NASCAR lessons for F1

[F1freak]

DISCLAIMER: Even though I live in the US, I'm by no means a NASCAR fan.

Now to get to the reason for my post. I was watching parts of today's NASCAR race and after 400 odd laps, the separation between the top two finishers was a few inches - exciting for any racing fan. That got me thinking and I know we've touched upon some of these topics before.

It's a well known fact that NASCAR does an outstanding job in terms of brand management/marketing etc and I was wondering what folks in this forum think F1 can learn from NASCAR. We all know that ultimately the long term viability of F1 remains with bringing in sponsors etc. I understand that NASCAR teams have budgets nowhere close to that of F1 but NASCAR also makes enough money for some 50 teams to exist. I feel F1 could probably pick up the following from NASCAR without losing its premier status in motorsports:
1. Significantly greater driver access
2. Greater pits access for TV etc. (Catch-22 because F1 teams are always trying to hide their technical developments.)
3. Market the sports 'SEXY' image. (A little lame but will definitely sell tickets.)

Thoughts??????

[Guest]

Those are pretty good ideas... but the "sexiness" thing... there are enough grid girls as it is...

Cutting costs is the biggest thing F1 needs... especiallly ticket prices...

[Scuderia_Russ]

I wholly agree that cutting of ticket prices is needed,but you can never have enough grid girls! One of the best things about my weekend at Silverstone in '01 (apart from seeing Mika get back on top form) was my mate getting a slap off of a Fosters girl for putting his hand where he shouldn't while having his photo taken with two of them! If we'd had to pay for the weekend i'm sure this alone would have been worth the price.

[350plus]

There are definitively some good lessons to be taken from the NASCAR, specially in the marketing aspect. They make enourmous amounts of cash in merchandising, they expanded their target audience easily and their rules are designed just to promote the show (some say that were designed by the tv's for the tv's...).
And I don't know if cheap ticket prices are the reason for their success...The Daytona 500 sells out every year, some months in advance and the tickets are not certainly cheap...(at least for my wallet)
But the truth is that NASCAR has nothing to do with our F1. And the European market has nothing in common with the North American one, so, marketing strategies that might work there prove useless here (we have seen it happen in past many times)
PS: (Agree with the necessity to increase the number of grid girls )

[Sombrero]

America Start Your Engines (NASCAR 2015)


NASCAR on NBC featuring Nick Offerman.

NASCAR lessons for F-1 : nice race advertising with humor and self-irony...