The start of the new season has spelled what Liberty Media must have been dreading for months. Max Verstappen is back and has begun the season where he finished the last one. The Bahrain GP has marked another outing of Red Bull’s utter dominance with a one-two finish. Could it mark the amplification of an already dipping number of American fans?
Business and sports columnist Joe Pompliano certainly feels so. Pompliano highlighted the 10% slump in viewership as Verstappen displayed the most dominant run in 2023. That number could snowball if a similar trend continues in 2024. If that does happen, Pompliano believes, “Liberty Media can’t be happy about that.”
Max Verstappen is 16 seconds ahead of his teammate (+ everyone else) halfway through the first F1 race of the season.
Viewership in the US was already down nearly 10% last year and Red Bull’s continued dominance will make it worse.
Liberty Media can’t be happy about that.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) March 2, 2024
Max Verstappen registered 19 race wins in 2023 while Red Bull had 21 in total in a season of 22 races. The only non-Red Bull victory went to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Singapore. The unprecedented run broke the record from 1988 as Red Bull achieved a 95.45% win rate against McLaren’s 93.75%.
As results become predictable, viewership numbers in America continue to drop. The same is happening at a time when F1 owner Liberty Media is keeping the US at the forefront of its business development.
With the addition of Miami in 2022 and Las Vegas in 2023, efforts to cater to the American audience are clear. Now, Liberty Media also has the intention of adding Chicago as the fourth US race to the calendar.
How Max Verstappen has set the tone for another year of misery for rivals?
The excitement of car launches and the pre-season testing is finally over. After three sessions of practice, all efforts of downplaying development were over as well when the qualifying for the Bahrain GP kicked off. Max Verstappen grabbed the pole position ahead of Charles Leclerc with ease.
The long straights of the Bahrain track revealed just how dominant Red Bull’s RB20 was in straight-line speeds. With four straights available, the Dutchman took full advantage to pull clear of Leclerc’s DRS range after just one lap of the race.
Max Verstappen’s Bahrain GP weekend:
Pole Position ✅
Fastest Lap ✅
Led Every Lap ✅
Race Win ✅
Grand Slam ✅ pic.twitter.com/x6xmsfxDQx— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) March 2, 2024
By the time the race reached its halfway mark, Sergio Perez managed to climb up to P2, just behind his teammate. The gap with which the Red Bull teammates finished the race shows just how much work the rivals need to put in despite them making leaps of progress during the winter break.
If other teams are not able to catch up to Red Bull in the next few race weekends, 2024 could witness a repeat of 2023, a season in which the Milton Keynes-based outfit established complete dominance.
