Fernando Alonso thinks that fans accumulated in the last couple of years, who have almost doubled F1’s revenue, don’t understand the sport.
The Alpine superstar joined Alpine in 2021 after a two-year sabbatical from F1. In that period, F1 amassed a huge number of new fans, majorly due to the popularity of the Netflix series Drive to Survive, which was first released in 2019.
Therefore, the fans who recently started watching the sport hardly ever watched the peak of Fernando Alonso. His current stint at Alpine doesn’t allow him to compete at the top of the grid.
So, when he finishes at the middle of the grid, fans generally don’t recognize how hard he would have fought for that result. The broadcast hardly focuses on the midtable fight, especially when the top drivers have an intense battle.
So when fans don’t recognize his incredible performances, questions on his spot at the age of 40 are being asked. Hence, the Spaniard thinks that the newer fans don’t understand F1.
“I think that the fans that we have now, there are new fans and in a way – and I don’t want to lack respect to them – but they don’t know much about Formula 1,” said Alonso.
“They just are more like a football kind of fan, where they just follow the results, whoever is winning does the best. And whoever is last is not Formula 1 level.”
“They don’t understand much about car performance and the package that you need. So you are on more of a rollercoaster kind of feeling, of perception, of what the people feel about you.”
Fernando Alonso shouldn’t discredit newer fans that much
Anyone new to a sport requires time to be totally understanding of the nuances of the sport. There is no lie that the newer fans may dismiss the drivers with the weaker teams, even if they perform good, it’s not necessary they’ll reap the rewards.
However, the newer fans have totally revived F1, as hardly six years ago. The sport was struggling with a decrease in viewership. This era of F1 is actually a renaissance, and in this time, F1 has managed to double its revenue, as the new fans approximately bring $1 billion.
Thus, Alonso and the seasonal fans should be easy on the new supporters. Sooner or later, they would also pick on the complexities of F1.
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