FOTA urges fans to participate in survey

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http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81204

autosport.com
Formula 1 fans have been urged to let the sport's leading figures know exactly what they think of grand prix racing, and how it can be improved, in the biggest ever survey.

The Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) has teamed up with electronics company LG and AUTOSPORT's sister publication F1 Racing to conduct the most in-depth research into how the sport can be made better.

The survey went live on Tuesday and can be accessed at: www.lgf1racingfansurvey.com

Available in 16 languages, fans will be asked for their opinion on favourite drivers, venues, how the sport's promotion can be improved, insight into how they follow the sport and what improvements they would like to see to improve the spectacle.

The results of the survey will be taken on board by FOTA and used as a blueprint for making F1 better in the future.

Andrew Barrett, the VP of Global Sponsorship for LG, said: "LG is delighted to be working with F1 Racing and FOTA to hear from F1 fans around the world.

"In everything LG does we place consumer insight at the heart of it, and we welcome the opportunity to learn more about what F1 fans want from their sport and sharing those views with people that help shape the sport."

As well as contributing opinion that could help make F1 better, everyone who completes a survey will have the chance to win £1000 worth of LG goodies.

So, basically similar to the ING one a few years ago, which seemed to be used as some kind of evidence by FOTA, so its definitely worth filling it in. 👍
www.lgf1racingfansurvey.com
 
So, I put in my age, location and sex and... Im done? :S


I think its a bit bad if you put your age as under 18 you don't get to take part in the rest of the survey...
 
^Really? Possibly a legal thing then, that they can't use data from people who are under 18 or something? Or just being really cautious considering the amount of different countries involved.
 
Well I put under 18 5 times and it just went to 'Thanks' page.

So due to the fact I am 18 soon I did the over 18 option and look, I can take part. A little shabby in my view..
 
I've just completed the survey now. I wonder if anyone in the world didn't answer "Strongly Agree" to the question "F1 should feature more overtaking"...
 
+1 summer

Interesting to hear what u put for the circuits questions
 
I said that the traditional circuits are more important basically, but not really for the reasons they meant.
I kind of wish they let you put some comments at the end, because I actually meant the older circuits are basically just better designed and I wouldn't mind a race in Bahrain, etc if the tracks were actually good...

But I do think tracks at Abu Dhabi and the like are not necessary, give us circuits where the fans actually live, not the sponsors. We should start bringing the massive expenses in the sports down and stop relying on such places to throw the money in.

The other thing I didn't really like the answer I put was for the "technology is important?" questions, I like F1 for its unique rules forcing everyone to make their own chassis, etc, but I don't think technology is the sole reason for existence. I'd like good racing but with technological advancement and competition..I don't want a spec-series but I don't want the F1 we had of recent times where money is all that matters.

It was about right in the mid-90s, where technology was allowed a little room but spending levels weren't too insane for the average team to be competitive. Granted, Williams and Benetton did have huge budgets but Sauber, Minardi, Jordan, Arrows, Ligier, Stewart and Tyrrell all ran on very tight budgets but managed some points and podiums for some. The key thing was they managed to survive and provide a great route for new talent or a place for experienced drivers to end their careers hoping to take a team from nothing to glory.
 
I found it really hard to pick just 5 circuits that should be included. It would have been nice to see a "North America" option instead of USA or Canada or Mexico. I picked Monaco, Britain, Italy, Brazil and then Canada... Then thought "I can't leave out Japan" So Japan instead of Canada... "But there has to be at least 1 North American race so I can pretend that I might actually go one year"... so I put USA instead of Brazil... "Wait, I forgot about Spa!!!"... So off went USA on went Belgium...

I don't remember what I ended up with.
 
I just picked the 5 countries I felt have the most historical significance and the largest motorsport following that they should always be on the calendar (and the tracks at each are normally great): Britain, France, Monaco, USA and Italy.
Although nowadays France has really declined, no star driver, a team that is hardly French, no decent circuits and a debatable interest in the sport (compared to countries I haven't mentioned).
 
+1 summer

Interesting to hear what u put for the circuits questions

I'm trying to remember... was it five you'd keep and five you aren't bothered about or something? I put Britain, Italy, Germany, Monaco and Belgium as keepers (each country with by far the most famous circuits - if I'd had a sixth option Japan would have been on the list), and Singapore, USA, Turkey, South Africa and Korea I think as ones I'm not in the slightest bothered about. USA was a tricky one but they need to find the right circuit, and none of the genuinely brilliant American tracks are probably up to F1 standards for safety etc. Plus, I'm not sure really how big a following there is for F1 over there, or whether F1 gives Americans enough bang for their buck. So I'm dubious as to the USA's relevance in the series.

And I answered in favour of the questions asking along the lines of whether you'd want F1 to hold onto it's important roots in Europe.

As for the driver I follow? I thought about putting Button, or Hamilton, but in reality the only driver who interests me enough is Shumacher. I've realistically been following him for over ten years, in fact pretty much after Damon left the sport I accepted that Schumacher was the driver who interests me most.
 
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WTF! When it asks for age I selected Under 18, because I am, and it automatically ended. Clearly they are not interested in what the younger generation has to say about the future of a sport which they will witness and maybe even be a part of.

It's their loss if we stop paying attention to the sport though, and they can shove the survey where the sun doesn't shine.
 
Isn't this like the 3rd "big" survey they issued? Sport didn't really changed since then, except for the cars and tracks. Didn't even bothered to fill it in. Still a big F1 fan:).
 
WTF! When it asks for age I selected Under 18, because I am, and it automatically ended. Clearly they are not interested in what the younger generation has to say about the future of a sport which they will witness and maybe even be a part of.

It's their loss if we stop paying attention to the sport though, and they can shove the survey where the sun doesn't shine.

I'm wondering why they did that and the best conclusion I can draw was that it's related to the competition entry at the end of the survey... which is optional. I agree that it's a bit daft not allowing responses from the 18 and under age group. There's no question throughout the survey that I can see would be a problem for <18s to answer.

My suggestion would be to say you're in the 18-24 age group and complete the survey like that. You might not be eligible for the competition prize, but at least you'll be able to add your thoughts to the survey.

Was it really necessary to ask how much we knew about LG products?

Heh, I thought that too. Not a lot, was my answer. How long have LG been sponsoring F1? And do they make anything other than TVs and phones?... :sly:
 
I'm trying to remember... was it five you'd keep and five you aren't bothered about or something? I put Britain, Italy, Germany, Monaco and Belgium as keepers (each country with by far the most famous circuits - if I'd had a sixth option Japan would have been on the list), and Singapore, USA, Turkey, South Africa and Korea I think as ones I'm not in the slightest bothered about. USA was a tricky one but they need to find the right circuit, and none of the genuinely brilliant American tracks are probably up to F1 standards for safety etc. Plus, I'm not sure really how big a following there is for F1 over there, or whether F1 gives Americans enough bang for their buck. So I'm dubious as to the USA's relevance in the series.

And I answered in favour of the questions asking along the lines of whether you'd want F1 to hold onto it's important roots in Europe.

As for the driver I follow? I thought about putting Button, or Hamilton, but in reality the only driver who interests me enough is Shumacher. I've realistically been following him for over ten years, in fact pretty much after Damon left the sport I accepted that Schumacher was the driver who interests me most.

Forgot about those too, my picks for "don't care about races" were: Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Turkey and China. All of them don't have much relevance in terms of motorsport and don't appear to have much fanbase (Singapore is the best of them, they do at least appear to have some fans, at least initially). They aren't all great tracks either, though Turkey is decent, and China.

I said I followed Button the past 10 years+, which I have. Barrichello I've been following longer but not so much when he was in dominant Ferrari.

Isn't this like the 3rd "big" survey they issued? Sport didn't really changed since then, except for the cars and tracks. Didn't even bothered to fill it in. Still a big F1 fan:).

You don't lose anything by filling it in, put it that way.

I would say the sport has changed a fair bit recently. Perhaps not politically, but then it never has. The on-track action hasn't really changed either, but then there has never been a drastic change in racing in F1, the last time a rule change drastically effected racing was when they went safety crazy in 1994.
But the balance of power has shifted quite dramatically recently, no more Mosley! I'd like to think that FOTA finally gathered the confidence to demand Mosley step down thanks to the clear support from the fans, its about time we had proper stewards and so on.

It seems people are taking it for granted now, but FOTA is quite an amazing accomplisment really, they have agreed on a lot of issues so far, even if they haven't always (double diffusers), its a massive step forwards from anything previous, where we had situations like USA 2005.
 
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I'm wondering why they did that and the best conclusion I can draw was that it's related to the competition entry at the end of the survey... which is optional. I agree that it's a bit daft not allowing responses from the 18 and under age group. There's no question throughout the survey that I can see would be a problem for <18s to answer.

My suggestion would be to say you're in the 18-24 age group and complete the survey like that. You might not be eligible for the competition prize, but at least you'll be able to add your thoughts to the survey.

You'd think that but it actually skips you straight to the competition page, it seems they just don't want under 18's doing the survey.

I did however complete the survey under the 18-24 category, the majority of mine consisted of having a strong disagreement with all the environmental promotions and road safety junk, with a strong agreement towards good exciting racing. As for the five companies when I think of F1, three were cigarette manufacturers and the other two were oil companies.
 
The countries question is a bit stupid, I'm not a politician. So, my first vote went to Spa, meaning, Belgium. And my UK vote had noting to do with the country, more with the tracks you have there.
 
I did however complete the survey under the 18-24 category, the majority of mine consisted of having a strong disagreement with all the environmental promotions and road safety junk, with a strong agreement towards good exciting racing. As for the five companies when I think of F1, three were cigarette manufacturers and the other two were oil companies.

Re the environmental questions, I interpreted them as asking about the efforts F1 was making towards improving their emissions and so on, rather than whether I considered those improvements relevant or not. To that end, I seem to remember answering "neither agree nor disagree" or the equivalent for most of those, as much as I'm interested in all the eco stuff, F1 isn't exactly the best application.

As for the countries, I don't think it was supposed to be political, I think it's more a question of whether you think they can provide the entertainment and remain relevant to the series or not.
 
The countries question is a bit stupid, I'm not a politician. So, my first vote went to Spa, meaning, Belgium. And my UK vote had noting to do with the country, more with the tracks you have there.
I interpreted that question as asking where Formula 1 should secure races in the future. I think I put France and America because they're not on the calendar, and Russia and South Africa because I feel that Formula 1 needs to be a truly global sport in order to be a World Championship. It's in no danger of being like the World Series Baseball, with only one country playing, but Russia and Africa are the two largest geopolitical regions that remained untouched by Formula 1 (except for Vitaly Petrov, but I'd hardly call him a thorough representation of Russia given that he hasn't even driven the car yet, much less raced). I can't remember what the fifth country I chose was, or why.
 
You'd think that but it actually skips you straight to the competition page, it seems they just don't want under 18's doing the survey.

I did however complete the survey under the 18-24 category, the majority of mine consisted of having a strong disagreement with all the environmental promotions and road safety junk, with a strong agreement towards good exciting racing. As for the five companies when I think of F1, three were cigarette manufacturers and the other two were oil companies.

You know, I thought that was quite funny, just the irony of them trying to stop under 18's from filling out the survey even though anyone can lie about their age. And then you listed 3 tobacco companies... Or is it just my warped sense of humour?

Anyway, I'm 22 and put marlboro first as i've been smoking them since I was 14 (who says tobacco advertising is harmless?) and watching f1 since I was three.

I'm currently in the middle of trying to quit smoking, but that just reminded me of the cravings...

*off to the newsagent*

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As for the countries, I just voted for the ones with the best tracks, and the worst tracks for the "least important" category.

I wish they let you make comments though. Would like to see a race at the mexico city track.
 
I'm not too keen on HD broadcasts myself. FOM experimented with it at Abu Dhabi last year, but I don't have an HD television, so half the picture was cut off.
 
I'm not too keen on HD broadcasts myself. FOM experimented with it at Abu Dhabi last year, but I don't have an HD television, so half the picture was cut off.

The best thing they could do is made a SD and an HD stream and have the HD stream on a dedicated channel(not sure if the BBC has a separate HD channel so I apologize if I'm wrong). This is at least how most live events are shown here in HD.

Does seem kind of odd though with all the 3D talk that F1 is just now looking at the possibility of HD.
 
Does seem kind of odd though with all the 3D talk that F1 is just now looking at the possibility of HD.
3D, I think, is a bit of a fad. Most people are still adjusting to HD. I don't think they're about to go and shell out thousands of dollars on a 3D television after buying an HD-capable one. I know that down here in Australia, the federal government is switching off analog-format broadcasts and replacing them with digital. Digital, I believe, comes with HD as standard. I really think 3D was introduced too soon to be viable.

What's more, 3D woudn't hold much appeal to FOM and Ecclestone. 3D depends on viewers having a television that can handle the format, so there's little point in shelling out for the cameras and the means to transmit a 3D broadcast if only a fraction of people will be abl to view it. FOM would have to mark the television rights up, and you can probably bet that some broadcasters won't be willing to pay. That means smaller audiences, which is bad for the sport.
 
Apologies, but since I am a little dense, could someone please explain what the weighted and unweighted sample are?
 
Unweighted sample would be just the regular results. The weighted samples just place more weight(emphasis) on certain groups' answers and less on others to reflect F1 viewers.

Methodology 2010

FOTA and F1 Racing sent their call to actions via websites/banners from 2nd February. The resulting sample was
weighted to reflect the Formula One viewing profile (using IFM Sports Marketing Surveys audience data as in the FOTA
2009 study) to achieve a fully representative F1 Fan Survey. This included weighting by country, gender, age and
interest in Formula One.
 
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