- Print media and other non-TV media following Formula 1 has dropped dramatically during F1's return from the COVID-19 shutdown.
- A 14-day quarantine mandated for anyone coming into the U.K. remains in effect, which makes F1 media think twice about leaving the country for a race weekend.
- Lack of media access is also weighing on print journalist's decision to attend races.
There is a beautiful irony in the fact that Formula 1 is not allowing the written media into the F1 paddocks at races.
This means that speaking to people in F1 leadership is not that easy. And so when their representative says, “Why didn’t you ask?” when you write something they don’t like, the correct response can only be, “because we don’t have access to you."
Originally, most journalists were broadly supportive of F1’s need to protect itself from the COVID-19 pandemic because it was felt important to get the racing going again and help the teams to survive. And when there are 300 journalists at every race, we get that there is obviously additional risk involved. So the F1 media accepted that it was perhaps necessary for the written media to no longer be allowed into the paddock on race weekends.
But at recent races, F1 has been opening up the paddock to more and more people, including princes, billionaires, driver coaches, hospitality people, motorhome builders and so on, but the media is resolutely being kept out. The number of journalists attending races was initially restricted. These days it is still hard to find more than around 25 who are interested in covering F1 from the media centers.
This number of journalists at the race track dipped to as low as eight in Russia, where getting there proved to a real problem. The races going forward may not be very well-attended, either, even if the World Championships are still to be decided. One of the reasons for the low media turnout is the 14-day quarantine that journalists face upon turning to the U.K. after a race.
Formula 1 secured an exemption from the U.K. government for the 14-day mandate for the teams and Formula 1 personnel, which is good because most of the people in F1 work out of Britain. The exemption, however, did not include permanent F1 media, except the photographers who are embedded with teams at each event.
F1 journalism is still dominated by the British media. Only four journalists this year have attended all the races, and they are all British. However, as the second wave of the pandemic increases in intensity, life on the road is again becoming much more difficult.
British journalists who go to Imola, Italy, this week ,for example, need to quarantine for 14 days when they return. The same is true of Turkey, Bahrain and the UAE. In theory, this means that for 14 days after you return home from a race weekend, you should not go out, even to buy food.
As part of the mandate, you should not use any kind of public transport, go to work or to a public area, and you should not have visitors. You cannot even walk the dog—and you should stay away from people in your own home. You have to make a declaration of where you will be, and if you are found to be in breach you can be fined $4,000.
If you fail to complete the declaration form, it is a criminal offense. And this applies to everyone, including U.K. residents and visitors. There are similar problems in other countries and for those from outside Europe, making visiting Grands Prix virtually impossible.
With the last Formula 1 race of this season being on December 13, this means unless the restrictions are lifted, anyone without an exemption will have to be in quarantine until December 27, which means that you don’t get a Christmas. Making such sacrifices, even after struggling to get to all the races this year, is beyond what most F1 journalists are willing to do. There are limits, particularly when they view the sport as not being at all supportive of their efforts.
This means that there are unlikely to be many media present at the last three races, as in addition to losing Christmas, the only available flights from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi are F1 charters and the authorities in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are expected to dictate the hotels in which F1 people are allowed to stay, in an effort to keep them away from locals. So the media has no control over its own costs.
F1 is a media sport and while TV will provide the basic story, the written media gives the real fans the inside stories. A media sport needs media that followers can trust. Without such coverage, the sport will suffer.
It is already incredibly difficult to find any significant sponsorship as companies around the world are cutting back. It is good that Netflix crews are given access because they produce good content, albeit very limited when it comes to season-long coverage. F1 wants to develop its own TV product and its own media properties, although these can never be independent, as the people who write for them know that criticizing their bosses is not a good idea. So there is limited objective coverage these days, at least coverage with people with access beyond press conferences.
Many in the media are now beginning to ask the question about whether F1 is not simply taking advantage of the pandemic to push out the traditional media in order to favor its own channels.
The fact that people are even asking such questions is a reflection of the mistrust that has been developing in the media for those at the top of the sport.
Do you trust a Formula 1 that won't allow some of the media access to the paddock on a race weekend? Or, is this just a matter of a few media folks in the F1 circus just getting a case of cabin fever? Jump into the F1 discussion in the comments section below.
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