F1's Conflicted Self-Pondering: Pulling apart the GPDA survey

Are fans still in love with F1?

Wasn't the Hungarian Grand Prix a blast? The Battle of Budapest cooked up an unusually enthralling storm, which gave analysts a convenient hook for predictable "Who says F1 is boring?" comments. While there is no denying that the last two races, and indeed the 2015 Championship battle, have been entertaining, this seems like a simplification of the more severe underlying problems that F1 is going through. This great branch of motorsport is trying to answer some tough questions about its future, but how can anyone be sure of the direction it needs to take?

The GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers Association) attempted to find some clarity by conducting an enormous survey into fans' opinions of the state of Formula One. The amount of responses received is admittedly impressive, with over 200,000 people from 194 countries taking part. The results are summarised in a slick document available on the GPDA website, which gives basic data for each questions. By dissecting this further, I think it's possible to find some very interesting information that stretches beyond what the organisation were looking for.

 Crowds continue to turn up in droves for the British GP.

Before looking at the audience which took part, there are some results that are immediately striking. Page 12 details a list of attributes fans associate with F1, both in 2010 and 2015. The top 3 descriptors for F1 in 2010 are 'Competitive, technological and exciting', whereas in 2015 they are 'Expensive, technological and boring'. This is not just a damning verdict on Formula One today, but also a somewhat surprising one. The 2010 season saw a total of 547 overtakes during the entire season (lower than the four following seasons) and, despite a memorable Championship fight, failed to produce any real classic Grands Prix.  It's very odd that fans would be so fond of this period of Grand Prix racing, but clearly there is a feeling that the quality has dropped dramatically.

Sure enough, less than 10% of those surveyed believe that Formula One is healthier than it was 5 years ago. "Healthier" leans more towards the suggestion of F1's current financial state and its future. It makes a lot more sense that fans would have a pessimistic outlook on the sport. In 2010, we had the arrival of Caterham, Virgin and Hispania, as well as Mercedes taking over Ross Brawn's team. It was a counter-boom to the world's troubled economy. Since then, the cracks have slowly covered the stoic face of the sport, with Marussia clinging on as the only surviving member of the new-fangled trio, as well as other teams flirting with the idea of ditching F1. It's only natural to feel an impending sense of dread about F1's next few years as it struggles to compete with its own unsustainable model.

 A less 'healthy' F1 has seen smaller teams struggle to stay in existence.

Now, it's difficult to talk about the rest of the survey without analysing the audience that took part. While it would seem fair to assume that most people answering a questionnaire about F1 on the internet are hardcore Formula One fans, page 8 of the document actually throws some fascinating curveballs. Less than one-in-four people who answered the survey regard Formula One as their favourite sport, and an ambiguous-but-discouraging "over half" watch at least 12 races a season in some form.  These results suggest that the survey wasn't just completed by staunch F1 followers, but quite a few casual fans as well. That's not to say that these are passing fans though, as some of the questions involved do require a base knowledge of the more technical aspects of F1. 

Further to this, the average age of those who responded to the survey is 37. Bearing in mind that this survey was exclusively online, this number is quite high. Is it the case that Formula One has very little appeal to younger fans? Or is this more to do with the sort of person who will complete a survey in general? Either way, these facts should be kept strongly in mind when viewing the rest of the results. These are not all staunch F1 fans, and typically, are the opinions of a low-middle-aged sample.

 F1 - A sport for hardcore and casual fans?

Having evaluated the audience, there are some results that speak volumes. 85% believe that Formula One needs to recruit new fans. This may seem obvious, but compare that to 64% of people believing the same in 2010. Why were we so passive about new fans before? What's changed now? A lot of this probably comes down to the 'health' of the sport being seen as poorer than before, and part of that feeling could be to do with falling viewer numbers. 'Recruiting more fans' is the obvious solution, but how?

Reading further on in the survey gives us an insight into what fans feel needs to be done to help this recruitment process. The top suggestion of what's important to current fans, with 74% 'agreeing', is that rules should be relaxed to allow a great diversity of technology and cars. Other factors seen as important include "the sound of engines", "the power of engines" and "the size and type of engines". Going back to our audience data, it seems worthy to make some sort of amendment here. The audience we're looking at is a mix of hardcore and casuals, but it seems fair to suggest there is a tendency towards technical fanatics when it comes to this particular sample.

Are current engines noisy enough? Some fans don't think so.

Maybe that's not fair. Maybe there really is mass appeal when it comes to the engines and technology, but is this really what we can imagine the prospective casual fan that we are looking to recruit enthusing about while watching a race? Perhaps when attending a Grand Prix, we can envisage casual fans being wowed by the roar of the Formula One engine as a car sweeps past the grandstand, but it seems more likely that a potential F1 viewer is going to watch a few races on TV before shelling out for a race-day ticket. 

For hardcore fans, this matters. Of course it does. And if F1 is looking to recruit more 'hardcore' fans then this is fair. But that's the decision the sport has to make. The benefits of coming to such a conclusion would be that F1 can aim to please its most fanatic viewers, thereby ensuring a core support of devoted fans. However, a sport that has historically thrived on the financial gain of advertising huge brands and reaching big viewer numbers is going to struggle to make that transition and continue to be the pinnacle of motorsport, which 60% of fans currently believe is the case.

 Would bringing in another tyre company improve the sport?

In fairness to those surveyed, the choices given in the 'What's important to you' section of the survey seem pitifully off the mark. There is nothing regarding competition, overtaking, accessibility or driver aids. With these involved in the survey here, this table might have been more reflective of what you would expect to see F1 fans say. Going back to page 13, a section titled "Your Views on F1", 89% of fans answered that they feel Formula One needs to be more competitive. This doesn't really communicate much information though, as it's hard to imagine the fan who doesn't think F1 should be more competitive. 

So what else does this survey indicate that fans want? 80% believe that there should be more than one tyre supplier in Formula One. There is a logic behind this being the most desired change, although it is flawed in some respects. A lot of fans are understandably fed up with Pirelli tyres and want a tyre-war to add another aspect of competition. If we could be sure that this would definitely increase overtaking and general race drama, then this would be a very agreeable concept. However, overtaking was poorest during the tyre-war between Bridgestone and Michelin, and the level of competition during quite a few of those seasons was exceptionally poor. 

Some will argue that allowing companies to develop the best tyres possible will increase the ability for drivers to race at full speed. Is this important to fans? I think so, perhaps a survey question would have helped here, but again none of the survey focussed on an issue that has been discussed quite a lot recently, which is whether or not F1 cars should be going faster. However, considering that fans feel engine specifications are important, and a surprising 60% of fans also backed the reintroduction of refuelling, it seems that a lot of these results are aiming towards an F1 where the cars are faster, which is of course what has been planned. Will a tyre war help along the way? Perhaps it will, but if 89% of fans think F1 should be more competitive, isn't that what we should aim for first?

 Wheel-to-wheel racing: The bread and butter of this great sport.

I'll try to summarise what feels like a mash of ideas. I think this survey gives us a lot of interesting thoughts, but from the very premise missed out on what could have been some more fundamental insights into what makes a Formula One fan tick. I really would like to know whether F1 fans prefer speed or competition, as this seems to be the crossroads we're starting to head towards. Currently we have neither, and of course we want both. But if F1 really does need to recruit new fans, it needs to know what makes those fans interested in the first place. This survey suggests that fans want more speed, faster cars, better engines. 

I've always enjoyed watching British Touring Cars as a casual viewer. I don't watch it for the speed, the cars or the engines. I watch it because it's bloody good fun, and it keeps me coming back. I think that is what F1 needs to be looking for if it's ever going to appeal to the casual viewer in a way that will improve the 'health' of the sport, but there is always the possibility to focus on the hardcore fans. Maybe that is the question that F1 needs to ask itself first: What sort of fans do we want?

You can view the GPDA survey results here.