Empty grandstands at Hockenheim?

[Cam]

So why is there a race in China as nobody xpects much of a crowd anyway?

FOM gets revenue from the circuits? Chinese government funds the circuit? Ticket sales are irrelevant?
So why is there a race in china? Some might say to grow the auto industry for domestic consumption of F1 participant vehicles. That could be one. Another could be this:

I'll leave it up to your imagination on who's pulling the teet.

[xpensive]

I think it's as simple as this; Certain dictators thinks the ramatazz of an F1 race gives them prestige and attention.

MrE is happy to comply as he can charge much more than the usual fee, besides, he don't give a sh*t if there's a crowd or not.

Next race to rape is Sochi, where prince charming Putin will pay through his nose, truly disgusting.

[donskar]

I think it's as simple as this; Certain dictators thinks the ramatazz of an F1 race gives them prestige and attention.

MrE is happy to comply as he can charge much more than the usual fee, besides, he don't give a sh*t if there's a crowd or not.

Next race to rape is Sochi, where prince charming Putin will pay through his nose, truly disgusting.

Dead on:

It's not a sport; it's a business
It's not a sport; it's a business
It's not a sport; it's a business
It's not a sport; it's a business
It's not a sport; it's a business

[Sevach]

In a slightly related topic.
For the first time in ages Qualifying wasn't transmitted on open tv here in Brazil (and will continue not to be for the forseeable future), the audience has been abysmal.

[basti313]

Qualifying attendance looks much better. It really does seem that people who can afford the tickets do not have time to get to track for practices...

Not really...except for the grandstands at turn 1 everything was empty.

[xpensive]

I think it's as simple as this; Certain dictators thinks the razmatazz of an F1 race gives them prestige and attention.

MrE is happy to comply as he can charge much more than the usual fee, besides, he don't give a sh*t if there's a crowd or not.

Next race to rape is Sochi, where prince charming Putin will pay through his nose, truly disgusting.

Dead on:
...
It's not a sport; it's a business

An a crooked business indeed, nowadays it's about ripping off the taxpayers as every race-organizer needs subsidies.

[mep]

These days there are actually more people going to DTM races than to F1 in Hockenheim. Not surprising because DTM lets the fans come much closer to the teams than F1 and is cheaper. Unfortunately, the DTM rules follow the F1 rules often so both series see a certain decline in viewing numbers. F1 tickets are expensive but I think in Hockenheim they stayed fairly constant for the last 14 years.

DTM 2014: 75.000
DTM 2013: 87.000
F1 2012: 59.000
F1 2010: 63.000

However be careful with such figures because articles sometimes quote the attendance over the weekend and sometimes for the race only. The figures above should be for the Sunday, I leave the links here:

http://www.motorsport-total.com/dtm/new ... 50702.html
http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news ... 72311.html
http://www.dtm.com/de/News/BMW-Doppelsi ... -2013.html

[xpensive]

Niki Lauda's take on the situation;

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns28529.html

[beelsebob]

Niki Lauda's take on the situation;

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns28529.html

Thank god someone with at least some influence on the sport is saying that the lack of streaming is hurting the sport.

[TechAddict]

Hi

I'm at my first race live and for those not at the site remember it is 33deg celcius. All the People are hiding in the shadow and only came out for qualifing. It seemed like 70% occupied overall in quali, which i think is ok.

The Sound: I hate it on tv, BUT love it IRL. It is so much more savage when you experience the volume and sound pressure. The GP2 cars are off course a lot louder, which is wrong, but i expected it to be much worse.

[heidenreich27]

Reason:

V6 Engine + Noise
Fuel Rules
Overtaking too difficult

[krisfx]

Reason:

V6 Engine + Noise
Fuel Rules
Overtaking too difficult

This is a daft assumption/trolling. The crowds at Silverstone were bigger on the Wednesday/Thursday than some Grands Prix get on Saturday/Sunday. This isn't about any of the new rules at all. The cars actually sound okay when at the circuit and the cars aren't exactly pottering around to save fuel (look at Mercedes). Unfortunately, this isn't what the topic is about.

[krisfx]

He absolutely is on to something. Us older types remember when grandstands were far less evident and fans were free to walk around the circumference of the track (or most of it). That gave us ordinary types a chance to see the action from many different perspectives, which makes the whole thing HUGELY more interesting.

Indianapolis did this and it was fantastic for the fans, even if the city is a "cow town". Montreal and Monaco restrict fan movements to a few square centimeters of aluminum grandstand seating, the concession stands and the rest rooms. Your every movement is rigorously scrutinized by people who couldn't cut it as TSA workers.

I'm not sure what will happen when the organizers can't make enough from the shrinking crowds to survive. But I think in the not too distant future we will find out....

Spa and Silverstone both have moderately good General Admission, which is good. I found Silverstone to be better as it's flatter and there are much less trees so one can see more than a single corner. Personally, I'd prefer to see a few of the Grandstands/additional grandstands become "general admission" with first come first served seating to alleviate the need to queue from 3-4am to get a good spot on a grass verge for the race as it's frankly ridiculous.

[Pieoter]

At the Melbourne GP if you buy a grandstand ticket it automatically comes with a "general admission" ticket so you are free to walk around at will. They also setup the pits for support series in areas that GA tickets can access and have any different car shows on, rides and concerts so it is 100% worth having a walk around.

I am surprised it is not like that everywhere.

[Webber2011]

At the Melbourne GP if you buy a grandstand ticket it automatically comes with a "general admission" ticket so you are free to walk around at will. They also setup the pits for support series in areas that GA tickets can access and have any different car shows on, rides and concerts so it is 100% worth having a walk around.

I am surprised it is not like that everywhere.

They also make Thursday free general admission, and its not unusual to see thousands of kids on school excursions.
The kids can do all the stuff mentioned above, and much more.

This can only be a great thing to encourage the younger generation to support F1.


I've been there when the trackside temp was as high as 42 c, and they have areas behind the stands with huge fans blowing water mist for everyone to cool off in.
Do they do this at the German GP ?

I've never attended a GP outside of Aus' so I'd be interested to know what happens in other countries.