80,000 spectators in Turkey, 120,000 expected in Austin in the United States, sold out in Mexico: the 2021 World Cup thrills and fills the racetracks where the regulations allow. Comforting numbers for F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who, as a guest of the Sport Festival, underlined when the highest car category is a healthy discipline: “F1 is more alive than ever. We want to help make F1 something unique from Friday to Sunday, capable of attracting more and more young people, increasing the physical proximity between the public and the protagonists “, the words of the former Ferrari team principal and CEO of Lamborghini.
Domenicali’s theses – corroborated by objective data – clash with some regression trends such as, for example, in Germany at the level of television audiences, which on the broadcaster RTL they were eight times higher in 2010. “The World Thriller Nobody Watches”, writes the German newspaper Bild. The drop in spectators related to F1 is also confirmed by a Mercedes spokesman, even if in the paddock there is great confidence in a near future of great growth and recovery in popularity. “In Germany it is no secret that the audience is declining this year – the words of the Mercedes source – but we have seen that also in other European countries the same trend has been recorded in recent years and now, on the other hand, in those countries the growth in terms of interest and audience has soared ”.