Martin Whitmarsh – part 2: “‘Less is more’ is no longer acceptable….”
In Part 2 of my interview with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team Principal, Martin Whitmarsh, we talk about F1’s global TV profile and about the old F1 catchphrase that has worked for so many years: “Less is more”. Does that still apply in 2012 and beyond?
peterwindsor.com 
martin is over-egging the online aspect of races to try and make up for the lack of viewers. there were maybe 2 or 3 races this year that i even looked at live timing when the race got a bit stale, the rest of the time i was glued to the screen for fear of missing any action.
isn’t 600m viewers the accumulative total for the season? with sky dropping maybe 5m viewers per race compared to the current bbc figures that 50m over a season. the sponsors can’t be happy with an almost 10% drop
I think Martin’s just being realistic. As James Allen said on The Flying Lap this week, F1 leaves a lot on the table. Yes, the 600m figure is of course cumulative. The biggest F1 TV watchers (by quite a big margin) are Germany, Italy and Spain. Brazil, the UK and India are in the next tier.
Excellent interview. Whitmarsh hit the nail on the head I think. How to engage the younger viewer/fan who isn’t inclined to be glued in front of a television for hours on end.
This of course is what every sport, sponsor, and business in the world is trying to solve.