An Age Question

[Casper]

i often see and have said myself that F1 is dying from the roots up due to the younger generation not becoming fans. How many contributers here are under 25 years old? I do understand that forums such as this also do not have the appeal they once had before social media but I just pose the question out of interest and I have never seen it asked.

[GeorgeF1om]

quoting an official source, according to the F1 fan report that got issued in May 2017 there are about 25% of all F1 fans below 25 years and a slightly higher percentage between 25-34 years.

I enclosed the report as pdf to this post, if it doesn't come through you surely can get a free pdf of that report via google, it contains a lot of interesting stats.

[Casper]

Originally Posted by GeorgeF1om

quoting an official source, according to the F1 fan report that got issued in May 2017 there are about 25% of all F1 fans below 25 years and a slightly higher percentage between 25-34 years.

I enclosed the report as pdf to this post, if it doesn't come through you surely can get a free pdf of that report via google, it contains a lot of interesting stats.

Thanks but my interest is for contributers to this forum, official sources can and do in some cases write anything they like.

[AdrianM]

Originally Posted by Casper

Thanks but my interest is for contributers to this forum, official sources can and do in some cases write anything they like.

A forum like this is very unlikely to attract people in that age group so any stats you derive will probably be more skewed than those from official sources.

The list of birthdays at the bottom of the forum is a good pointer. It's rare to see any under 25.

[sizzle]

Officially decrepit

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by sizzle

Officially decrepit

Yep, rapidly accepting membership of the same group........

[Casper]

I watched a video of a motor race that took place in the 1970's recently at a circuit I spent a lot of time at both as a spectator and as a competitor at club level driving my road car. The place was packed to the rafters with mostly people that were "younger" and certainly in numbers that would never be seen today either in age or numbers. Where are those people now? One of them is writing this post, a lot of them no longer walk this earth and the replacement younger people are not seen to be happening.

I think motor sport has to face a certain fact, it is destined to be a very niche sport in years to come and only became as popular as what it was by chance after the second world war. The generation of people who made it that way is rapidly dwindling and the one they influenced such as their children are at middle age or thereabouts. It is a conundrum I have been thinking about more and more, will the digital age and the streaming media be the saviour or are those promoting that avenue beating a dead horse?

[crmalcolm]

Given that the F1 forum has been referred to as the 'retirement home, populated by grumpy old men' recently - I'd hazard a guess that not many are under 25.

In seriousness, I expect there are very few under 25s, compared to the majority of regular posters here. As stated in the OP, this style of forum is not the go to destination for those under 25, and you'll probably find people migrate here later in their enthusiasm for motorsport.

[littleman]

Judging by the historical knowledge on this forum, I'd say precious few contributors are 25yrs old, or younger.

With F1 about to go behind a pay-wall, I think it's inevitable the numbers will reduce even further.

[Casper]

Pretty much what I expected but it shows that if there was a substantial under 25 base then they would have some presence here even in a low traffic site like this. I can't help but think that the average age is quite high and rising all the time and it does not bode well for motor sport in general and F1 in particular.

[chillibowl]

interesting question. wonder if this is something the site admins look at. age of users, which subforums they use, how much time do they spend in each subforum etc type analytics. if this is info they feel is ok to share i would be interested in looking at it but then again i am also interested in talking about this without any facts...well because facts often get in the way of a good conversation!

for me this is the only F1 forum i post on because the knowledge level of the other users is such that its a lot easier to have more nuanced conversation...again for me, part of that stems from the usernames being featured more prominently so it feels more like a conversation among friends/people that i know. posting in social media places has too much of an anonymity aspect to it that puts me off if that makes sense.

but i do also check out those types of sites. the Reddit F1 subreddit for example is very heavily followed and with a great variety of topics/threads but at the same time its much harder to follow the conversion. too many people all talking across one another (which i dont like so i guess that makes me old as well).

that said, that site is extremely popular and seems to have a younger skewing (or more new to the sport users) user base. anecdotal but i say that because topics tend to focus on things people have seen on other social media platforms and dont tend to have the same historical knowledge in the comments....so for me its more of a quick resource to see whats being posted on twitter/instagram.

also i think this site rewards people who have been watching for longer much more then the more anonymous social media driven sites do...i suspect that it can be quite daunting for young or new fan coming here for the first time.

anyways, im also of the belief that most if not all long established sports are struggling to find/attract young viewers. from what i read attendance and viewership is down across the board which is no doubt a function of more choice, increasing costs, and even the burden of history. i dont think this is unique to F1 at all.

[AdrianM]

Originally Posted by Casper

Pretty much what I expected but it shows that if there was a substantial under 25 base then they would have some presence here even in a low traffic site like this. I can't help but think that the average age is quite high and rising all the time and it does not bode well for motor sport in general and F1 in particular.

Look on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc etc and I bet you'll find the average age drops as you go down that list.

There are two different questions really that you need more stats to get a clear answer on. Whether the age is related to the platform or the sport.

[Skam85]

Feeling older every day (not rocket science to guess my age from my username ), but really got into F1 at age 17, with a half interest in my younger years thanks to my older brother.

[bella]

now we've established we're all 300 years old at least , how about we take the lead from skam85's comment...

what age we joined the forum? how old were you when you were peak f1 obsessed?

[Casper]

I have never been what I would call obsessed about F1 but I have always been interested enough to want to follow it even in the days when I had to pay a substantial amount of money such as buying magazines to do so. These days if you are invested in the internet you can follow it without further expenditure which everyone thinks is a god given right but the time is coming or has arrived for some where they have to spend money to watch it and the peasants are revolting or so they say. Whether the revolt is in the same numbers as the keyboard heroes would have us believe, well that is another thing altogether.

I joined this forum when I was over 60 years old because the internet basically did not exist for me before then in the way it does now. If it had been around when I was younger then I would have been a part of it. In some ways the question is unintentionally loaded because the internet simply did not exist when we were younger. Ask me when I first started being involved with computers it was in 1969, way before 99% of the world even had heard of them and I have been involved one way or another for most of my working life.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by bella

now we've established we're all 300 years old at least , how about we take the lead from skam85's comment...

what age we joined the forum? how old were you when you were peak f1 obsessed?

Just approaching 61.

I was 44 when I joined Tenths.

Peak F1? 1985-1994. But I wish I could have watched it in the 60's.....

[Mike Harte]

I'm fast approaching 72 - too bloody fast for my liking!

I haven't really had a peak period. I started following F1 at the same time that I became interested in motorsport in general back in the 60s, and that passion remained right up to the Schumacher years at Ferrari. It was at that point that it started to become a bit boring wondering how early in the season that he would win yet another WDC.

My passion re-ignited when he retired for the first time, although nowhere near the intensity of the earlier years. Then, when BCE did the deal with Sky and allowing the BBC out of their contract, I took umbrage because he had made a public commitment, more than once, that F1 qualifying and the races, would always be broadcast on FTA in the UK as long as he was alive and in control of the broadcasting rights.

You might say that I cut my nose off to spite my face, but having not watched any F1 since that very moment, hand on heart, I cannot say that I have actually missed it. I still sort of follow what is going on, but it is certainly not the centre of my attention.

[Greem]

I'm 47, joined in 2009 (so I'm relatively young in forum terms compared to some!).

I suppose I hit peak F1 in my mid 20s thru mid 30s when I religiously watched every qualifying session and race live & read Autosport and F1 Magazine from cover to cover. I also used to watch the BTCC, the V8s when I could (when they were on something I could receive) and Indy, Le Mans and some other random bits. Notably - all on telly.

Then I got married, had kids, and started marshalling. The latter was really the death knell for 'peak' F1 as I then got far more into club, endurance and international series but didn't really have the time to watch much of it live!

[littleman]

I'm a "Young" 60 something, lived within spitting distance of Silverstone Circuit most of my life and been a motorsport fan for as long as I can remember.

Attended every British GP from 1965 to 2005, every Le Mans from 1980 to 1995 and just about every race meeting at my local track.Over the past 40 years I've probably been to spectate at every iconic race circuit in the World.....yes,I've done Macau.......

Biggest change I've witnessed over the decades?......money, lots and lots of money......ridiculous amounts of money.

There was a time when the vast majority of race cars, even at International level, arrived in the paddock on a trailer towed by a car or van. The driver and a few mates made up the "Team". Even the majority of F3,F2,GT and Saloon cars rocked up in this fashion. I used to offer them my services for free doing a bit of spannering,signalling,making the tea.....pretty much anything.......and I loved it!

What's a European F3 budget today..........£750k for a season?.....madness.

So, in summary, as the sport has become more complex, sophisticated and expensive the less accessible it's become, both for spectator and potential participant alike. Don't even get me started on today's breed of modern circuits! Once you've watched the original F2 cars racing at the late, lamented Rouen-Les-Essarts track, nothing compares.


Even watching it on TV won't be free or cheap anymore....no wonder older enthusiasts are leaving in droves and the younger generation aren't "captured" by it like I was.

[NSX_LeMans]

I'm not 25, but I'm getting there.

[Red]

I was 34 when I joined 1010ths... Or so, my memory doesn't serve me as it once did...

[VIVA GT]

I’m approaching 62 and as a little boy, was obsessed with cars (and all things mechanical) which led to my interest in motorsports of all kinds. I would watch anything motoring related on TV (which meant many bizarre things on BBC Grandstand!) and attended many race meetings at my most local circuit Mallory Park, especially once I had powered transport. I went to every British GP from 1978 to 1986, camping on site from about Wednesday onwards and I suppose this would have been when my interest in F1 was at its peak.
With my mates we would travel all over the UK at weekends to watch rallies, including many years following ‘The RAC’ sleeping in the car in the evenings.
Saloon type Car racing was always my main passion, so again I travelled all over to see events involving this type of action, plus I’ve been to Le Mans at least 15 – 20 times. I even tried the sport from the other side of the Armco by racing a Mini Se7en a bit in the early 80’s. In 1987 I started working for a BTCC team so my visits to the British GP continued up to the end of the Group A period, plus since then, I have been lucky enough to visit numerous race circuits in various parts of the world, for Grand Prix and other things.
Nowadays I try to watch every GP & qualifying session on TV (family commitments allowing) but as far as visiting races live go, it’s only the past couple of years when I’ve been kindly invited as a guest that I’ve been to the BTCC meetings at Donington.
We do appear to be a dying breed, I don’t know of any people in their 20’s & 30’s who dedicates the time/commitment to spectating that we did at that age, but that is maybe a sign of the times?
Oh, and I joined 10/10ths in April 2005 at the ripe old age of 49, at the time, purely to find out more about the death of my old saloon car racing hero Gerry Marshall, which also explains my choice of sign-on name.

[S griffin]

I joined this site aged 22. Then again with my parents being motorsport fans, it was easy for me to be one too

[Adam43]

Those were the days Red

[NaBUru38]

I joined the forum while I was in the university. Some say I still look 25.