Formula One has raced into a storm after revealing that it retrospectively revised its attendance records to show that the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix actually had at least 180,467 fewer spectators than it previously claimed.
In 2017, F1 released crowd numbers that it said were “provided by the promoters of each Grand Prix” and showed that the race in Canada was attended by 360,000 spectators. However, that all changed late last month when F1 issued its latest attendance review, which revealed that it had reduced the 2017 crowd number to at most 179,533 "in order to give more accurate figures."
The development raises significant questions about the actual level of attendance at the Grand Prix, which is held in June on an island in Montreal’s Saint Lawrence River. It is one of the few races on the F1 calendar that doesn’t publicly release attendance data, even though it receives around $14 million ($18.7 million CAD) of public money every year.
Four years ago, Octane Racing Group, which organizes the Grand Prix, offered a rare glimpse under its hood when it collaborated on an economic impact study with the city of Montreal as well as the local and regional tourist authorities.
They concluded that the 2015 Canadian Grand Prix attracted 93,273 spectators for a total of 244,374 admissions across the duration of the race weekend. The former figure is the actual number of spectators whereas the latter is calculated by counting them multiple times as they visit the track on different days. This total accelerated over the next two years, according to data from F1.
In 2017, F1 released its first-ever review of attendance at the 20 races that took place that year. It showed that the Canadian Grand Prix attracted 360,000 spectators in 2017, a 20% increase on the previous year. This gave it the highest attendance of any race on the calendar; according to F1, the results were based on “official figures, provided by the promoters of each Grand Prix.”
F1’s second attendance review was released late last month and cast doubt on the results of the previous one. It boasted that in 2018, “over four million spectators (4,093,305) attended at least one of the 21 Grands Prix,” giving an average attendance of almost 200,000 per race weekend.
Crucially, it added that “seven Grands Prix, a third of all events, attracted crowds of over 200,000: Great Britain (340,000), Mexico (334,946), Australia (295,000), USA (263,160), Singapore (263,000), Belgium (250,000) and Hungary (210,000). The average attendance per race weekend was up over the 2017 figures by 2.7% while four events saw an increase of over 10%: Azerbaijan (+31.6%), Austria (+27.6%), Japan (+20.4%) and Canada (+11.4%).”
It may look like the Canadian Grand Prix is firing on all cylinders, but in fact, this revealed a staggering crash in attendance at the race. According to the data, the Canadian Grand Prix is not one of the seven that had attendance of more than 200,000 in 2018.
However, instead of falling from its 2017 total of 360,000, F1 says attendance increased by 11.4%.
The attendance at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2018 isn’t disclosed, but it couldn’t have been higher than 200,000 because F1 indicates that it wasn’t one of the seven races that attracted crowds of over 200,000. If the attendance increased 11.4% to 200,000, that would put the 2017 total at 179,533—which is 180,467 less than the figure F1 said it got from Octane Racing Group.
F1’s latest attendance review doesn’t mention this specific revision, but it does allude to “adjustments made to certain 2017 attendance figures subsequent to the release of last year’s attendance results.” Responding to an inquiry about whether this referred to the Canadian Grand Prix, an F1 spokesperson said: “We have made some adjustments to certain 2017 attendance figures subsequent to the release of last year’s results in order to give more accurate figures. Promoters have been made aware of those adjustments.”
The spokesperson declined to provide further information on why F1 adjusted the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix attendance number. Octane Racing Group did not respond to a request for comment, so it is unclear as to why the attendance was originally so much higher than it should have been or what the trigger was for it being retrospectively reduced. There is no suggestion that this has been driven by a change in the measurement system because the evidence shows that it has stayed the same.
Many of the crowd numbers used by F1 match the ones released by the race organizers in both 2017 and 2018. For example, in 2017, F1 claimed that the Mexican Grand Prix attracted 337,043 spectators, which is the same number that organizers released on the day of the race. The following year, the organizers’ data showed that the total reversed 0.6% to 334,946, which is also the number that F1 used in its attendance review.
Likewise, in 2017, F1 claimed that 296,600 spectators attended the Australian Grand Prix, which reflects the total in the organizers’ 2017 Annual Report. Ditto for 2018 when F1 and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation said that 1,600 fewer spectators attended the race.
It shows that F1 has simply taken the attendance data from the race organizers, who derive it directly from the total number of tickets sold. Clearly, it wouldn’t be consistent for F1 to do this for some races but use a different methodology for others.
F1 stated that the 2017 attendance numbers were “provided by the promoters of each Grand Prix,” but it doesn’t say this about the data for the following year. However, even if it estimated the attendance at the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix, this still wouldn’t explain why it retrospectively reduced the total for the previous year, which it says came directly from the race organizer.
F1 got a timely boost from the revision as it yielded year-on-year growth in crowd numbers at the race. In contrast, they would have crashed by at least 160,000 if the original total of 360,000 spectators had fallen to below 200,000 in 2018.
However, the revision brings a cloud of uncertainty to the actual number of spectators at the Grand Prix. In turn, this could fuel criticism from opponents who object to the public money that is poured into the race.
Unlike most sports event hosts, Grand Prix organizers generally don’t receive a cut of the income from broadcasting, official on-site corporate hospitality or even advertising at the venue. Instead, these revenues race in the direction of
It usually leaves Grand Prix organizers with just the income from ticket sales and funding from the government in their home country. The Canadian Grand Prix gets $37.4 million ($49.9 million CAD) from the regional government in Quebec, $46.7 million ($62.4 million CAD) from the federal government, the same amount from Montreal’s tourist authority and $9.3 million ($12.4 million CAD) from the city itself.
This brings the total to $140 million ($187.1 million CAD) over the 10-year contract of the race, which was extended last year by five years to 2029. It gives the Canadian Grand Prix around $14 million ($18.7 million CAD) of public money every year, and the government recoups it through taxes on the spending by spectators during the event.
Accordingly, uncertainty over the crowd numbers could call into question the economic impact driven by the race.
A spokesperson for the government's Canada Economic Development (CED) program says: "The Grand Prix is, no doubt, one of the largest tourism events in Canada. By supporting it, what CED primarily aims at is generating long-term economic spin-offs for Canadians, positioning Canada as a major tourist destination and Montreal as an international metropolis, and encouraging investment in Canadian tourism assets and products."
According to a report in national newspaper The Globe and Mail, the 2015 Canadian Grand Prix economic impact study “pegs the event’s contribution to Canada’s gross domestic product at $42.4 million, about half the previous estimates.” If the attendance in later years was actually far lower than the figure released by F1, it could dent the economic impact even further.
The revision is an embarrassing development for Liberty, especially as it created a dedicated F1 research division last year. The five-man team is run by Matt Roberts, the former head of research for television network Eurosport.
This didn’t stop F1’s first attendance review from being littered with basic miscalculations. F1 acknowledged that there was “systematic error” in it and was forced to re-issue its press release about the data. However, as we revealed, the updated crowd numbers conflicted with the figures from race organizers.
The most severe discrepancy was the claim that attendance at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix rose by 138.2%, which was more than four times higher than the total disclosed by the race organizer. Time will tell whether F1 has to do a U-turn on its attendance data yet again.
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