IndyCar star Pato O’Ward believes the series is under-selling itself and needs a more aggressive approach to win over new fans.
While Formula 1 has enjoyed a boom in popularity in the USA in recent years, America’s leading single-seater continues to see only modest growth. O’Ward says the quality of racing in the championship is excellent, but it cannot rely on that alone to draw new viewers in when there is so much competition for attention.
“The way that things grow nowadays is completely different to what it was 30 years ago,” said O’Ward this month. “I wasn’t alive 30 years ago, but I have heard a lot from my grandparents, my parents, I have seen what it’s like just what 10 years have done and has shifted in the markets of a lot of products and a lot of different things.
“Having a good product, yes, that is important. But ultimately what you need is you want people to be present. You want people to be a part of something that’s just not race cars going around.
“I think we as a series are a perfect example of that because the racing is unbelievable, the racing is so good, but there is something missing that we have yet quite to crack.”
Formula 1’s Netflix series Drive to Survive has been credited with bringing new viewers to the series, especially in the US. It has built on that growth by adding heavily-promoted new races in two major cities, Miami and Las Vegas, bringing the total number of grands prix in the USA up to three.
However F1 has also made some changes which have proved divisive among fans, such as introducing sprint races at some events.
O’Ward says IndyCar cannot simply copy the examples of other championships and expect to succeed, but it needs to look at what they have done.
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“There’s a lot of examples that are going around in motorsports that have shown growth,” he said. “It’s basically not a plug-and-play because every series is different. But you see how other series grow and I think the most simple way would be to see what is working for them, what is causing that to happen.”
He also believed IndyCar needs to be much more ambitious about its growth targets. “We have the potential to be [multiplying by] two or three, not growing five or 10% a year like we are. We’re selling ourselves short by just wanting to grow incrementally like that.
“I think we really have the potential to see massive gains. But just like in a lot of things, you obviously…
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