Wolff: Mercedes dominance hasn’t ‘turned off’ fans from F1

Mercedes AMG F1 boss Toto Wolff says the German manufacturer’s sustained dominance in the sport hasn’t eroded F1’s popularity as unpredictability still prevails.

Since the advent of the hybrid era in F1 in 2014, Mercedes and its drivers remain undefeated in the Constructors’ and Drivers’ championships, having achieved a record six consecutive double world titles.

However, the Silver Arrows’ excellence has led many F1 fans to lament the team’s supremacy and longing for a change at the top.

But Wolff believes a fair amount of uncertainty still prevails on race weekends, while intrigue and story lines up and down the field should also keep the fans hooked on the sport.

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“Mercedes winning a sixth championship, you can say, does this make people turn off? But the point is there was still variability and unpredictability,” Wolff said, quoted by Motorsport.com.

“You wouldn’t know before the weekend if a Ferrari was on pole position or if a Red Bull was on pole position, whether Max Verstappen would win.

“The battle between the generations is something that is a great attraction: [Sebastian] Vettel against [Charles] Leclerc, Verstappen against [Lewis] Hamilton. This is something that attracts the audiences.

“For me the best news is that we’re growing our audiences and fanbase with the younger generations. And I think, overall, we’re on a really good path.”

Wolff also pointed to TV ratings, even those related to free-to-air television, as a sign that Formula 1 is retaining the public’s fascination.

“You would imagine that linear TV is something that should be quietly shrinking, and it’s not for Formula 1,” explained the Austrian.

“It’s actually one of the few sports that is growing the audiences, whilst we are moving certain countries behind the pay wall.

“We’re looking back at the year 2019 with almost 2 billion viewers, 419 million unique viewers, almost 90 million viewers over a weekend and an average of more than 20 million live viewers for the grand prix.

“We’re the fastest growing sport on social media, even compared to all the American leagues,” Wolff added.

“You can see that we’re on a good track. Liberty is doing a good job by opening up social media, which wasn’t the case before.

“These are huge numbers compared to any other sport out there. So in terms of global attraction for the sport, it’s there.”

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