F1 owners admit facing Max Verstappen 'CHALLENGE'

Max Verstappen after his win in Hungary — Photo: © LAT Images

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F1 owners admit facing Verstappen 'CHALLENGE'

Liberty Media CEO admits Verstappen's current dominance is a 'challenge' to F1's popularity

Luis Raya

Sunday 10 September 2023 12:57

Formula 1 boss Greg Maffei has expressed concern over Max Verstappen's current dominance, admitting it is a 'challenge' in terms of maintaining audience growth and fan interest.

The 25-year-old Dutchman is on track for his third consecutive championship in the most dominant fashion possible. In Monza, Verstappen secured his 10th consecutive victory, breaking Sebastian Vettel's record set in 2013. Sergio Perez's two wins early in the season mean that Red Bull is the only winning team this year so far.

With a 145-point lead over Perez and eight more rounds to go, the biggest question isn't whether anyone can catch up to him, but when he will be crowned world champion. Despite Red Bull's overwhelming dominance in 2023, the midfield is quite competitive, with numerous teams fighting to be the second fastest.

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"The midfield is quite interesting, and we can show statistically there's more overtaking than has ever occurred. The challenge obviously is Max Verstappen is having an unbelievable year, or record-setting year," Maffei said at an event hosted by investment company Goldman Sachs, as quoted by Autosport.com.

"The reality is, we have a very attractive competitive product, other than the fact that Max is that fast. Short of breaking his leg, a la Tonya Harding, I'm not sure what we can do about that!" joked the American businessman.

"But he's a phenom. He's driving what seems to be the fastest car and he's driving it very well," he added. "If you look at the lines he's taking, how aggressive those lines are, but how well he's able to navigate them. It is truly stunning. And you can see statistically why he is faster than anybody else."

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Maffei believes that in order to measure the overall interest in F1, one must look at the bigger picture and not just focus on TV viewing figures, as they do not reflect the complexity or the entirety of fans' commitment to the category.

"I think you need to look at overall interest in the sport," he said. "Viewership is a little tough. We've had many successes this year, I think three of the top four races here in the United States were all this year in terms of viewership, and our average viewership is up year over year.

"But nonetheless, there can be a specific circumstance, like last year Miami was standing alone, this year was up against a Miami Heat game in the [NBA] playoffs. Those particular circumstances can drive viewership of a race."

Similarly, Maffei pointed out that F1 has been experiencing significant growth on social media in recent years, a sign of the excellent health the category is currently enjoying. The reality is that since the arrival of Liberty Media, the popularity of F1 worldwide has continued to rise.

"If you take the totality of interest as measured by growth, not only in linear TV, but how much we've grown Instagram, YouTube views, TikTok views, the amount of interest in the sport has only catapulted greater, much greater than double digits. So I'm convinced our demand is very high," he concluded.