British Grand Prix leads F1 crowd figures despite uncertainty

Despite the future of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone remaining unclear, the race continues to attract the biggest fan figures in the sport while over four million spectators attended at least one F1 race in 2018, according to race promoter data from FOM.

Earlier this week Silverstone dismissed reports on the future of the British F1 round as uncertainty remains since the circuit activated a contract clause which currently sees the British Grand Prix dropping off the calendar after 2019.

With both parties eager to secure a new deal, the 2018 spectator figures further underline the importance of the race to both the circuit and F1 having consistently topped attendance figures over the past decade.

Race promoter data reveals the British Grand Prix welcomed 340,000 fans across the race weekend including 140,500 on race day – topping both F1 Grand Prix lists for highest figures.

The Mexican Grand Prix, which hosted Lewis Hamilton’s F1 title-clinching race this year, ranked second on the attendance list with 334,946 across the race weekend with 135,407 fans at the track on Sunday.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix, at the Baku City Circuit, hosted its third F1 event and enjoyed the biggest rise in attendance compared to 2017 with a 31.6% increase across the race weekend.

The F1 attendance report produced by FOM also noted a collective of 315,000 fans attended the two new rounds on the 2018 calendar – French Grand Prix (150,000) and German Grand Prix (165,000) – which covered the loss of the Malaysian Grand Prix which attracted 110,604 fans in 2017.

According to calculation adjustments, plus changes due to one extra race in 2018, fan attendance increased overall by 7.83% in 2018 compared to 2017.

The FOM report did not release the full attendance breakdown for each race, preferring to focus on races which increased its ticket sales, as well as fan satisfied regarding their experience at the track.

“The whole show of a Grand Prix weekend - the Formula 1 race, all the support series and the activities around the track - constitutes a great experience for the fans, as the attendance and research figures confirm,” Sean Bratches, managing director for F1, said.

“We strongly believe that Formula 1 has great potential which still hasn’t been fully exploited and we are fully committed to improving the fan experience in the future.

“The 81,093 spectators for each Sunday race day is almost double the number of those who watched the Bundesliga (average per match 44,657) and the Champions League (av. 46,630) in their 2017/18 season.

“Formula 1 race days had a better average attendance even when compared to the NFL, which registered an average game crowd of 67,405 in 2017/18, and the most important sports event this year, the Football World Cup in Russia, which averaged 47,371 per game with a peak of 78,011 for the final in Moscow.”

The 2019 F1 race calendar remains unchanged from this season with 21 rounds starting at the Australian Grand Prix on March 17.