Today, the Formula One US Grand Prix (the final race of the season) is held in Austin, Texas.
I was wondering how popular Formula One is in North America among racing aficionados compared to NASCAR or the IndyCar series. Is it taken seriously or is it considered one of those weird foreign things?
Formula 409 is more popular.
Ehh not the final race of the season: Brazil next week!
I actually googled that (had to) :rolleyes:
Ups. My bad. :smack:
Very popular. It just doesn’t get the coverage that other series get. WRC is also very popular.
The Dutch reporter yesterday said the US F1 fan is a bit of an odd one out, and usually doesn’t like other series. We also got the mandatory: ‘they like that track has turns going left and right’ and the anecdote about no one turning up in Indianapolis because it was raining.
I am not sure how he got this info; although I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just by ‘talking to people’ during the last few US grand prixs.
It doesn’t get the coverage other series get because it isn’t popular. The only F1 coverage is on a marginal cable network, Speed, which tells you all you need to know. For Europeans, that’s like being on Sky Sports 6 or Eurosport 3.
I don’t think most Americans even know it exists. If they know anything about open-wheel racing (which isn’t popular to begin with), they don’t know how F1 is different from Indy Car.
My husband used to follow F1 for a while, and he is the only person I have ever known in my life to do so. I was raised in a multicultural urban city of 9 million+ where our city government has 6 official languages but offers translation services in 40. I have lived in the Midwest, in the South, and have family in California I see regularly. And I STILL don’t know anyone but my husband who follows F1.
It’s not thought of a “weird foreign thing” because its not thought of. Most people have never heard of it.
Makes one wonder how they manage to attract spectators for the race in Austin. In Europe, tickets to F1 races are really expensive.
One of my brothers is a big F1 fan but I learned most of what I know about F1 in the past several months. If I did not live in Austin, I probably would not have taken the time to look into the sport at all.
So far it has been a pretty cool experience but I have only been to the free stuff downtown. It is a beautiful day for racing today too.
They’re probably mostly sponsor giveaways.
Some of the economics of F1 - and how the race ended up in the US after not being held here for 5 years – is explained in this article:
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121115/F1/121119903
Tickets to US GP are cheaper than other more famous races (starting at just $159 for a three day pass - I believe the cheapest ticket in brazil right now is like… E275, which is… like $400?) So I think it’s quite an attractive trip for a fan thinking of flying in from anywhere in Europe. Austin is about 1,000 times more appealing than Indianapolis as a destination city. And long story short, ticket sales are only one revenue stream. For example, apparently F1 averages 1500 helicopter landings per race - they charge $1,000 a crack at the onsite helipad and make an easy 1.5 million.
I didn’t know much about F1 before I met my boyfriend. I knew who Michael Schumacher was but that was about it. Now I’m a big fan, but I realize we’re definately in the minority.
When I was growing up in the 1970s, F1 did have at least some visibility and following in the U.S. At that time, there were several F1 races held in the States, races were often shown on ABC (one of the major TV networks), and you also still had some American drivers competing there (including Mario Andretti, who won the '78 F1 title).
At that time, Indy Cars were the dominant form of auto racing in the U.S., and stock-car racing, such as NASCAR, was definitely secondary in popularity. F1 wasn’t as big as Indy, but it might have been comparable in overall popularity to NASCAR (though, at that time, NASCAR’s following skewed strongly regionally, to the American southeast).
Open-wheel racing, as a whole, declined drastically in popularity in the U.S. in the '90s and '00s, due in part to in-fighting in the Indy Car world, but probably due mostly to the aggressive marketing and expansion of NASCAR.
For F1 in particular, combine all this with the lack of American drivers, few or no races in the U.S., and races not being carried on the major networks, and the series has become practically invisible here. Certainly, there are hardcore F1 fans here in the U.S. today, but it’s absolutely a niche following. If it’s any bigger here than, say, the following of the English Premier League (soccer), I’d be very surprised.
Honestly, it’s pretty popular. I couldn’t buy a ticket to Austin without dealing with scalpers, so I didn’t go. F1 is broadcast on the broadcast networks occasionally, (IIRC, either Canada or Monza was the last race on a major network) but most of the races are run either very early or very late relative to here, so most of the contract goes to Speed network. It’s not NASCAR, but it’s at least as popular as any other racing series in the states. E.G, I could attend the NHRA nationals without a problem. If F1 got any marketing dollars through an American driver or car, it’d be more popular. As it is, they only have a minor interest in marketing the sport to America. Hell, we’ve gone several years without a race being run here.
One could probably argue that any motorsport other than NASCAR in the U.S. is a “niche” sport in its appeal. 
It might be more popular if the races were closer. Most put me to sleep when I tried to watch it.
Even drag racing? Anyway, I hope today’s race in Houston will change that.
Yup, even drag racing.
I’d judge it this way:
Does the sport get more than a 30-second mention on ESPN’s “Sportscenter”?
Does the sport regularly get more than 2 column-inches in the sports page of major U.S. daily newspaper?
Is even the sport’s biggest event (championship game, biggest race of the year, etc.) carried on either a U.S. broadcast network, or ESPN?
Can the general sports fan name one or two currently-active stars of the sport?
If you can’t honestly answer “yes” to more than one of these, it’s very likely a niche sport.