FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[hypertek]

Why is it soo freaking hard!?! what doesnt appeal to them? I always tell my friends "hey come watch the f1 race with me" or what not.. and most of them shrug it off like "nah im cool", yet they like cars and racing.. Maybe its an american thing, but man i love F1, soo much behind the pitwall stuff going on even off the track *like politics, drama etc* and then the race track action. Yet alot of guys I know will say they like closed-door racing *like gt cars etc*, like my friend saying he watched the American Le Mans race but he wont watch F1. Im thinking i bet he cant even name a driver in that series.

I grew up in the 90s watching Indy racing, then became a teen and no time to watch it, but just hte past few years i started following and falling in love with F1.. its the only racing series i watch, so the transition to accepting open wheel racers is easy. And besides, F1 is like the top of the line racing, nothing better. The drivers become world-known celebrities.

And its not hard to follow F1, I mean to start out, just catch a race, and try to pick a favorite driver to root and cheer on, then from there you get pulled in.

[myownalias]

I don't want to offend any Americans but I believe that Americans (in general) are resistant to change, Americans tend to be very insular and like to stick with what they know, e.g. NASCAR, INDYCAR etc. In Europe you wouldn't have such an issue as F1 is huge in Europe but Bernie insists on having more races in the middle and far east, go figure.

[hypertek]

maybe its broadcasting? people dont see it as a serious contender in entertainment, but rather a luxurious option on the side. I mean its broadcast on a premium subscription channel cable.

Well hopefully USF1 will get some of my friends and many more americans excited about F1. For the last 2 seasons I woke up extra early or stayed up late to catch all the races, and Id tell my friends and they would go "dam your crazy"..

I feel pretty good about watching the races, it makes a borring week at work go by faster knowing that your gonna spend your weekend watching the race.

[The Oz]

I don't want to offend any Americans but I believe that Americans (in general) are resistant to change, Americans tend to be very insular and like to stick with what they know, e.g. NASCAR, INDYCAR etc. In Europe you wouldn't have such an issue as F1 is huge in Europe but Bernie insists on having more races in the middle and far east, go figure.

Yeah. I think the americans (in general) get scared off by right hand turns mainly though

theres something just something about them (righ hand turns) I can't put my finger on

[mladen]

hypertek, I had that problem too. After a while I started thinking, used my programming skills and made an F1 online prediction game. Then I challenged my friends to see who's got the most knowledge in predicting the race outcome. Since then, we all watch F1 just to "compete" against each other and it makes it fun to watch. Sometimes we even watch together, it's fun. You have to be a cunning little bar steward these days just to watch F1 with friends

[8-ball]

F1 itself hasn't helped attract new fans of the sport. While the past two season have had exciting finishes too many races during that season were pretty stale. It took the intervention of the weather to make races exciting or some crash that messed up pit strategies.

Every race has a part of it where the leader is 7+ seconds ahead of everyone and the elongated procession behind him cannot overtake if they catch up thanks to Herman Tilke and friends. Add to it that drivers are devoid of a personality to make you really care about them and that is why F1 cannot attract many new viewers.

[Jabberwocky]

I have had the same sort of conversations in the past most of them ended with:-

"that is not racing, you want good racing do 120 through the forests" when I was growing up in Wales.
"Same old thing every week, Schumacher winning" that is not exactly what was said but I did not want to annoy the Germans or Italians that use the site.

this year I tried a concerted effort as we are all engineers I went in enthused about KERS and how the engineer will make a lot of difference. anyway all I get now when I say lets all watch F1 is "No Button wins every time"

so I guess the long and the short of it is, you can take a horse to water but you can not make it drink

[EwanM]

Drug your friends and make them watch it. Plus an episode of Barney the Dinosaur afterwards, if they complain.

[7UpJordan]

I have had the same sort of conversations in the past most of them ended with:-

"that is not racing, you want good racing do 120 through the forests" when I was growing up in Wales.
"Same old thing every week, Schumacher winning" that is not exactly what was said but I did not want to annoy the Germans or Italians that use the site.

That's exactly what people who don't like F1 will say, "go do some laps of the M25"/"I could beat them all in my Fiesta (chavved up or not)" etc etc etc etc.

[EwanM]

Sometimes its just not worth getting peopleinto a sport. Keep it a niche

[Jabberwocky]

just to add to the point, about not being worth some people getting into the sport.

the end of 08 I was in a pub and some Neanderthal almost neo nazi thugs who had just got into the sport because "the english" had won the championship where arguing about KERS and how it worked. it was a thing of beauty because I think they had trouble spelling F1 nevermind how kers worked

[EwanM]

just to add to the point, about not being worth some people getting into the sport.

the end of 08 I was in a pub and some Neanderthal almost neo nazi thugs who had just got into the sport because "the english" had won the championship where arguing about KERS and how it worked. it was a thing of beauty because I think they had trouble spelling F1 nevermind how kers worked

Precisely

[7UpJordan]

the end of 08 I was in a pub and some Neanderthal almost neo nazi thugs who had just got into the sport because "the english" had won the championship where arguing about KERS and how it worked. it was a thing of beauty because I think they had trouble spelling F1 nevermind how kers worked

Sounds a lot like some of the drunkards in Brawn/McLaren caps seen at Silverstone. Every other week they're probably having fisticuffs with rival football firms.

[Gaz]

I have had the same sort of conversations in the past most of them ended with:-

"that is not racing, you want good racing do 120 through the forests" when I was growing up in Wales.
"Same old thing every week, Schumacher winning" that is not exactly what was said but I did not want to annoy the Germans or Italians that use the site.

That's exactly what people who don't like F1 will say, "go do some laps of the M25"/"I could beat them all in my Fiesta (chavved up or not)" etc etc etc etc.

yeh i get the same thing none of my mates are intrested in F1 really its impossible to get them to watch a race on tv let alone convince them to come to a grand prix (which means spending £250+).

Few people at work have a casual intrest but thats mainly because of Lewis and Button doing well.

[EwanM]

the end of 08 I was in a pub and some Neanderthal almost neo nazi thugs who had just got into the sport because "the english" had won the championship where arguing about KERS and how it worked. it was a thing of beauty because I think they had trouble spelling F1 nevermind how kers worked

Sounds a lot like some of the drunkards in Brawn/McLaren caps seen at Silverstone. Every other week they're probably having fisticuffs with rival football firms.

That was just endless