Steve Matchett made a comment during the race that someone had done a survey and it turns out that McLaren is the most popular F1 team. Does anyone know details? I thought he said it was ING that did the survey? I would be curious what they mean by "most popular", who the group was that was surveyed, and what the purpose of the survey was, because it's the first time I've ever seen anyone claim anything factual in terms of who the most popular/important/contributing to viewship teams are.
Taken from http://www.helium.com/items/812484-the-most-popular-formula-1-racing-teams Its probably meant in the context of the UK only. Force India is probably the most popular in terms of physical fans due to India not really being represented on a world stage of sporting outside of Cricket. But hey, thats not really newsworthy is it. Hamilton wont be mentioned in the article....
I find that hard to believe in light of the vast multitudes of Ferrari flags and regalia displayed by usually over half of the fans on display at each circuit whenever the cameras are turned on the crowd. The sea of Ferrari red is hard to miss... The tifosi turn out in droves for every GP. I question where Matchett is getting his info. His own eyes should tell him the truth of the situation. As the old saying goes anyone can say anything, but if you really want to see where a person's heart lies, see where they spend their money... McLaren is a great team and is one of the greatest teams of all time. A truly great adversary. However, they will never become the legend that is Ferrari... Frank
That's not the article he was referring to, I don't think. Matchett said that someone had done a survey of the most popular F1 team - the article you linked to is just an opinion piece. Also, I don't agree on the Force India thing... people don't care about racing in India, so why would FI be the most popular team overall? I'd even wager there are more Ferrari fans in Italy (in terms of absolute numbers, not percentages) than there are Force India fans in India.
I'd believe a properly conducted survey over an opinion anyday. Yes, there is a lot of red at the track... and trackside vendors sell probably 90% Ferrari branded apparrel. The gray market (non-authorized) merchandise is always red, and looks very close to Ferrari branded stuff except it will have a crest or something on it instead of the Ferrari logo. When I was at Monza last year, there were a lot lot lot of people who were wearing Ferrari shirts and hats and were cheering for other teams. It seemed to me to be more about country of residence than anything. There was a huge crowd of Finns cheering for Kimi, a bunch of Poles were going nuts for Kubica, and there were tons of British fans cheering Lewis.
Ok i stand corrected, due to what im about to post right below this This survey was taken from "F1 Racing" magazine it seems. So i guess the Geographic is the countries of circulation of that magazine. Most Popular Team - McLaren, 29%; Least Popular - Force India, 0% (That’s less than even Super Aguri who scored 1% along with Toyota) Most Popular Driver - Lewis Hamilton, 27%; Least Favourite - Jarno Trulli, 0.1%! Fans want to see more on TV - Interviews with drivers (86%) and team engineers (69%) and also more pit-to-car radio (60%). They don’t want interviews with celebrities (5%) The future of F1 for fans - They want F1 to continue at classic venues (90%), more emphasis on driver skills (88%) and it must be more affordable to attend the races (88%). They don’t want refuelling banned (18%) or reverse grids (17%) What’s important in F1 - Quite obvious really, it’s the overtaking (74%), with the best drivers second (63%) and informative and engaging commentary third (59%). Not concerned about the glamour though (15%). Technology in F1 - What matters the most here for fans is the want to see new tech innovations every year (74%) and to reverse their judgement of KERS until next season (64%). Although, to quote from the magazine, “…while 8 out of 10 fans claim to have a strong knowledge of the sport’s technical aspects, seven percent said they didn’t know what KERS was (!).”
Indeed. I think everyone knows that Ferrari has, by far, the best and most passionate fans of any team.
