Formula 1 is hoping to become more online friendly next season with the launch of a new YouTube channel as well as other improvements in the world of social media.
But race fans shouldn’t get too excited just yet. Bernie Ecclestone has already confirmed that it won’t show race footage…at least not for a while.
The 84-year-old has long dismissed social media as “useless”, but it hasn’t stopped the sport forming a team of eight to explore potential uses which has already seen massive improvements to F1’s Twitter feed.
Before 2013, the @F1 account only posted links to its own online content, but throughout 2014 it expanded that to race data, statistics and even race images.
The official mobile app now includes exclusive video content from behind the scenes, and it’s this content that is likely to be shared on the new YouTube channel.
“What we currently have on the app in terms of video content is the behind the scenes stuff so the interviews in the drivers’ pen, that kind of extra content,” confirmed Marissa Pace, F1’s digital media manager.
Alongside YouTube, they hope to launch a Facebook page as well as redesigning the official website and expanding the mobile app to give fans a greater online experience.
However the failure to include even race highlights will leave the majority of fans unhappy with the offering. Showing race content online is something Ecclestone is keen to stop from happening as, according to him, it doesn’t make FOM any money.
“If it works, the whole point about this I believe, is to encourage people to watch television,” explained Ecclestone. “I’m not sure, and I have always thought ‘does it actually do that’ and I don’t know. So probably in a year’s time I shall be looking for figures to see what has happened.”
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