Lewis Hamilton hopes that the new Formula One ownership will result in more relaxed rules on what the drivers can and can’t share on social media during a race weekend, allowing himself and other drivers to use social media as a tool to increase fan engagement in the sport. Hamilton is the most popular driver on social media of any drivers currently on the grid.
It’s no secret that the Formula One Management, the commercial rights holder of Formula One, has strictly guarded its content from people interested in using it. Video copyright claims and social media takedowns are a regular occurrence for users that publish Formula One content that is not properly licensed. This even includes the drivers and teams.
Even people within the sport have strict restrictions on where they can take video footage and images at the circuit. Teams aren’t permitted to take any images or video footage from the paddock. Romain Grosjean was in hot water with the FIA after he live broadcast on Facebook during part of the pre-season testing in 2016.
Lewis Hamilton, a frequent victim of the tight social media restrictions in Formula One, said during the team’s car launch at Silverstone that he hopes the new owners can make a change to relax the restrictions:
“If you look at football, social media is so much greater, they utilise social media a lot better in football, in the NBA, in the NFL.
In F1 every time, for example, I would have posted a picture or a video, I would have got a warning from the FIA, or notice telling you to take it down.
This year I am hoping that they will change that rule, and allow social media for all of us – because social media is obviously an incredible medium for the world to communicate with.
And for the sport to be able to grow, it is a super easy free tool to grow for the sport, for us to use, to share it, to engage with other people.
There are people who are following me who have not been F1 fans for a long, long time, but one of their friends who happens to follow me or one of the other drivers has said to follow, and [they have] since started to watch the races.
I am sure it is one of the fastest and it’s the new way, the new way forwards.”
It’s the general opinion among Formula One fans that FOM is far too strict in enforcing their commercial rights. Broadcast rights are the reason behind the strict rules, since companies pay massive sums of money to have the exclusive rights to broadcast in the paddock. Unfortunately, since these companies hold contracts there may be little that Liberty Media can do to loosen the restrictions until it becomes time to renegotiate the new terms.
Formula One took a step in the right direction in terms of the online presence. The sport is now actively posting content and videos to their Facebook page, Twitter page and YouTube channel. However, the content is still very locked down and leaves a lot of room for improvement.
Ultimately, a greater driver presence on social media would increase fan interaction and potential draw in some new fans into the sport, revitalizing the dwindling fanbase.
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