The ratings of Formula 1 have gone down drastically this year as many fans have begun to find the sport boring because of Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s continuous domination. The Milton Keynes-based outfit is a force to reckon with this season having won all 12 races so far. The Dutchman has won 10 of them while Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull has won the other two. Despite many criticizing the sport for the same reason, F1 expert David Croft has given the perfect reply on the recent episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
Croft stated that not every race is going to be like the controversial 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi. He then explained why “boring” is the wrong word to describe the season so far. Instead, he believes that fans should classify the races this year as “straightforward“, and “marvel” the kind of consistency that Verstappen and Red Bull have showcased this season.
“Why not marvel at the record?“: Croft gives a perfect reply to fans finding F1 boring
F1 has recently been looking at ways to make the sport more interesting. For example, they have considered changing the format of race weekends and also some of the rules, among many other things. However, despite their best efforts, only one team has often emerged as the sole dominant force.
In the early 2000s, it was Ferrari and Michael Schumacher. Soon after, Renault and McLaren also joined in the fight at the top. A few years later, Red Bull began dominating the sport with Sebastian Vettel followed by Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton.
And now it seems that the Austrian team has returned back on top, having also dominated both championships in 2022. One-horse races have been a common sight in F1 for many years now. However, most of the new-generation fans believe that the sport is boring. However, Sky Sports F1 expert David Croft seems to have the perfect reply for such fans.
He said, “It is so so easy to run with the herd here and say ‘oh it’s boring because Max keeps winning’. Why not marvel at the record? At the excellence, at the consistency and to be that good for so long. I couldn’t do it. Karun couldn’t do it. You know what it takes Karun to be that good and appreciate what we’re seeing because we’re not going to see it forever“.
After stating the same, he added, “Not every race is going to be like Abu Dhabi 21“. The race in Yas Island was obviously one of a kind as it not only was the title decider between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, but it was a race that was also marred by immense controversy. However, with such races being far and few recently, F1 seems to have lost a huge number of its fans.
F1 loses 650k of its American audience as Max Verstappen continues to dominate
According to an interesting report from gpblog.com, revenues of some of the biggest American broadcasters have fallen drastically because of the reduction in viewership. For example, ABC recorded 2.6m views at the 2022 Miami GP. However, in stark contrast, the audience size shrunk by a whopping 25% for the 2023 race at the same venue, thus accounting for an approximate loss of 650k in audience.
A perfect weekend in Spa 🇧🇪 We’ve been on it from start to finish @redbullracing 💪 The car was great 🚀
Thank you Orange Army, your support has been unreal 🙌 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/05mFAL5FWG
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) July 30, 2023
Considering how the season has panned out so far, it seems that there is just one man to blame for this decrease in viewership and that is Max Verstappen. However, as David Croft pointed out, fans may just need to look at this year’s races from a different point of view if they want to fall in love with the sport again.
