More popular than football? F1 recruited record number of new fans last year

Good news for Formula 1: the sport has experienced significant growth in the past year when it comes to recruiting new, young fans. This is according to the results of a survey done by The Insights Family.

More popular than football?

In Europe alone, F1 managed to garner 2.85 million additional fans; from 17.3 million to 20.1 million. This represents a 17% increase over the previous year, reports Motorsport-Total.com. It also means that Formula 1 has experienced an even bigger increase than football, which only managed to rise by 6%. Although it must be said that football has a much higher starting number of fans.

Yet another remarkable conclusion of the report is that Formula 1 is getting a lot of competition from an unexpected angle. For example, eSports is becoming increasingly popular. According to the report, 41% of children up to the age of 18 are interested in electronic sports, an interest that has increased again mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic. F1 itself also made a contribution: during the pandemic they organized digital races in which drivers such as George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris participated.

Approach bears fruit

So it appears that the efforts of F1 management are paying off. The Netflix series 'Drive To Survive' and the official F1 game are proving immensely popular, especially with male children. "We're always looking for creative and innovative ways to reach new audiences and showcase the sport that hundreds of millions of fans around the world already know and love," says Formula One marketing director Ellie Norman. "It's great to see that our work to reach a new and younger audience is paying off. By using social and digital platforms, we have been able to decode our often complex sport for the next generation of fans embarking on their own Formula One journey."