TV Viewership: F1 Vs Moto GP

v10

I was recently reading an article written by ITV's Martin Brundle and while defending the lack of overtaking in F1 he quoted viewership figures of 300,000 for the Moto GP compared to 5 million for F1 in the UK.

WOW .. I'm a big F1 fan but couldn't believe the difference there.

He was saying basically that if people just wanted overtaking they'd all be watching the GP and clearly they're not. Good point I thought. :cool:

Dempsey

I'd rather see F1 cars overtaking than bikes but I havent watched either this season because I havent the time at the moment

dor83

I think those figures might be a bit misleading, they usualy take them from a few yaers ago so that would have been when F1 was more popular and MotoGP was less. Im a big F1 fan but I watch both, and I think that MotoGp is becoming more exciting than F1.

FIRE

What i'd like to see is the GP bikes overtaking the F1 cars.

Now THAT i'd watch.

I used to like F1 but then Sch........ Now I only watch the Moto GP much better for excitement. IMO.

steviec

People want to see overtaking, but they want to see exciting overtaking. If a track is massive and wide(eg. ovals) or the vehicles are tiny and narrow(eg. bikes) then overtaking is going to be easier therefore it doesn't seem like as big a deal when it happens.

Take Imola yesterday, that was a fantastic race, and Schumacher overtaking Button was a great moment, not because it's somehow visually entertaining to see one vehicle move past another vehicle(go out and sit next to a motorway if you think that), but because you appreciate how difficult and important the manouvre is.

Zynks

Steviec, you obviously did not watch a good MotoGP race. The overtaking can be breath taking because the width of the track is not so relevant as the line taken. I never forget seeing Randy Mamola passing someone else at the exit of a curve at about 100 MPH with his rear tyre skidding and the front in the air... F1 will never match this level of excitment and technical demand on drivers.

causal

There's a helluva lot more money in F1 and the marketing budget is massive - that might account for some of the viewership.
Also F1 has Jensen Button; but in MotoGp they have Shakey Byrne (maybe not for long); and er, one other guy - both are nowhere. The Brits tend only to be interested in their own boy, or they'll try and adopt an Irish one (a la Irvine :rolleyes: )

I watched F1 for years, and watched MotoGP (before it was MotoGP) - in the eras of Lawson, Doohan, Rainey, Gardiner, Schwantz etc.

This year I've stopped watching F1 and only watch MotoGP (given up on WSB & BSB because the tv coverage is crap). I managed to see John Reynolds and Yukio Kagayama at a track day in Mondello in 2003; masterful skill, really impressive.

Anyway, I think the 'Rossi vs Gibernau' duel still has a lot to play this season. Good to see Biaggi improve, but he (and HCR) can stfu about Rossi not being the best and that it was because of the rc211v that Rossi was winning; maybe he can rename himself 'Min Biaggi'

causal