Remember how Frederic Vasseur celebrated Carlos Sainz‘s Singapore GP win like Ferrari had won the world championship? Well, we don’t blame the Ferrari Team Principal. Stealing a win away from the dominant Max Verstappen and Red Bull this season is as precious as a world championship. While the dominance is great for the Orange Army, it might not be that great for the sport itself, as it puts Liberty Media’s $4.4 billion investment at risk. But how?

F1 hasn’t always had the fanbase and following that it has nowadays. About a decade or so ago, only the purists and hardcore F1 fans cared about the sport. People with an engine in place of their hearts and fuel pumping through the body. F1 as a sport didn’t have much going on except for the on-track activities. And even when things were happening off track, the secretive nature of the team kept it away from the eyes. 

However, Liberty Media brought about a vast change in the sport. Not only to the technical side of it but also to the entertainment side of F1. Let’s see what the takeover was all about.

F1’s rise since the Liberty Media takeover

Liberty Media bought the controlling rights for Formula 1 in late 2016 for a whopping $4.4 billion dollars. 2016 was the year when F1 saw a boom as a result of the Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg rivalry. As a result, Liberty Media decided to capitalize on the situation and made the investment. Ever since, the trajectory for F1 has only moved toward one side and that is up. 

Liberty Media understood what was needed to make the sport entertaining for the audience and acted upon it. Streaming platforms were taken into consideration and F1TV was launched as a result. The younger audience was targeted as F1 grew its presence on social media. More races were added to the calendar all across the globe, including multiple races in the United States, to tap into a geography that had massive potential. 

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However, F1 still had loads of competition from local motorsports. As a result of this, in combination with the aim of targeting younger audiences and streaming platforms, Formula 1, in partnership with Netflix, launched the docuseries, Formula 1: Drive to Survive. The genius to launch DTS made the drivers and TPs celebrities overnight and spiked the popularity of the sport. 

Adding to this was the 2021 F1 season that saw the fierce championship fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen come down to the very last lap and finish under controversial circumstances. However, since the 2021 season, Max Verstappen has been the dominant force in F1. But the 2023 dominance has been on a different level altogether.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s uncanny dominance in 2023

After the first half of the season in 2022, it seemed as if Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen would have a close fight for the championship. However, Ferrari’s unforced error and Red Bull’s ability to develop the car and dominate meant Max Verstappen easily took the victory. Coming into 2023, there were doubts about Red Bull’s ability to challenge for the title as a result of their cost cap penalties.

However, Max Verstappen and Co. smashed it out of the park as they showcased unparalleled dominance. Out of the 16 races so far, Red Bull has won 15 with Ferrari taking the win in Singapore. Sergio Perez’s challenge for the title faded away after the first quarter of the season. Max Verstappen has so far won 13 of the 16 races. Most of the time, the Dutchman has finished a country mile ahead of the driver in P2.

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This dominance, however, hasn’t been well received by either the fans or other teams. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have constantly been on Max Verstappen and Co’s back about how their dominance is boring and not stimulating enough for the fans of the sport. A recent study also showed a drop in F1 fans’ interest in the sport on social media. 

How is Max Verstappen’s dominance hurting Liberty Media?

The unpredictability of a sport is one of the factors that make the audience stick around. With Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s dominance, very little has been left in terms of unpredictability. No matter what is thrown at the Dutchman, he would always come out on top like he did in Zandvoort. A recent research done by Buzz Radar shows how F1’s popularity has dropped on social media this year compared to 2022.

Ever since the Liberty Media takeover, the growth of F1 on social media platforms has been unbelievable. While the growth did slow down in 2018 [the year where Lewis Hamilton dominated], it has been an exponential growth otherwise. 2021 saw the biggest spike in the amount of followers gained on social media. 

However, social data for 2023 shows a different side of the F1 growth. Compared to the social mentions of 6.14M in 2022, the number is down by over 70% to 1.83M. The same is the case with new followers and social reach, whose growth is respectively down by 46.29% and 64.10% for 2023 when compared with 2022. It also advised that the tone of people in the conversations about F1 are also changing with boring, disappointing, and not good coming out as the tones with the dramatic increase in percentage. 

Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been the biggest contributors when it came to the increase of the change in conversational tone. So what does it mean? Is Red Bull and Max Verstappen the reason behind fans dropping off or losing interest in F1? Well, that’s what the analysis shows. If we compare the results to what’s actually happening on track, it does make sense to point the finger at Max Verstappen. As it is said, “Too much of anything is bad”, the same applies here.

Coming to whether Max Verstappen’s dominance is hurting Liberty Media. It’s a tricky question to answer. Most of the races this year have been sold out with a record number of audiences attending the GPs. However, the viewership of the sport has become a bit monotonous, with the winner of the race already being known before the race begins. While Max Verstappen’s dominance might not hurt Liberty Media and F1 in the short term, the persistence of the Dutchman’s dominance will hurt the F1 owners in the long run. 

Watch this Story: Helmut Marko’s Frightening Reality Slap: Lewis Hamilton Downplays Max Verstappen’s Dominance!

What do you make of Max Verstappen’s dominance?