Formula One Losing Popularity in Germany Amid Verstappen's Dominance

Thursday, 30 November 2023 at 20:00

Recent findings show some people lose interest in Formula One which might be a result of Max Verstappen's utter dominance.

Formula One has increased in popularity immensely during the last couple of seasons. There are a number of reasons, but the main ones are the Netflix series "Driver To Survive" and the expansion to the American market.

F1 gained a lot of attention, mainly in the 2021 season, during which the sport witnessed one of the closest fights for the Drivers' Championship in its history, which would be decided on the final lap of the season's final race.

However, ever since the 2022 season, there has been no competition for first place in the Championship as Max Verstappen and Red Bull started dominating the sport.

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Verstappen won the 2022 season by 146 points ahead of Charles Leclerc in second place, and nobody thought the Dutchman could improve on that result, but in 2023, he won by 290 points.

The three-time World Champion even broke the record for the largest point gap between the first and the second driver in the World Championship.

On the other hand, not every F1 fan can appreciate the perfection and consistency of Max Verstappen with Red Bull. According to gpblog.com, the German version of Sky Sports lost a lot of viewers:

"The paid television channel has lost about 20 percent reach. This season, an average of 782,000 people watched each race, compared to 980,000 last year."

Verstappen has been marked as the biggest risk to the business of Formula One recently. However, the decline in German viewers might not have anything to do with Verstappen.

Germany is a country of World Champions like Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. But the problem is, they have only one F1 driver on the grid currently, and that is Nico Hulkenberg.

While Hulkenberg is a driver of great skill and talent, he is driving for the Haas F1 team, which struggles with performance and can't really compete for points. That makes it hard for any fans as there is not much to root for.

Mexican fans love Formula One because they have Sergio Perez in Red Bull, and Dutch fans love Formula One because they have Max Verstappen. Could the only issue be that Germany misses drivers competing for the Championship, or are we seeing the "Verstappen effect"?