F1 has posted an increased figure for fans attending grand prix races in 2018 from 2017 with British GP leading Mexico GP in overall attendance list.
There is an overall 2.7 percent growth on average for fans attending grand prix events in 2018 from 2017 while in absolute terms the percentage is 7.8 percent which takes into account the extra race it staged in the season.
Four grand prixs saw an over 10 percent average increase in attendance from 2017 with Azerbaijan GP leading with +31.6 percent followed by the Austrian GP (+27.6 percent), Japanese GP (+20.4 percent) and Canadian GP (+11.4 percent).
The 21 races saw a total of 4,093,305 fans attending with British GP leading the way with 340,000, followed by Mexican GP (334,946), Australian GP (295,000), US GP (263,160), Singapore GP (263,000), Belgium GP (250,000) and Hungarian GP (210,000).
The average weekend attendance during the course of the season stood at 194,919. Looking at the Sunday figures, the total attendance was 1,702,959 with 81,093 fans in average. Britain saw the highest again with 140,500, followed by Mexico with 135,407.
The US GP saw 111,580 fans as six races posted double figures in percentage for the increase in fan attendance for Sunday with Azerbaijan (+29.1 percent) ahead of Austria (+25.2 percent), Bahrain (+22.1 percent), Canada (+21.4 percent), Japan (+19.1 percent) and Hungary (+10.1 percent).
The loss of Malaysian GP was compensated with the addition of French GP and German GP – the Asian race saw 110,604 in attendance but the two European races saw 150,000 at Le Castellet and 165,000 at Hockenheim respectively.
F1’s commercial operations head, Sean Bratches said: “With nearly 200,000 spectators at each Grand Prix, and more than 80,000 packing the grandstands for Sunday’s races across the season, it demonstrates that these big numbers compare favourably with other major sporting events, thus confirming a trend for growth.
“We are particularly pleased with the results and research carried out through the season regarding satisfaction levels of spectators, as they prove that our efforts to engage fans are working well.
“The whole show of a Grand Prix weekend – the Formula 1 race, all the support series and the activities around the track – constitues a great experience for the fans, as the attendance and research figures confirm.
“We strongly believe that Formula 1 has great potential which still hasn’t been fully exploited and we are fully committed to improving the fan experience in the future.” Along with the above data, data when compared to other sport was released too.
“The 81,093 spectators for each Sunday raceday is almost double the number of those who watched the Bundesliga (average per match 44,657) and the Champions League (av. 46,630) in their 2017/18 season.
“Formula 1 race days had a better average attendance even when compared to the NFL, which registered an average game crowd of 67,405 in 2017/18, and the most important sports event this year, the Football World Cup in Russia, which averaged 47,371 per game with a peak of 78,011 for the final in Moscow.”
In addition, the fan survey conducted during selected races yielded these results: “In 15 of the 16 events where the research took place, 70% of the spectators judged the experience ‘very enjoyable,’ with a peak of 90% at the British Grand Prix and 85% in Austria.
“These two races, along with those in Belgium, Hungary and Italy produced the sharpest increase in spectator satisfaction, rising between 4 to 14% compared to last year. The research also confirmed that an average of 65% (+3% compared to 2017) of the spectators felt that the experience provided during a race weekend was ‘very or quite good value for money’.
“The race at the Red Bull Ring showed the biggest increase over last year in terms of value for money, with an increase of 25%, while for Monza it was up significantly, by 11%, and at Spa-Francorchamps it increased by 8%.”