All kinds of news about F1.

[Wouter]

[peewon]

Toto is one of the biggest hypocrites Ive ever come across in any sport. Does anyone remember the grand standing he did when he wanted to raise the min. height of the cars and how if there was any accident he would bury the people opposing the change in the media? Now this. When Verstappen and Horner tried to warn people that these regulations are going to be problematic, he gaslit everyone thats not certain. The only thing he cares about is Mercedes winning. Not driver safety nor the sport as a whole. Mercedes has an overwhelming influence in not only the FIA but also large parts of F1 media.

[tinuva]

An example of the consequences of the Battery Charging World Championship:

In Spain, 124,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
In 2026, that number was 63,000.

In France , 705,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
And in 2026, only 404,000 watched.

Would be nice in future to post your source

Which I think is https://x.com/AntonioSabatoJr/status/20 ... 2698952839

Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

[Just_a_fan]

An example of the consequences of the Battery Charging World Championship:

In Spain, 124,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
In 2026, that number was 63,000.

In France , 705,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
And in 2026, only 404,000 watched.

Both countries are pay to view, I think. With the rise of people using VPN to avoid paying, the figures aren't very useful. Add in cost of everything else rising and people tightening their belts accordingly, it's not possible to say simply "people are leaving the sport because of the rules". Also, some "fans" will be leaving because their favourite driver is languishing midfield so far this season.

F1 is also increasingly US-influenced and the US is hardly popular in either of those countries today.

Lots of reasons can apply.

[Wouter]

An example of the consequences of the Battery Charging World Championship:

In Spain, 124,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
In 2026, that number was 63,000.

In France , 705,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
And in 2026, only 404,000 watched.

Would be nice in future to post your source

Which I think is https://x.com/AntonioSabatoJr/status/20 ... 2698952839

Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

.
I always post my source, I just forgot it this time and NO it isn't from Antonio Sabato because he doesn't mention a source!

I got it from the Spanish DAZN and the France Canal+.

[Wouter]

An example of the consequences of the Battery Charging World Championship:

In Spain, 124,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
In 2026, that number was 63,000.

In France , 705,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
And in 2026, only 404,000 watched.

.
Both countries are pay to view, I think. With the rise of people using VPN to avoid paying, the figures aren't very useful. Add in cost of everything else rising and people tightening their belts accordingly, it's not possible to say simply "people are leaving the sport because of the rules". Also, some "fans" will be leaving because their favourite driver is languishing midfield so far this season.

F1 is also increasingly US-influenced and the US is hardly popular in either of those countries today.

Lots of reasons can apply.

.
DAZN has the same amount of F1 fan subscribers as last year and Canal+ also. Alonso and Sainz are driving at the same teams and Gasly also (but with Alpine). Nothing changed only the viewers.

"With the rise of people using VPN ............."

A rise of 40 - 45 %?? So 360 000 more VPN viewers since last year? I don't buy that.

Over here 80% of the subscribers didn't watch the Japanese GP. Some the highlights.
They don't like the Drivers Battery WC.

[Just_a_fan]

An example of the consequences of the Battery Charging World Championship:

In Spain, 124,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
In 2026, that number was 63,000.

In France , 705,000 people watched the Japanese GP in 2025.
And in 2026, only 404,000 watched.

.
Both countries are pay to view, I think. With the rise of people using VPN to avoid paying, the figures aren't very useful. Add in cost of everything else rising and people tightening their belts accordingly, it's not possible to say simply "people are leaving the sport because of the rules". Also, some "fans" will be leaving because their favourite driver is languishing midfield so far this season.

F1 is also increasingly US-influenced and the US is hardly popular in either of those countries today.

Lots of reasons can apply.

.
DAZN has the same amount of F1 fan subscribers as last year and Canal+ also. Alonso and Sainz are driving at the same teams and Gasly also (but with Alpine). Nothing changed only the viewers.

"With the rise of people using VPN ............."

A rise of 40 - 45 %?? So 360 000 more VPN viewers since last year? I don't buy that.

Over here 80% of the subscribers didn't watch the Japanese GP. Some the highlights.
They don't like the Drivers Battery WC.

"Correlation does not imply causation."

I wonder how many of the recent fans who watched only because Max was successful have left, for example. This has been seen in other sports e.g. football, where a team stops being the top team and suddenly loses "fans" who supported it only on the basis of its success. Heck, this happened in Germany when Michael retired (from memory of the figures back then).

Have some left because they don't like the format? No doubt. All of them? No way of knowing and one should not ascribe it as the reason simply because of ones own view of the sport's rules.

[Wouter]

.
Both countries are pay to view, I think. With the rise of people using VPN to avoid paying, the figures aren't very useful. Add in cost of everything else rising and people tightening their belts accordingly, it's not possible to say simply "people are leaving the sport because of the rules". Also, some "fans" will be leaving because their favourite driver is languishing midfield so far this season.

F1 is also increasingly US-influenced and the US is hardly popular in either of those countries today.

Lots of reasons can apply.

.
DAZN has the same amount of F1 fan subscribers as last year and Canal+ also. Alonso and Sainz are driving at the same teams and Gasly also (but with Alpine). Nothing changed only the viewers.

"With the rise of people using VPN ............."

A rise of 40 - 45 %?? So 360 000 more VPN viewers since last year? I don't buy that.

Over here 80% of the subscribers didn't watch the Japanese GP. Some the highlights.
They don't like the Drivers Battery WC.

.
"Correlation does not imply causation."

I wonder how many of the recent fans who watched only because Max was successful have left, for example. This has been seen in other sports e.g. football, where a team stops being the top team and suddenly loses "fans" who supported it only on the basis of its success.
Heck,
this happened in Germany when Michael retired (from memory of the figures back then).

Have some left because they don't like the format? No doubt. All of them? No way of knowing and one should not ascribe it as the reason simply because of ones own view of the sport's rules.

.
The numbers I gave you were from France and Spain. 40 - 45 % less F1 viewers because of Max??? WOW !!

[Just_a_fan]

The numbers I gave you were from France and Spain. 40 - 45 % less F1 viewers because of Max??? WOW !!

Not everyone supports a driver based on their nationality. Plenty of British F1 fans like Max, for example. Indeed, in some forums they seem to outnumber British fans of British drivers.

Anyway, two data points does not make a reliable dataset from which to draw conclusions. You may be correct about the rules being the cause, but we probably need to look at the season as a whole, or at least well in to the European leg of the season.

[Wouter]

A roundup of live viewership numbers for the #JapaneseGP F1 race across different countries! [compared to '25]
(I’m still reaching out to various countries to reach as many countries as possible.)

[SB15]

Toto is one of the biggest hypocrites Ive ever come across in any sport. Does anyone remember the grand standing he did when he wanted to raise the min. height of the cars and how if there was any accident he would bury the people opposing the change in the media? Now this. When Verstappen and Horner tried to warn people that these regulations are going to be problematic, he gaslit everyone thats not certain. The only thing he cares about is Mercedes winning. Not driver safety nor the sport as a whole. Mercedes has an overwhelming influence in not only the FIA but also large parts of F1 media.

To be fair, that was a reasonable complaint by Toto. Since the FIA didn't want to go with active suspension for the ground effect era, many drivers were complaining about the ride quality due to how stiff the cars were setup. It was even worse if your car was porpoising. And funny enough Toto was also right about Checo complaints about the car direction Redbull took for the RB18 onwards and that inevitably cost them.

Regardless of Toto's complaints, the FIA's intervention for the minimum ride height would've happened!

[MattWellsyWells]

Perhaps the fact the Japanese GP coincided with the clocks changing in Europe meant viewing figures were down? It was effectively an hour earlier than last year for most people in Europe.

[Waz]

Spain and France also have other factors that could affect viewers. In Spain, Alonso is bigger than F1, while Carlos is not even in the same universe of popularity.

Whats changed from 2025? A Honda engine rooting him to the back of the grid, again. That's a big deal.

In France, Gasly and Ocon aren't superstars. They aren't superstars anywhere. So what changed? Renault engines disappeared and now Alpine is powered by the Germans.

I would bet that Renault had more pull than Gasly or Ocon.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Spain and France also have other factors that could affect viewers. In Spain, Alonso is bigger than F1, while Carlos is not even in the same universe of popularity.

Whats changed from 2025? A Honda engine rooting him to the back of the grid, again. That's a big deal.

In France, Gasly and Ocon aren't superstars. They aren't superstars anywhere. So what changed? Renault engines disappeared and now Alpine is powered by the Germans.

I would bet that Renault had more pull than Gasly or Ocon.

Agreed. I don't know the figures for the Netherlands, but I would put good money on them being down as well since Max is not winning races AND has been very vocal in his thoughts around F1 at the moment.

It's worth highlighting as well that Liberty Media have reportedly switched to being more interested in "engagement" than pure viewing figures. That will impact how they market the sport, which will obviously impact the viewing figures.