Ferrari insist popularity "high" despite F1 survey result

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has insisted he is far from concerned by the result of a recent F1 fan survey that highlighted the Scuderia's drop in popularity.

The survey revealed that not only is Lewis Hamilton no longer the most popular driver in the sport, but Ferrari had also lost its crown as the most popular team.

Four years ago when the last survey was conducted, Ferrari recorded a 32 per cent global preference, but that has now dropped to 18 per cent, with the team third behind McLaren and Red Bull.

Despite the findings, Binotto said: "First, we are focused on performance. That should be the priority but I think popularity as well is important..

"I heard about the result of the survey. I have to say if I do my own survey and look at the grandstands in Austin, there is still a lot of red so I am pretty sure that our popularity around the world is still very high.”

It was not all bad news for Ferrari, however, with the Scuderia still ranked at number one in France, Spain, Turkey and, naturally, Italy.

Mercedes has suffered a similar drop in popularity, slipping from second to fourth after receiving only 11.9 per cent of votes cast.

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