Sports Journalism: Assessment 5
Imagine, for a moment, a vast space jam-packed with fans and members of the travelling Formula 1 circus. A new collection of cars hide mysteriously under covers, primed and ready to be launched. It’s that time of year again and the sport is doing things differently, putting on a show dedicated to unveiling every car of its new era.
Sounds like an exciting prospect, right? Sadly, we’re currently more used to underwhelming social media or pit lane unveilings – often at ridiculous times in the morning. Ferrari’s offering in 2017 was a short video of drivers and key team members standing next to the shiny new SF70H. McLaren’s MCL32 launch was as corporate as they get and Red Bull dropped a minute-long video online, which only revealed the striking RB13 in the final seconds. Hardly the best way to promote a season packed full of new rules.
We can complain about them all we want, but there’s a lot of sense in the launches we see today. Cost is clearly a crucial factor. 15 years ago, F1 budgets were shooting through the roof and reaching ridiculous rates. Lavish car unveilings in snazzy locations such as Venice’s St. Mark’s Square were the norm, with musical guests often showing up too – the Spice Girls livened up McLaren’s MP4/12 launch in 1997. But, in the modern F1 environment, this just isn’t possible. Budgets have decreased and car reveals just don’t make the cut. Lazy social media launches and pit lane reveals before winter testing are simple and inexpensive.
Social media presentations spark plenty of engagement and can accelerate the buzz around a new car. It’s dirt cheap, but also allows teams to get content out there and to the eager audiences quickly. Fans go crazy for pictures and videos on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Like, really crazy. Retweets, comments and likes are flying everywhere when a new car is dropped online. They provide an enormous amount of exposure for everyone involved – surely it’s a win-win?
Well, not quite. Because while launching a car online or in the pit lane is cheap, convenient and speedy, it’s the fans that really suffer. Some teams opted for their own launch events this year, but they were ridiculously boring and inaccessible for fans. No F1 admirer wants to suffer through 15 minutes of live-streamed sponsor drivel before the covers come off. It’s the first-time people are seeing these mean-looking machines, so why not make it memorable? We want to see some personality and drama, like the golden age of F1 car launches. Much more can be done.
One potential idea could be to turn F1 car launches into a festival ahead of winter testing. It’d take place at the track or nearby, with each team having a specific time to do their launch. This would cut the dull sponsor chatter and allow teams to be creative, possibly including fan Q&A segments, and turn the hype up to maximum. Dieter Rencken said in a recent Autosport column people in Barcelona – where testing took place – didn’t even know F1 was back. They certainly would if a glitzy F1 show rolled into town.
But putting on an event doesn’t mean neglecting social media and sponsors. They could still be included and fit into the whole show, but there would also be an event for fans to flock to and see the latest F1 beasts be unleashed. Combining all these elements together would provide more exposure for sponsors, without the need for long-winded and tedious interviews about upgraded fuel or shared brand goals. Few people really care. They just want to see the car.
There are a couple of potential issues. It would no doubt increase costs for teams (although F1 could pay up and fund it) and isn’t quite as convenient as rolling out the car and taking the covers off in the pit lane. A pre-season F1 show would require a large venue to accommodate 10 car reveals and some extra activities to keep fans entertained. That might not be possible. Of course, technical problems could ruin schedules and doing something different is a risk – what if no one comes? Testing doesn’t draw in huge crowds, but could a launch event? It’s a gigantic unknown.
Spicing up the F1 car launch season is an interesting debate. There’s clearly huge potential. F1 has long been criticised for its lack of fan engagement and corporate, exclusive outlook. But, with new owners coming into force, change could be on the horizon. There’s already talk of turning race weekends into proper festivals. Introducing a pre-season event – just look at how big the Geneva Motor Show has become – could be just what F1 needs to bring the fans closer to the new cars and generate even more hype ahead of the new season.
Jack Leslie 