Since the COVID-19 pandemic, which threatened the very existence of the sport, Formula 1 viewership has grown by leaps and bounds. Especially after the 2021 championship battle going down to the wire, and the increase in the number of races in the United States of America, the popularity of the sport has witnessed an upswing.

However, this year, there was a slight bump in the viewership numbers, especially following the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Despite the hype surrounding the event going into it, the numbers tanked hard, resulting in a relative “failure” for Liberty Media and F1. Regardless, Formula One group CEO, Stefano Domenicali states that the world of F1 should be happy with the current state of Formula 1.

The United States failure and F1’s response

Thanks to a super late race start combined with pure domination in the front, the sport was perhaps a little uninteresting for the American audience. At least that’s what the numbers suggest. By 2023, the viewership numbers reportedly went down by 8%, with the 22 race season averaging 1.1 million views across the different platforms in the United States.

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However, despite these numbers, former Ferrari boss and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicalli, as quoted by Formula Passion, said, “The year that has just ended was certainly positive for F1 as a whole. We have grown in terms of attention, we have conquered new markets, developed new products. We have obviously tried to maintain attention on track, even if we had an impressive domination by Max Verstappen.”

He continues, “In general, the season was super positive and I would like to add that the pandemic was a potentially deadly situation for F1, but if we look at this sport from COVID onwards, we managed to build step-by-step growth that has led today to one of the most followed sports platforms in the world. We must all be satisfied with this.” 

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There is definitely a lot of truth to what he’s saying though. Despite Max Verstappen’s dominance, the sport did manage to gain a lot of attention. The Las Vegas Grand Prix, at least from the racing front, was extremely exciting as well. Hopefully, the numbers go back up with an increase in competition up front, especially if Domenicali gets his wish to see Ferrari on the top step.

Stefano Domenicali wishes to see Ferrari on top

With both Ferrari drivers being cautiously optimistic about the SF-24 car, there’s a very good chance that we might have some real competition up front. If the car does deliver on its promise, we might very well see a car closing the gap to Red Bull for the first time in two years.

This is exactly what the F1 CEO would like on a personal front as well. It has been 16 years since Kimi Raikkonen lifted the trophy for them in 2007. “When will Ferrari win again? I can’t answer for the role I have. As a fan, I hope soon. It’s something everyone wants,” he reveals.

However, there’s still the Max Verstappen factor that stands in front of another championship for the Maranello side. Max Verstappen won 19 races just in 2023, while the Italian team in red managed to win the same amount of races across six seasons from 2017.

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Ferrari would be hoping for a better start next season, and not the Charles Leclerc DNF that they had this year. We will know more after Bahrain to see if the car is really competitive.