There has never been a better time to be a fan of Formula 1, nor a worse one too. I well remember – as will anyone who’s been watching for more than a few years – when F1 was a closed shop. You could no more peer behind the curtain than you could stroll past the security barriers at Area 51 and snoop about the place. Fans were allowed to watch the TV coverage or attend Grands Prix in person, but that was it.
In the pre-Liberty Media era, F1 shunned social media almost entirely. Teams, drivers and journalists were actually banned from posting video content from within the pits and paddock for fear of devaluing those precious television contracts – anyone caught flouting the rules faced being pursued by lawyers. In a 2014 interview, when he was still in control of F1, Bernie Ecclestone said, ‘I’m not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is. I tried to find out but in any case I’m too old-fashioned. I couldn’t see any value in it.’
He went on: ‘I don’t know why people want to get to the so-called “young generation”. Why do they want to do that? Is it to sell them something? Most of these kids haven’t got any money. I’d rather get to the 70-year-old guy who’s got plenty of cash.’
