some heated discussions, but by far not to that radical extent which we have to witness in the last couple of years.

I thought about what could be the reason for that and I have the impression it started when F1 got a lot of attention and also became quite popular by the Netflix series.

What do you think might be the root cause?
I'm really interested in forum members' opinions that are F1 followers for already quite a bit of time.

DTS sure hasn't helped, but imo it all revolves around 1 or 2 individuals in the paddock who like to antagonize people every chance they get while invoking the victim card every chance they get. The older these individuals have gotten the worse they have gotten about it.

[CMSMJ1]

I don't think DTS has been the cause, but it brings people interested in the personalities and the partisan elements that brings - supporting drivers/teams like they are football teams.

F1 used to be about the engineering and racing - it's now, more than ever, moving towards pure manufactured entertainment and without love/hate figures then that model doesn't work.

Nobody watched WWF (WWE) back in the day for the technicalities of the wrestling/acting moves. They were a Hulkamaniac or a Warrior!!


(for the avoidance of doubt - Ultimate Warrior was the man.)

[dans79]

F1 used to be about the engineering and racing - it's now, more than ever, moving towards pure manufactured entertainment and without love/hate figures then that model doesn't work.

I miss the more technical nature of the support, like when Pirelli produced 7 different slick compounds and when teams got to choose how many of each allocated tire they wanted. I enjoyed the tactical nature of the driver having to manually deploy ERS.

[Mosin123]

I don't think DTS has been the cause, but it brings people interested in the personalities and the partisan elements that brings - supporting drivers/teams like they are football teams.

F1 used to be about the engineering and racing - it's now, more than ever, moving towards pure manufactured entertainment and without love/hate figures then that model doesn't work.

Nobody watched WWF (WWE) back in the day for the technicalities of the wrestling/acting moves. They were a Hulkamaniac or a Warrior!!


(for the avoidance of doubt - Ultimate Warrior was the man.)

When i was around 12, no lie, i loved it, i was a full on hulkamaniac, i had posters, blanket, my mother has pictures. i threw it all in the bin when i watched a special and seen it was fake..... i felt pretty bad about it at the time hahaha

[Jolle]

I think a couple of things happened at the same time. Next to the dramatics of Netflix there are a lot of new fans that came with the new rising star that are not directly a fan of F1 itself. And of course the old star thar brushed against the strain of the old conservative male F1 viewer.

[McL-H]

The causes are Christian Horner and Toto Wolf. Along with football audiences that jumped to F1 following Max his successes. I do not believe DTS has much to do with it.

[chrisc90]

DTS is terrible and awfully scripted, creating fake rivalries....More fake than Katie Price.

[Snorked]

The online toxicity of fans and booing at race venues was present way before Netflix was on the scene, just go back a few years and you had Hamilton fans threatening to kill Rosberg, and mud slinging back and forth like it was 2022.

And going way back, I can still remember Irvine talking about how a fan offered to snipe Hakkinen's tyres so he could win the championship.

F1 fans are insane

[mwillems]

I'm not sure DTS was really the cause but it could be a factor. The RB and Renault piece was the only part I saw that looked pretty bad, but that could also be seen in press conferences.

I haven't watched it since season 2 anyway so I'm not sure where it is at now, I found it dull and fabricated. Will Buxton being a particular highlight in my annoyance.

[SiLo]

Welcome to modern sports. Where fans are tribal because social media makes it easy to happen, and as sports bases grow, more and more idiots start to follow it, causing more problems.

[Big Tea]

Possibly DTS is a product of todays mindset? The public get what the public want, or the public want what the public get? (sorry, the Jam a long time ago)

[aMessageToCharlie]

No, some of the worst fans have been here since long before DTS.

[saviour stivala]

The online toxicity of fans and booing at race venues was present way before Netflix was on the scene, just go back a few years and you had Hamilton fans threatening to kill Rosberg, and mud slinging back and forth like it was 2022.

And going way back, I can still remember Irvine talking about how a fan offered to snipe Hakkinen's tyres so he could win the championship.

F1 fans are insane

And going still back I can remember the --- Senna used to be given at Silverstone.

[mwillems]

Possibly DTS is a product of todays mindset? The public get what the public want, or the public want what the public get? (sorry, the Jam a long time ago)

Yes, I've long thought this of politics in general, when people point fingers at politicians behaviour but it is their own social behaviours that enable it. A total lack of social responsibility.

That said, there is a global trend towards polarism and the internet is a very big part of it. Facebook and Google feed tell you just what you want to hear and that in itself fans the flames. If it knows you are a Max or a Lewis fan, your feed will get plenty of sensationalist Max and Lewis articles. Of course there is a lot if very sophisticated profiling that happens as well, and whilst it was politics in this instance, Cambridge Analytica I'm sure has many other forms in the wide world working out how to monetise our feelings towards sports and sportspeople too.

But I do think there are certain characters that feed this more with soundbites, quotes and sensationalist responses.