In the Stands CT

Ten Reasons Why North Americans Don’t Watch Formula 1… But they Should

Formula 1 is, in the loosest definition of the words, car racing. It has no comparison to the oval race tracks of IndyCar races or the brute force of NASCAR races. Formula 1 is synonymous with excellence in engineering and peak athleticism — all without commanding a huge following in the United States. Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas is home to one of the paramount races of the Formula 1 World Championship, but compared to Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field, “Circuit of the Americas” doesn’t bring the same sense of grandeur. But it should. Unfortunately, there are a whole host of clear cut reasons why Americans do not enjoy Formula 1 to the same degree as our Eastern Hemisphere counterparts.

1. There is only one race in the United States

Circuit of the Americas in Austin

Source: http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com/blog/2014/10/28/study-circuit-of-the-americas-annual-economic-benefit-to-austin-area-is-close-to-900-million

Okay, this is a valid argument not to watch the athletic spectacle that is Formula 1. Aside from Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States, the majority of the races are held across the globe which means waking up at three AM just to root for your favorite driver. It can be extremely hard to get into a sport where you can just look up the results instead of watching all of the astounding driving live.

2. The only US based team is kind of a disaster

Haas F1 Team Driver, Romain Grosjean

Source:https://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/haas-f1-team-loses-main-sponsor-due-part-teams-poor-performance

Haas Formula 1 is the only US based team to be currently racing and it didn’t even make its debut until the 2016 season. Without the financial status of the top tier teams, it is incredibly difficult for Haas to make an impact on US viewers. They do not have the extra funds to put into advertising as all of their energy must go into increasing their year to year performance. Without a strong, US based team to root for, it is incredibly difficult to get American viewers interested.

3. No current American Drivers

Alexander Rossi during his Formula 1 Days

Source:http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com/blog/2015/10/15/alexander-rossi-and-the-star-spangled-future-of-f1-in-the-us

Alexander Rossi is the most recent American driver to try his hand at Formula 1, ultimately falling short of the talent needed for Formula 1 and coming back to the Western Hemisphere to make his name as an IndyCar driver. Part of the allure of sports like football and baseball, is that they seem very accessible to viewers. Almost every little kid played T-ball at some point and every high school PE class teaches the basics of flag football. This makes the professional leagues always seem in reach to fans because they can turn around to their daughter and say “hey, you know dad used to play the same position as Brian Urlacher back in college.” With Formula 1, most parents can’t turn around to their kid and say “yeah I used to whip around tracks at 200 miles per hour, no big deal.” Without this sense of accessibility, it is hard to motivate people to watch a sport that they could never attempt themselves.

4. Not everyone wants to put in the time to learn and understand the rules of Formula 1

Young Max Verstappen during his karting days

Source:https://www.automobilsport.com/race-categories–24,72798,The-very-young-driver-Max-Verstappen-will-join-the-CRG-Team-in-2010,news.htm

Like we noted above, very few people ever get to try their hand at any sort of automobile racing. Everyone learns how to dribble a basketball, kick a soccer ball, and run a footrace in elementary school physical education classes so the interest is planted early on. Essentially, kids are taught the rules of typical American sports so when it comes to watching something on ESPN later on, they don’t have to stop and think “wait why are they shooting the ball at that hoop?” With Formula 1, viewers have to learn how qualifying works, how penalties work, and even how teams operate in order to fully understand what’s going on in the race. Without knowing the basics of Formula 1, it is pretty easy to get bored watching 55 laps of the same circuit.

5. The sport itself has an intrinsic complexity to it that many people simply choose to avoid understanding

Air flow dynamics on a Formula 1 Car

Source: https://www.simscale.com/blog/2018/07/new-online-post-processor/

Formula 1 is heavily dependent on the skill of the team’s physicists, engineers, track aerodynamicists, and mathematicians. Since teams build their own cars, there are a lot of differences between the cars at the front of the pack and the cars at the end of the pack. Most commonly watched sports in America are an entirely even playing field, dependent only on the ability of the athlete. Formula 1 is different because it is not only made up of the showmanship of the drivers but it is also the magic of the scientists behind the scenes that allow this sport to take flight. NASCAR, which is popular in the United States, draws most of its fanbase from people who just want to see cars go fast and crash. Not hard to understand. Formula 1 requires at least some scientific intuition to understand why certain turns are difficult or why the announcers are rambling on about the “DRS zone.” Formula 1 is aimed at people who love both the brains and the brawn of sports.

6. America already has a racing culture of its own

Board Track Racing in the early 20th Century

Source: https://www.thestar.com/autos/2014/12/27/racing_on_wooden_tracks_was_fast_and_deadly.html

Car racing first made its mark on US history back in the early 1900’s… Before NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula 1. American car racing was never limited to stock cars and road courses have always been popular in the United States (thinking all the way back to the post World War II era when street racing was still extremely popular despite being illegal). The world of high octane sports in America has always been big enough to not need Formula 1 infringing on an already deep rooted history.

7. A largely uninterested culture

Empty NASCAR stands even though NASCAR has its roots in the US

Source: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/os-sp-nascar-france-family-for-sale-reuters-20180508-story.html

Sure, this might sound contrary to reason 6 but despite America’s long history with car racing, the sport’s popularity has dwindled over the years. Because of the history of racing in the US, the greatest proportion of popularity is among “blue-collar” men who would not be the typical audience of a Formula 1. Part of the intrigue in NASCAR racing is that it stems from illegal street racing which is something anyone with a car could do as opposed to the multimillion dollar barriers to entry into Formula 1.

Formula 1 is one of the only sports that appeals to the unathletic computer programmer just as much as it does to the NCAA Division 1 athlete and yet, it is condemned to a small viewing audience in the United States. For some, it is the lack of brutishness and high focus on science that turns them away, for others it is the environmental aspect. Whatever someone’s reason is for shying away from this triumph of engineering over physics, it boils down to a lack of accessibility of the sport in the United States.

Australian Cricket at its worst

Australian Cricket experienced one of its most shameful moments in history where the Captain of the team, Steve Smith and vice-captain were found guilty of ball tampering. (https://cpcommunications.com.au/biggest-pr-fails-2018-can-learn/) The camera footage from the match and further comments by the players themselves confirmed that this had actually happened. Cameron Bancroft was the player who was caught first-hand tampering with the ball. This happened during their third test match that they were playing against South Africa and wanted to win the match so that they would have a shot at winning the whole series. To achieve this, the Captain and vice-captain decided to tamper with the ball. The tampering took pace when Bancroft put yellow tape and gravel on the ball and once it was made rougher, reverse swing was more likely to happen. However, the entirety of the incident was caught red-handed on camera! The player then messed up further and was recorded while he tried to hide what he did by putting the yellow tape in his pants and thought he had avoided the issue and questioning by the umpires.  (https://junkee.com/cricket-crisis-australia/152079) The following headlines and social media posts popped up thereafter.

Caption: A newspaper headline the day-after

Caption: A politician’s tweet following the incident

Caption: Bancroft hiding the yellow tape

Following the incident, the PR crisis was not handled so well initially. When such an incident happens, it is very important for the organization to represent their values. When Cricket Australia CEO at the time, James Sutherland give his first interview, he would not immediately say whether they captain was off the team and he did not even accept that it was cheating. He said the captain would continue on the team while an investigation was being carried out. This happened after the captain himself admitted it, which is why it was a very baseless statement to pass. It was also seen on TV by the whole world and politicians and even the Prime Minister called it cheating. (https://mumbrella.com.au/cricket-australias-early-response-to-cheating-doesnt-pass-the-crisis-comms-test-507265) Afterwards, when Cricket Australia conducted a review, they found that the culture of the Australian cricket team was toxic overall. They then accepted responsibility and new measures were put into action, including the formation of an ethics commission. (https://calacus.com/calacus-blog/2019/1/10/the-top-ten-sports-crises-of-2018-and-what-we-can-learn-from-them) Thus, we can see that it is very important that sports bodies keep a check on the culture in their teams, hold their players accountable and accept their faults.

There are so many sports PR crises that have happened over the years. Another badly handled crisis was when Ryan Braun was caught for using performance enhancing drugs and he continued denying it, but then he was eventually caught. Once he was finally caught, he then realized his mistake and how he needed to come clean and passed a statement for making mistakes, in not telling the truth during his hearings and in what he said to the press afterwards. While he came clean later and apologized, he did not do so initially and kept lying throughout. (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2038398-15-sports-pr-disasters#slide6) In comparison, Steve Smith came clean and admitted to their mistake, even though the CEO of cricket Australia did not. (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1151351-20-biggest-sports-pr-disasters-of-the-last-decade#slide3)

Looking at the entirety of the issue, we see that the CEO of cricket Australia should not have passed the statement he did. However, the captain made the right decision from a PR point of view and generally, by telling the truth. In terms of what they should have done immediately, they should have ended the captain’s contract immediately. The other parties involved should have also received some punishment. (https://www.prnewsonline.com/olympics-crisis) Complete responsibility should have been taken by Cricket Australia and an official apology should have been issued as it was later. The steps taken later in terms of extra measures being enacted were the right thing to do. (http://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3118&context=gradschool_theses)