TBK-Light.com

Real fan here, went to Australia to see the GP there (combined with vacation). Went to several February tests in Barcelona, various races and tracks around Europe =) Best of all: got an autograph from MSC in person few years ago. They say never meet your heroes, BS! Awesome and still proud of it!

Maybe term "real fan" is not proper, like you suggest, but do you know when a person is officially labeled as "Formula One viewer"? It's a person who's watched more than 15 minutes of racing during the season. Last year F1 had 450 million viewers, which is 50 millions less than previous year. There's the reason for a knee-jerk rule about double points, which us "the fans" hate. Yes, I consider myself as a fan as I've probably missed something like an average of 15 minutes of racing per season during these years.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

I strongly doubt the drop of 50 million has much to do with the dominance of 1 driver and 1 team. I for one found this dominance much less annoying than the Schumi/Ferrari dominance. Because in the latter case the #2 also was a Ferrari and you had antics like Austria.

If they opened their eyes they'd realize the main reason is putting F1 behind a paywall.

I have to disagree. Losing 10% of viewers is a big deal for investors and sponsors. It's like losing 10% of interest for them, although the real loss is where we see it, in boring dominance.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

Sorry, forgot to say that i was 5x at Hungarian GP, and 3x at Monza...
Also got an autograph from my man
My avatar shows the 1st race, and it was boring as hell on tv, but to me it was something ill remember 4 the rest of my life.
Seeing MSC win is priceless

And I've been to Le Mans 7 times, therefore I'm a bigger motorsport fan than you.

What a silly discussion.

Good for you. I've also been at multiple GPs in different countries, been to many test days and have even worked in the sport. My autograph collection is also quite big. That all means diddly squat though.

Being a real fan is more than just participating in viewing a sport.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Yes i agree with you ellis, Le mans is the race of the year and has a long long history.

If F1 was still fully available on the BBC in the UK, available in the Netherlands and Finland on a free channel and in some other countries as well there wouldn't be a drop of 50 million.

This.

I hope Bernie realises that when everything gets behind a decoder the value of his brand will also decline rapidly. Sure he gets more money from the paychannels in terms of rights, but at some point the loss of value of the brand will be much higher than the profit gained from those contracts. But when F1 realises that point he will probably be dead (so maybe that's why he doesn't care).

Brazil yet remains with the most F1 viewers in the world. The main point here is that the races are often during the morning and early hours of the day, so the live broacast gets an easy win in ratings, very attractive to broadcast sponsors such as Petrobras, Renault and Santander

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Glad someone said it.

Yeah but i think were talking about if F1 has real fans...
And not wich race is the most important on the planet..
So i dont know if im right or wrong with that in this thread...

But yeah the LM is the most popular race 4 me..

I think due to the way the sport is shown in China, a lot of viewers were lost that way, which should be sorted out this year.

Viewing figures went up in the UK & the US, which are two major markets for the sport.

Of course a 10% drop isn't ideal for sponsors but from the perspective of the teams they gain a lot from pay TV that makes up for some of the lost revenue from sponsors.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

I went to the Singapore GP but I left my seat before the end of the race so I could get a decent spot for the Katy Perry concert that followed the race. Does that make me a true fan?

20th season for me. Only ever missed 2 or 3 races LIVE

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"Many people ask me why I always sign off Till We Meet Again, because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon." -Marty Reid

Yes, a true Katy Perry fan.

I did worse. I was at the 2005 Canadian GP, and I left 4-5 laps before the race was done just to make sure I didn't get caught in road traffic when I was going to leave with my car. Came back one year later and walked the track after the race. NOW that makes me a true fan lol

Watching since 1999. Missed only one race, Silverstone 2003.

Sorry to interrupt the dick measuring, but just curious if anyone had an answer on this.

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