Before the pandemic, the Formula 1 accelerator was holding firm on revenue. The organization went from generating 1,780 million dollars in 2017 to 1,830 in 2018 and a record figure of 2,020 million in 2019; everything was going from strength to strength, until the coronavirus swerved that curve and in 2020 the figure fell to 1,150 million, almost half of what it had achieved in the previous year, according to Statista reports.
The pandemic translated into two seasons of limitations for the business with closed or reduced capacity and venues that were discharged. The context forced to reinvent the sources of income and that served to strengthen its industry, which reaches the 2022 season with more learnings and ready to return to the financial health it had before covid.
“The business is quite good, despite the fact that two years of health crisis have passed, which put an important test to seek, due to the lack of people, income from other sources. With everything and this situation, F1 has stayed afloat, it is a highly consolidated product and brand and already has a consolidated base of fans worldwide. These fans already longed for the possibility of being able to return to the racetracks, so the business as such is not compromised, because it continues to be a success and provide a show,” describes Jorge Badillo Nieto, consultant in sports marketing and communication, as well as a professor at the University Iberoamerican.
In these two years, the circuit exploited the series ‘Drive to survive’, broadcast on Netflix, as one of its great assets. Given the impossibility of filling the racetracks due to health restrictions, viewers arrived remotely and digitally: ESPN revealed that the average audience for each race in 2021 increased 53% compared to 2020 and 40% compared to 2019 (figures in the United States) .