Mercedes Toto Wolff says he argued with Bernie Ecclestone over Formula 1’s stance on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The Austrian revealed that during a meeting he and the 83-year-old had a heated discussion about online media, with Wolff adamant that F1 needs to engage with fans through various social media channels.
Ecclestone however has long been against the idea, citing the inability to monetise content as a reason to avoid such websites.
“I had quite a long row [about it] with Bernie in a meeting,” Wolff explained.
“We were talking each other down again and saying, we have lost 30 per cent of TV audience in Italy and we have lost some of the audience in Germany.
“Then you wonder why the audience is not growing and is diminishing if you sell the rights from free TV to pay TV. That is completely normal.
“But the other thing I mentioned was that we are having such an explosive growth in online activities – before Bernie said, ‘those guys are not paying and half our profit is TV.'”
Wolff insists there are other benefits to social media than just making money, as not only would it draw more fans, it would also help sponsors to justify spending huge sums of money.
“Sure the model does not work yet as you cannot monetise it, but I can tell each of my sponsors that the audience seeing his logo is growing even though TV figures are down.
“Even the big players like Twitter have not worked out how to monetise it, but it is just a matter of time before we do that.”
