Formula One’s relevance in 2014 is fast becoming the central question in the sport’s quest to stem the decline in attendance and television ratings.
The question of relevance has triggered positive changes such as engine formula renewal, but has also prompted an array of poorly received changes, such as double points, standing restarts, and sparking cars.
The problem with these ‘solutions’ is that they are answers to the wrong questions. Being real is issue that need addressing.
There was a time when television was what brought us closest to the action – it brought the sport legitimacy and ease of access, and painted the picture far more vividly than print or radio. But social media has removed the glass from the TV to give fans a direct line to the action and has become a critical component to how we construct our understanding of the world.
“The ultimate test is you find a toddler and give them a racing car toy,” says Joe Saward, paddock regular of more than 25 years. “What do they do with it? They drive it around on the carpet and they like it.
“When they get to the age of seven, they find things called computers. A computer is like a big tunnel to outer space… And they forget the little car sitting behind because it isn’t as interesting as it used to be. That is the disconnect point.”
What is that point, specifically? The toy car is a single, limited representation of a car. The internet, however, is a gateway to a seemingly infinite number of perspectives on the car, and of anything else.
Likewise why would you rely on your monthly motorsport magazine and five minutes of TV pre-race coverage when you can build a vastly more comprehensive picture of the sport using the internet?
Yet we find ourselves in this situation in which the sport stubbornly refuses to engage with the digital platform. It enshrines in regulation the importance of television broadcasters, but the internet is totally off the table.
Digital media expert Sean Callanan likens F1′s treatment of the online world to that of the International Olympic Committee.
“Formula One and IOC have long thrived on being able to control the message,” he explains. “Social media is very hard to control, which is why both of those organising bodies have been slow to embrace social media – they don’t know how to control it.”
Embrace is the key word here – not control.
“If they get in there and be an active participant in that space, they’ll see that it isn’t that scary and that they don’t have to control everything. Once you’re contributing, you can shape that conversation. You can’t control it or stop people from saying bad things, but you at least have a say.”
What is important in Formula One’s quest to stabilise its ratings is to recognise an audience is equally valuable when spread across a variety of media. When online platforms are used effectively, they can work in perfect harmony with the traditional outlets of television, print, and radio to reassemble today’s deeply fractured audiences.
“If Formula One was to put up a video of a crash from turn four, you know it would stop your thumbs on your Twitter feed to watch it and more than likely retweet it,” says Sean.
“Then the good thing for the TV broadcasters is that you don’t want to watch these highlights on a tiny little phone screen, you want to watch it on your high definition TV, so you flick the channel.
“The fact is that media, across the board, is fragmenting, and social is part of it. You need to be part of that conversation to drive people back to the traditional media.”
The power of digital media is that it not only connects fans to the sport, it connects fans to the athletes. Formula One drivers compete covered in a helmet and buried in a cockpit. Social media gives them an opportunity to connect with fans on a human level, and without that ever-present PR barrier.
“People like people,” says Saward. “People relate to people. If you just have plastic people sitting around saying what PR people want them to say, you don’t have a very interesting sport. You need to have people saying things that make it interesting and different for the viewer.
“You just want people being themselves because the human being, even if it’s only subconscious, is an incredibly talented machine that can work out whether someone is being real or not. You will know if something is genuine in the deep sub recesses of your brain.
“You have to have genuine personality, not manufactured personality. It’s a humanising element.”
That ‘real’ element is key, adds Callanan: “Social can give a completely alternative aspect of the sport to the fans. Social allows you to see these guys with their helmets off.
“You get to recognise their faces and learn the shows they’re watching, the music they like, their fashion, or the ridiculous parties they might attend. It makes you feel closer to the drivers and makes you want to follow their stories.”
2014 is a world in which digital media is no longer considered simply extraneous to the show – it’s integral. Social media allows fans to cut through the many layers of stage-managed public relations and connect directly with their favourite teams and drivers.
It makes us feel engaged and part of the show, and can form our own views based on multiple sources of information, rather than being spoon-fed by traditional media.
Formula One has internally argued along similar lines when making a point about road relevance, yet it cannot recognise the same problem when it comes to fan engagement. When car builders were looking to the WEC, DTM, and even Formula E, fans were looking to pursuits that more easily absorbed into their construction of the world.
Formula One must now choose whether to remain in its old world and hope against logic that the audience will rush back to it in droves, or re-enter the real world and allow itself to become integrated with its fans.
Follow Michael on Twitter @MichaelLamonato
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