Why new media is not trending in F1

By:

Dieter Rencken

Mar 1, 2012, 11:57 AM

With Brad Keselowski's on-board NASCAR tweeting trending on Twitter, Dieter Rencken asks if F1 is doing all it can to embrace the growing new media boom and looks at the positives and negatives of FOM's new deal with Indian conglomerate Tata

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No single event staged over the last ten years better illustrates the enormous disconnect existing between Formula 1 and new media than does Monday's (night) Daytona 500, postponed by around 30 hours from Sunday due to inclement weather.

While NASCAR regularly comes in for stick from the F1 fraternity on the basis that stock car drivers don't race in rain (conveniently overlooking the fact that last June around 100,000 Canadians thought that of F1 pilots), that its technology is antiquated, running until this year on carburettors, (conveniently overlooking the fact that F1's V8s are rooted in the last century, well beyond current NASCAR stock blockers) and that full yellows and course cars are deployed to 'spice the show' (!), there is no doubt NASCAR does an awful lot right when it comes to wooing (and, crucially, retaining) its fan base.