F1 Community Research
Plan
In recent years F1 has drifted in terms of popularity and fan base. Despite constant changes in regulations and attracting the top drivers, the sport struggles to attract young people whilst losing some older fans. I want to conduct some research into the F1 community in order to understand this rapid decline in what was once one of the most popular sports in the world. For this research I will present a survey to the community that will help me find what is going wrong. In addition to this I will conduct some secondary research by looking at previous surveys and investigations done by the sport as well as other automotive publishers.
Primary Research
For my primary research into the F1 community, I will post a 9 question survey on social media with the following questions.
The aim of this survey is to better understand the demographic of F1 fans and their thoughts on the current state of the sport. There are two main questions I wish to answer which are as follows; "Is the sport too expensive for fans?" and "Is the sport still exciting?"
Secondary Research
For my secondary research I want to build upon the survey I have made and further investigate the community's thoughts on the current state of the sport. There have been a number of previous surveys and investigations into the thoughts of fans over recent years. One of these was undertaken by leading automotive publisher 'motorsport.com' and endorsed by both the FIA, motorsports governing body, and the Grand Prix Dirvers Association. This survey will be the focus of my secondary research as it was the largest such survey in motorsport, however I will also look at other reports and investigations so as to ensure a better understanding.
Results and Analysis
Primary Research
After leaving my survey online for one week, I have collected my results as shown below.
I received just 10 responses in the week that the survey was up which has allowed me to draw some conclusions from it. The first question has shown that those who are in the F1 community tend to watch most races, with 90% saying that they watched the sport regularly. I also discovered that the large majority of fans are male with 90% of this survey indicating so. The biggest age group was 18-25 however there was a good following from age 11 upwards. This suggests that the sport is still appealing to all generations and is particularly popular amongst the younger demographic which goes against what I initially thought.
The next set of questions was to do with community satisfaction of the sport and whilst no one said that the current season was not exciting, 40% said that it was only exciting at times. In terms of how the cars looked, only 70% said that this years cars looked good despite an aerodynamic overhaul for this season.
When asked how they watch the races, no one said they used pay-to-view services such as Sky. Instead, 60% said they either watch Channel 4's free coverage or they stream it online. The final question in the survey asked whether or not the community thought tickets were too expensive. In response to this question 70% said yes whilst the other 30% said some races were.
Secondary Research
The focus of my secondary research is the Global Fan Survey, produced by Motorsport.com at the beginning of 2017, and more specifically the area on pricing, value and how fans watch it. In this survey fans were asked what they thought was good value for a 3 day ticket. They decided that the current ticket prices were too expensive and that a good value ticket should cost on average $96.99.
When asked how they watch F1, almost 70% of fans in this survey responded with TV or dedicated F1 websites. However the number of live races watched on TV has dropped 25% in the last 7 years. This is due to the rise in Pay TV across Europe. In that same period of time, 40% of people are watching less F1 than they used to as they may only be able to watch highlights of certain races.
Evaluation
Through both my primary and secondary research I believe that there is an option to make a documentary into F1 and how the community currently percieve it. According to my research the communty are unhappy with the current cost of most areas of the sport, therefore I think that an investigative documentary into the high costs for fans could be produced. However, to make the documenary affective I would need access not just to the fan base but also to the bosses of F1 and the circuit owners. This could then lead to a piece that would potentially help change the situation in the sport.