Future of motor sports: why the current motor sports sucks?

[NathanOlder]

The Darts!!!! sells out all the time

[Andres125sx]

First, current F1 do not suck, stop repeating hypes please. Did you watch Silverstone or Hockenheim this season?

Second, El Scrochio has explained youngters lack of interest peferctly I think:

Pay TV thing is a huge factor as well. When I was a kid you could just watch it all on BBC on a Sunday afternoon for free. Lovely. (And it was the only thing on as well) Now you have to not only access Sky Sports, but also break past the competition- all the other sports that are also on Sky, BT and terrestrial channels at the same time. Much more competition too. Notably on Sundays the premier league is now on all afternoon in direct competition during the football season, and all through the summer there’s cricket, rugby, multi sports events, tennis etc. The market is saturated.

To pay for something you first need some interest, if they have never watched F1 because it´s been PPV for many years, they will never pay for it. Some smart people thought even if audience numbers went down, asking for money to watch F1 was worth, but they didn´t consider the long term well enough

To me PPV is a perfect example of the saying If you´re too greedy you end up with nothing. The mountains of money they were collecting from sponsors and hosters were not enough for them

[Just_a_fan]

Going to PPV was done in order to increase the apparent value of F1 prior to it being sold by CVC. It was a short term plan by Bernie to get the most money out of F1 for the money men.

[El Scorchio]

The Darts!!!! sells out all the time

Fair point! I have a feeling that might be more about the heavy drinking than anything else...

Interestingly I know as of a couple of years ago the darts was the second most popular/most watched sport on Sky after football.

[NathanOlder]

Yeah, the crowd are there to dress up, and get hammered

[Big Tea]

Yeah, the crowd are there to dress up, and get hammered

Dressing up is optional though

[SuperDrummer]

First, current F1 do not suck, stop repeating hypes please. Did you watch Silverstone or Hockenheim this season?

If current F1 didn't suck they wouldn't need all the artificial stuff that is mandatory at the moment - bad tyres, pieces of titanium underneath the cars to simulate the effect of low cars in early nineties and - of course - DRS.

The root cause of the issues is IMHO in the great fraud that Ecclestone managed to perform in the late nineties with selling F1 (which used to be a public property) to a greedy hedge fund. This lead to current crippled perception of the sport. These days F1 is promoted as of of multiple entertainment shows, just as stand ups or pop concerts are. This leads to mantra "we need the races to be unpredictable to keep fans happy". This leads to simulation of racing instead of actual racing. But this is not what F1 is meant to be. If we try to list what any sport is all about, entertainment will hardly come up anywhere near the top of the list. First of all, any sport is a competition of athletes where the best one is always going to win.

Pay TV thing is a huge factor as well. When I was a kid you could just watch it all on BBC on a Sunday afternoon for free. Lovely. (And it was the only thing on as well) Now you have to not only access Sky Sports, but also break past the competition- all the other sports that are also on Sky, BT and terrestrial channels at the same time. Much more competition too. Notably on Sundays the premier league is now on all afternoon in direct competition during the football season, and all through the summer there’s cricket, rugby, multi sports events, tennis etc. The market is saturated.

To pay for something you first need some interest, if they have never watched F1 because it´s been PPV for many years, they will never pay for it. Some smart people thought even if audience numbers went down, asking for money to watch F1 was worth, but they didn´t consider the long term well enough

I don't think that the managers who were responsible for this kind of planning ever wanted to think long term. They don't need to. A manager implements his plan, gets increase in profit next year, collects his bonus for being efficient and then goes elsewhere to earn bonuses there. End of the story. This is how modern economy works.

[strad]

The "spectacle" of the sport was a hell of a lot better back then in every aspect. It was much more exotic, dangerous, and exciting.

You nailed it Ringleheim. We will probably take flack for it but there needs to be some danger. It has to be heros staring at danger and conquering it.
I know there will be those that will say, wrongly, that we want to see drivers die, but it's more like they have to appear to be doing something the average guy can't and wouldn't.
Besides the appearance of danger we need cars that we can see are hard to drive. Yes I know it's not as easy as TV makes it look but we and especially young people need to see the drivers battling cars that are constantly try to get away from the driver. Also intensely challenging tracks. In short to attract young people and new audiences we need people to be sitting on the edge of their seats from when the lights go out to the checkered flag.

[Just_a_fan]

I don't think it's about danger, or the appearance of danger, at all. Youngsters are just interested in different stuff - and watching people driving around in cars, particularly ones powered by fossil fuels, is just not something they're interested in.

Today, people are more risk averse and the loss of drivers leaves a taste most are not comfortable with. Of course, there are those for whom risk/danger is enjoyable. They tend to watch MMA (for those who like blood) or x-sports (risk takers) etc.

The cars look easy to drive because, quite simply, sliding around the track is slow.

[Andres125sx]

First, current F1 do not suck, stop repeating hypes please. Did you watch Silverstone or Hockenheim this season?

If current F1 didn't suck they wouldn't need all the artificial stuff that is mandatory at the moment - bad tyres, pieces of titanium underneath the cars to simulate the effect of low cars in early nineties and - of course - DRS.

The root cause of the issues is IMHO in the great fraud that Ecclestone managed to perform in the late nineties with selling F1 (which used to be a public property) to a greedy hedge fund. This lead to current crippled perception of the sport. These days F1 is promoted as of of multiple entertainment shows, just as stand ups or pop concerts are. This leads to mantra "we need the races to be unpredictable to keep fans happy". This leads to simulation of racing instead of actual racing. But this is not what F1 is meant to be. If we try to list what any sport is all about, entertainment will hardly come up anywhere near the top of the list. First of all, any sport is a competition of athletes where the best one is always going to win.

The bolded part is just false. F1 was born as a manufacturer competition, not drivers or athletes competition. Did you know first season there was NO driver scoreboard, only manufacturers one?

That is F1, like it or not, but people tend to think what they want is what it should be

[strad]

F1 was born as a manufacturer competition, not drivers or athletes competition

You have said this before and it is just plain wrong.
If you believe that then please explain why there was a WDC for years before the WCC came along.

[Just_a_fan]

Strad's correct: F1 WDC from 1950, F1 WCC from 1958.

[SuperDrummer]

First, current F1 do not suck, stop repeating hypes please. Did you watch Silverstone or Hockenheim this season?

If current F1 didn't suck they wouldn't need all the artificial stuff that is mandatory at the moment - bad tyres, pieces of titanium underneath the cars to simulate the effect of low cars in early nineties and - of course - DRS.

The root cause of the issues is IMHO in the great fraud that Ecclestone managed to perform in the late nineties with selling F1 (which used to be a public property) to a greedy hedge fund. This lead to current crippled perception of the sport. These days F1 is promoted as of of multiple entertainment shows, just as stand ups or pop concerts are. This leads to mantra "we need the races to be unpredictable to keep fans happy". This leads to simulation of racing instead of actual racing. But this is not what F1 is meant to be. If we try to list what any sport is all about, entertainment will hardly come up anywhere near the top of the list. First of all, any sport is a competition of athletes where the best one is always going to win.

The bolded part is just false. F1 was born as a manufacturer competition, not drivers or athletes competition. Did you know first season there was NO driver scoreboard, only manufacturers one?

This statement is 'officially' wrong if we're speaking about F1. Manufacturers were competing in pre-WW2 Grand Prix WC. But anyway, the goal of the real competition is to figure out who is the best driver/engineer/manufacturer, not to simulate a competition to entertain fans, that's the main point.

[Bence]

I'd gladly separate the WCC into two halves. A "constructor" would still mean the whole organization but "team" would mean just one side of the garage.
Let the WTC rule!
That would bring out sharp weapons, no unnecessary team orders, no lukewarm second fiddle drivers, no sacrificial decisions, no bipolar strategies, no tow, no artificial, manipulated s#it. Huge step forward.

[kalinka]

I would disagree with PPV effect. In my country and in Hungary too F1 was always free, and it's still free, but we have the same problems as countries with PPV. So I would say it's more to do with the lack of interest generally for cars, and even more lack of interest to understand ANY complicated techincal stuff. And we know it all - if you are completely unaware iof the underlaying tech, it's very hard to understand team/driver strategics and decisions.