Button says F1 may have to shorten races to attract younger fans
Jenson Button is one of many F1 drivers who have been known to express their frustration about the direction of the sport.
However, the McLaren driver seems confident that the sport’s new owners, Liberty Media, realize the significance of attracting new fans in the coming years.
“I think they have a very good understanding already of the direction the sport needs to go in and how it needs to be improved,” said Button. “They need to attract the younger audience.”
Button believes Formula One is already taking steps in the right direction with changing up the rules package for 2017 and with breaking ground again in the United States.
“I think in the terms of the sport over the past couple of years, it’s been a tricky place in terms of the drivers not being happy with how the cars feel and the regulations,” stated Button. “The sport understands that, and there’s so much change for next year which is fantastic, so the sport’s going in the right direction.
“There are always more things that need changed, and I think with fresh ideas and new owners it’s definitely on the up. Hopefully that will break the States as well which is something that needs to happen… hopefully, with the owner’s being American-based, that will make it a bigger sport in America. I think once you get the audience in America it will attract fans in other countries to Formula One.”
At age 36, Button has competed in Formula One since 2000. The Brit pointed out that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won a race earlier this year at the age of 18, yet the average person who watches F1 today is still over the age of 30.
“We need a younger audience, because otherwise we just get smaller and smaller as we get older, so we need a younger audience. How we go about that is obviously very difficult.”
As Button noted, Formula One races have always been around 90 minutes to two hours in length, yet the younger generation does not have a very long attention span.
“Short races, short sports, I think are on the up,” Button reasoned. “For example, sprint, track and field, those sorts of things people love because they’re short. It’s a burst of energy. A grand prix is an hour and a half, so it’s tricky.
“For me, I can’t sit in front of the TV for an hour and a half and watch a film, I have to be active. Maybe that’s just me, but I think the new generation, the younger generation, is much like that.
“It’s tough though because Formula One is Formula One and it’s an hour and a half race and changing that is a shame because it’s the way the sport’s always been, but I guess we need to keep moving with the times.
“There will always be the die-hard fans who have watched it for 10, 20 years who will watch a whole grand prix, but we need to attract the younger fans, but trying to attract them to watch something for an hour and a half is very difficult.”
One alternate solution, Button added, is having more activities for the fans to do when there isn’t action on track, such as the case in baseball.
“With baseball in America, it’s not the most exciting sport to watch but any time there’s not something going on the pitch, there’s something else going on, and that’s something we need in Formula One.
“I don’t know how we go about that, there needs to be more action than ever, because people still want more action, whether its cars on the circuit or something else to keep them entertained. I think interaction with the fans is something we need more of, not just with the drivers but the sport itself, so I think it’s something that will happen.”
At the end of the day, Button acknowledges that whatever changes the sport makes, they won’t be easy, and in some cases they made upset the more traditional fans.
