Formula One is the third-most-watched spectator sport in the world. About $2 billion will be spent putting 10 teams on the track this year. The most dominant, Ferrari, will spend more than $400 million powering star driver Michael Schumacher, the richest athlete on the planet.
Despite such a glittering résumé, Formula One hasn't found the recipe for American success. With increased pressure to find corporate sponsors and the taint of plunging global TV ratings last year, the United States could ease those woes, some analysts said. First, though, F1 must make a commitment to wooing an American audience.
"The manufacturers and the sponsors care about America because we're the largest market in the world," said Danny Sullivan, a former F1 driver who now spends much of his time trying to develop an American driver for the circuit. "The problem is, a lot of people in the sport don't think they need us. So they don't do public relations, they don't make the drivers accessible."
For example, Sullivan worked on four F1 broadcasts for ABC Sports last year. He made several attempts, with camera crews in tow, to interview drivers and teams. All requests were denied.
"The attitude is, 'We don't need you,'" he said. "But they do. Look at Michael Schumacher: If he walked down pit road at the racetrack in Charlotte, nobody would know him. It's not like Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin and the NASCAR guys."
Fred Nation, the longtime spokesman at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, also said a lack of marketing and public-relations effort in America has hurt the sport. "They're more restrictive to media coverage than what we're used to in the U.S.," he said.
As if to prove the point, the organization would not comment for this story. One F1 staffer, Ian Holmes, deferred answering any questions about the series and suggested trying series owner Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone couldn't be reached at the sport's F1 headquarters in London despite several attempts.
With tobacco sponsors heading for the exits in 2005, as required by European law, and a fear of fan apathy caused by Schumacher's overriding dominance in recent years, the circuit's governing groups seem to realize changes are needed. This season, for example, Ecclestone and F1 tweaked many competition rules in an attempt to take some of the mind-numbing engineering and technological marvels away and put the focus back on the drivers.
Among the biggest barriers for F1 domestically is attracting TV viewers. With only one race in the United States, at Indianapolis, Schumacher and his colleagues need American viewers to learn about the series and take an interest in the drivers through race broadcasts. Time differences caused by the circuit's predominantly European venues further complicate matters.
This season F1 began a three-year deal with Speed Channel. For the first time, American fans know where to find all 16 races. The News Corp.-owned cable network has created additional programming to educate fans about the sport's past and present.
"We're looked at as a very small part of their audience," said Jim Liberatore, Speed Channel president. "That works for us and against us. We're small, but there is potential to grow, to do more with Formula One in America."
It's a long road for Liberatore and Speed Channel. About 240,000 American households tune in for F1 races. By comparison, Speed Channel's weekly NASCAR highlights show on Monday nights — which shows only clips and interviews, not live racing — reaches 270,000 households. Speed Channel is available in 57 million U.S. households.
Liberatore said the best chance for growth stems from F1's three-year commitment. Consistent presentation and tie-in programming can help build interest.
Even so, it speaks volumes when Speed Channel carries the international feed of races while supplying on-air announcers who call the action from the network's American headquarters rather than trackside.
"F1 is not a North American-born sport and, as such, will struggle to become adopted on a national scale in the same way other imports struggle — soccer, for example," said Andrew Collis, director of corporate sponsorships technology giant Hewlett-Packard, which sponsors the competitive BMW Williams F1 team. "As a TV viewing sport, audiences are always likely to be relatively low within the U.S."
