Your thoughts?

35 comments

  1. Several people talk about it in my office and I have a friend that is interested. It’s nothing like other sports, where everyone at least knows a couple teams, but F1 is popular I would say.

  2. depend on what you mean by popular. it’s not more popular than Basketball or Baseball or Football or even Golf but it’s more popular than Rugby and Cricket. It’s not more popular than Nascar.

    But F1 is picking up steam. we simply don’t have any American drivers to rally around. It’s generally associated with the wealthy and it’s not accessible to attend for your avg american both in terms of price but also in terms of geographic access.

    i feel it’s still a relatively niche sports. i lived here all my life and it wasn’t until this year that i started to get into F1 but mostly it’s the engineering and mechanics of the sport that appeals to me rather than the actual competition or drivers. Sports in America generally rallies around teams or athletes.

  3. I think it’s getting there. They have a big racing coming up in Las Vegas. If a race is on and I happen on it I’ll watch it they’re fun as hell.

  7. I like cars and racing in general so if I happen to see it on, I’ll watch it. I couldn’t tell you any of the teams or drivers, though

  9. Not really. It’s going to be a very hard sport to make popular here and I say that as a fan myself. If every season were like 2021 where the battle for first place in each race and for the season came down to the wire then it could be huge.

    For F1 to be popular here they’d have to completely level the playing field and make some changes:

    * A true hard cost cap that covers everything. The fact that driver salaries and engines aren’t included is crazy. C’mon.

    * Massive advantages for the teams finishing at the bottom. Whatever the equivalent of the first overall draft pick would be.

    * Playoffs or some sort of single elimination event leading to a decisive finale. Or perhaps it could be like golf where at the end of the season only qualifying competitors get to race in a meaningful grand prix.

  14. Not really, it is seen as an expensive thing, its not like Nascar where a common person could actually have a shot at getting into, or the race classes under it, F1 is seen as a rich club.

  15. No, not popular at all. In the US nascar races dominate. The only people I know of who follow it significantly are people who are well traveled or from outside the US originally.

  20. Not really.

    You may hear from people who mistake *their* being into it for *everyone* being into it. Or people who say it’s just on the verge of becoming a big-five sport (along with football, baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer)- thing is, *a lot* of niche sports are competing to be the next big thing.

  21. Thanks to that Netflix show it’s more popular now than I ever remember. I’ve been a fan since I was a kid in the ‘90s because I just love auto-racing in general. However my wife is now really into F1 because of the show as are several of my coworkers.

  22. Not really. There are definitely racing fans in the US and definitely some F1 fans, but overall, it’s barely a blip on the radar of most people.

    We’ve had open wheel reading here forever, but it’s never been consistently popular, other than the Indy 500. I realize F1 is a step or two above the open wheel racing we have here, but I have my doubts enough people will appreciate the difference to start watching en masse, especially when F1 has kind of an European elitist reputation.

    Interestingly, the most popular racing has probably ever been here was when NASCAR was huge in the 2000s. It was everywhere. Its popularity has cooled considerably since then. I’m not sure why. Lack of interesting drivers? Too corporate and polished anymore? I dunno

  23. The only reason I even know about it is a twitch streamer I moderate for played F1 manager 22 and 23 got addicted to both and streamed both for a month straight.

    As a result Im familiar with the teams, drivers, and tracks but I dont follow the real life sport.

  24. I didn’t know what formula 1 was until lewis hamilton was talked about for his dating life in the press years ago.

    Formula 1 is a thing if you’re into cars and racing but not many people I know are. I don’t even know anyone personally into NASCAR.

  25. Generally, no – but it’s a growing market. F1 sees that otherwise they wouldn’t have located a third GP here.

    To be clear I’ve never been a motosports guy despite riding motorcycle and having lived near Jerez Spain for three years in the 90s and in San Antonio (an hour south of COTA) for a decade.

    I imagine more than a few of us came to F1 through “Drive to Survive”. I watched the series and despite the dramatization learned about F1. I have subscribed to the F1 app since. The more I’ve learned about the sport the more I’ve turned off from watching more than the race weekends. I stopped watching DTS (although I recommend it to people I think it might get into the sport), I don’t follow any F1 related subs during the season, ignore any YouTube suggestions. I basically ignore everything but the race weekend, then come Monday a few of us co-workers talk about it.

    Hands down the coolest thing is being able to switch to different cars on the F1 App during live races (and replays).

    I think the smaller field of drivers and teams in F1 makes watching it more approachable and not being the always turning left style of racing is more fun to watch. I don’t have a team or driver. I would like to see Hamilton win an 8th, just like it was fun to see Verstappen break the consecutive wins record this season. Sure RB1’s dominance has made the winner a forgone conclusion but the rest of the field has been neat to watch. Williams isn’t in last place in the Constructor’s Cup anymore. A mid-pack team is a geniune threat to Ferrari and Mercedes if they can find consistency and a mid-pack rookie won a Sprint. There is Alonso winning podiums at age of a U.S. Presidential Candidate with the owner’s son as a teammate usually playing bumper cars. Then there is the enigma of Zhou, is he a robot? Who knows.

  26. Not really, but it is growing. You’ll typically find its fans supporting the other “underground” sports like cricket, rugby, Aussie football, etc.

  29. No not at all. Until I met my father in law I had never heard of anyone who was a fan. And even he is a casual fan at best. Like he’ll watch occasionally cause he’s into cars and racing, but he doesn’t actively follow any teams/drivers.

    And I’ve never met anyone else who has any interest.

  30. No lol, it’s like soccer. We know it’s a great sport, but it’s Eurocentric, and nothing against Europe, it’s just that there are already too many popular sports in America to choose from. Another random racing league just isn’t going to get much attention without an American driver somehow becoming the best in the sport.

    Although having some American culture war specific drama could help gain traction. Like a trans driver or an lgbtqia2s+ team.

  31. I’d say it’s niche. They’ll air the races on ESPN or ABC, but because of the time change usually they are on at insane hours.

    If you’re a fan of auto racing I can see them following it, but it’s having to compete with NASCAR, Indy Car, NHRA and motocross which all have their own TV deals.

  32. Somewhat. It’s edged out IndyCar as the second-most-popular form of motorsports by viewership numbers. Social media engagement for F1 is insane, especially among the sort of people who spend a lot of time on Reddit, so it seems *even more* popular on here. NASCAR is still way more popular, but F1 is about equal to it amongst people aged 18-49, and there are a lot more women into F1 than any other sort of motorsport. It’s been good to see the growth and diversification as a fan of every kind of motorsport, and it’s been cool to see that spill over to IndyCar, IMSA, and NASCAR as well.

    *Drive to Survive* made it easier to understand the personalities and drama behind the sport, and it’s presented in a way that’s easily digestible for non-motorsports fans- the broadcast is great and there are fewer drivers to follow than either of the big North American series. It almost feels like social media and Netflix present it as 4-wheeled NBA or Premier League.

    I don’t think it will ever pass NASCAR. There’s an elitist component to it that drives some people insane (myself included, to some degree), and it’s ridiculously expensive to attend a race. You get much better value by going to an IndyCar race, and I think it’s becoming more obvious how unequal the sport is. Yes, the engineering challenge is great, and the top 5-6 drivers are probably 5-6 of the 10 best in the world, but it’s not as superior as it’s marketed to be.

    Personally, I’ve watched it since I was a kid. I’m a huge motorsports nut. I’d probably put it third in my personal hierarchy behind IndyCar and IMSA. I also follow NASCAR, WEC, the short track scene here in VA/NC, and the World of Outlaws sprint cars pretty seriously. It was my favorite form of motorsport when Montoya and Alonso were taking the fight to Ferrari at the end of the V10 era.

  33. No, not really.

    The major motorsport in the US is NASCAR, with Indy Car racing behind that.

    People know Formula 1 exists, but it’s much like Soccer. . .something that’s largely seen as a foreign sport and is more of a fringe interest in the US.

  35. No, it’s a niche sport.

    The US is a massive country with a massive population. We’re also living in the era of personal entertainment choices, it’s never been easier to customize your sports, television, or music choices. The monoculture has been almost completely eliminated.

    > [The Formula 1 United States Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen was once again big in Texas—everything is big in Texas, right?—but not so much on televisions across the country.](https://www.autoweek.com/racing/formula-1/a45641820/popularity-peak-f1-united-states-grand-prix-tv-ratings-fall-for-third-consecutive-year/)
    >
    > TV ratings for the F1 U.S. Grand Prix dropped for the third consecutive year. This year’s race, broadcast Sunday at 3 p.m., ET on ABC TV, pulled a rating of just 0.47 and an average viewership of 882,000, according to television ratings watchdog Sports Media Watch.
    >
    > The only other major racing action on Sunday was the NASCAR Cup Series race at Miami-Homestead that checked in at 1.3 rating and 2,250,000 viewers.
    >
    > On Saturday, the NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Homestead on USA network had a .47 rating/844,000 viewers—numbers just shy of Sunday’s F1 show.

    Out of 330,000,000+ million people…882,000 were watching the F1 US Grand Prix. Surely not every fan of the sport watched, but lets just say that 10 times that number who viewed are RABID fans of the sport. That would still mean just 8.8 million out of 330 million were rabid fans. That’s a lot of people! But it’s not like a majority of people are aware of what’s going on with F1.

    I’m a huge sports fan who spends way too much time listening and watching sports. I couldn’t even tell you who the top 3 drivers are right now. It’s not mainstream to sports fans, let alone the rest of the country.

    So, you tell us what “popular” means. Do a few million people follow it here? Sure! Does the average American know a single driver’s name? Nope.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like