Formula 1 has 'a lot of work to do' to leverage social, says Williams F1 deputy team principal Claire Williams
Formula 1 is in the midst of conversations about how to engage a new generation of fans, and according to Williams F1 deputy team principle Claire Williams “everybody know that’s about leveraging social”.
Speaking at the Leaders in Sport conference in London, she admitted that Formula 1 as a sport has been slow to embrace social and digital channels compared to others and said it “has a lot of work to do”.
She added: “26 per cent of our audience is under 35 which is a healthy number but with the younger generation and how they consume sport if we don’t change the way we project ourselves then we won’t engage them.”
Williams said that year-on-year growth for TV audiences is expected to hit 16 per cent, good news given the business model Fomula 1 is based on whereby revenue generated from selling TV rights is distributed across the participating teams.
“We do have great broadcasting within our sport, but there’s a lot of digital and social media channels that we aren’t using in the best way we possibly could and there is a big piece of work going on to make sure we do,” she explained.
Asked to what extent she considers monetising social to be a viable route for Formula 1 and its teams, Williams seemed divided.
“It would be great if we could monetise it. Our numbers [social fans] as a team are not necessarily where we want them to be, but they are growing month by month.
“In terms of monetising them I don’t think we know how to do that yet. As a collective we have a huge fan base and it would be great if all the teams were to benefit from the revenue that would derive. But we do need to do a piece of work to see whether we could do it.
“But from a fan engagement perspective, for me, I would rather that it wasn’t monetised. For me accessibility of Formula 1 is an issue and there are perceptions that it is a very exclusive and inaccessible sport. To engage fans and a new generation then our sport needs to remain accessible and monetising social media channels is not the way I want to go.”
A working group is being set up to encourage Formula 1 teams to come together – something Williams has said has been “tricky” – to hash out these issues and find ways to bring in a new generation of fans.