The most front-line sport in 2024 is none other than Formula 1.
At the F1 Chinese Grand Prix, which ended last weekend, the top bigwigs from all circles gathered together to "break the dimensional wall".
There are star champions in various fields such as Yao Ming, Deng Yaping, Yang Yang, and Gu Ailing in the sports circle.
The entertainment industry has come to Wu Yanzu, Lin Junjie, Lin Zhiying, Han Han, Feng Shaofeng and other racing enthusiasts.
Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Group, Yang Qing, chairman of Dongfeng Motor, and Lei Jun, who hurriedly became a top, also went to the scene to watch the game.
Not only that, but this time F1 has also become a national sport.
F1 has become a hot topic on social platforms, with more than 800,000 notes about F1 on Xiaohongshu and 12 billion reads on Weibo #F1#, which continues to dominate the hot search list.
The ticket-grabbing link of the competition was even crazier than Lin Junjie's concert, and even the ticket-buying software collapsed.
Hundreds of thousands of tickets were sold out in an instant, and the 30,000 yuan VIP tickets were also sold out in seconds, and even the grass tickets were fried to thousands of yuan.
Let the celebrities and technology bigwigs collectively cheer on the field, what is the charm of F1 races?
The most money-burning campaign in history, spending 1.2 billion a year
Although F1 is known as the "world's three major sporting events" along with the Olympic Games and the World Cup, it has not become a household name.
Because the bar for F1 is just too high.
Formula 1 is known as the "most expensive" sport in the world, and you have to be prepared to spend a lot of money when you get into the pitfalls of racing.
First of all, an F1 driver costs hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu spent two small goals just walking on the F1 field.
When Zhou Guanyu was 8 years old, his father spent more than 12 million yuan to build a go-kart track, and named it "Guanyu Auto Park".
The money burned by F1 cars is also reflected in all links.
A car = a villa in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in a sentence on the F1 field is not an exaggeration at all.
The most expensive F1 car costs 80 million, and on average, each car costs 40 million, and the rear wing of a car alone is worth 1 million.
This is not counting the wear and tear in the race, running a race of tires alone will cost 200,000, and if you accidentally crash, it will be a large-scale money-burning scene.
F1 is the most expensive sport in history, and it costs an average of 1.2 billion a year to raise a team. For example, the Mercedes-Benz team has an annual budget of 1.6 billion yuan, which is more than the profit of a listed company.
Any city that wants to hold an F1 race must be aware of spending money, just to build a standard F1 stadium costs more than a billion, and many cities stop holding a session because the cost is too high.
For example, the track in Shanghai, China, is the most expensive of all F1 circuits in the world, with an investment of 2.6 billion yuan in the first phase of the project alone, and Shanghai pays $30 million to the FIA every year to host the Chinese Grand Prix.
Even naming F1 races is more expensive than other major events.
Sinopec once spent 800 million yuan to win the naming rights of the F1 China station, and Taikang Life's logo appeared on the back of the Sauber racing rearview mirror and spent 8 figures, even if a logo on an athlete costs millions.
Formula 1 is not only the fastest and most high-tech sport in the world, but also the most expensive sport.
The high threshold of burning money also makes many ordinary people not pay attention to F1 as much as they do about the Olympics and the World Cup.
5 years ago, the tickets were not sold out, why did it become the top hit this year?
The explosion of F1 this year was unexpected by many people.
According to Jiushi Sports, the overall number of reservations for F1 races is more than three times the total inventory, the number of reservations for grass stands is 15 times that of inventory, and the number of reservations for three-day packages or single-day Sunday sessions is more than 10 times that of inventory.
There are too many reservations to crowd out the ticketing software, and the last time this situation occurred was the Spring Festival rush for tickets.
You must know that in the F1 race 5 years ago, even the seats were not full.
5 years ago, the tickets were not sold out, but this year it is difficult to find a ticket, and there are three pairs of promoters behind it.
The first pair of pushers: F1's "stepfather" tearfully exploded
In 2016, the American Free Media Group spent $4.4 billion to buy F1 from British billionaires, and then carried out a series of explosions.
First move on the appearance, free media replaced the old logo that has been used for decades, so that everyone can see it on their mobile phones.
In order to attract more spectators and make the game more exciting, the second knife of the free media is the rules of the game.
In the past, F1 cars were compared to "money power", and the wealthy Mercedes-Benz team has won the championship for six consecutive years, and the result of the race is almost unsuspenseful.
To this end, F1, like the NBA, introduced a "budget cap system", stipulating that each team's annual budget cannot exceed 135 million, and Red Bull Racing is said to have been fined $7 million for budget overspending.
The liberal media also transformed F1 into MCN, specifically registered Tik Tok accounts for them, and encouraged competitors to shoot short videos between races, which attracted many young and female viewers.
Under the explosion of the new father, F1 not only soared in earning power, but also had a wider audience, and it was completely out of the circle.
Around 300 companies and brands sponsored 10 F1 teams in 2023, double the number a decade ago, and F1 earned nearly $500 million in sponsorship revenue for the 2024 season.
The second double pusher: China's home + the first Chinese driver
There is a lot of emotional impetus for F1 to be so popular in China this year.
In 2004, F1 entered China for the first time, with 260,000 spectators in three days, and 150,000 on-site spectators on the final day, setting a record for the largest number of spectators in a single day in China's history.
2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the Chinese Grand Prix, and the return of F1 racing to Shanghai, coupled with China's first F1 driver Zhou Guanyu at home.
China's home + Chinese players have greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of Chinese netizens.
In this wave of celebrity gatherings, many of them are fans of Zhou Guanyu, which also added fuel to the explosion of F1 races.
The third pair of pushers: global technology bigwigs compete to show their muscles
Unlike other competitions, F1 is not only a sports competition, but also a platform to showcase cutting-edge technology.
From aerodynamic design to hybrid powertrains, F1 is more like an exhibition of high-tech products.
Therefore, many technology tycoons rush to go, whether in the form of a title or in the form of a manufacturer, it is a huge stage for brands to show their muscles.
In this F1 competition, the participation of technology brands in various fields such as Google, Lenovo, Oracle, and SenseTime made F1 like the Spring Festival Gala in the technology circle.
The F1 cars under these three pairs of pushers are gradually stepping off the platform and becoming the new top sport.
Behind the Fast and Furious, technology is the hardest backstage
It has been said that motorsport may seem like a sport, but at its heart it is a commercial activity.
Indeed, F1 is known as one of the most commercially successful annual racing series in the world.
In the '30s and '40s, there was a famous saying in the traditional European car business: if you can win a car race on Sunday, you can sell more cars in the new week.
But this year, F1 has become more than just a sport or a marketing arena.
Behind this competition, which seems to be just "driving in circles", technology is the hardest backstage and promotes the development of many industries.
For example, Zhou's car tumbled off the track during a race and hit the guardrail before stopping.
After such a violent collision, Zhou Guanyu did not break a bone and was conscious, thanks to Halo, which kept the racer safe.
In fact, more than ten years ago, the only thing that could protect the safety of drivers in F1 cars was helmets, and F1 races were also known as "death racing".
It wasn't until 2014, when 24-year-old France's Jules Bianchi died in an accident, that everyone realized the importance of protecting their riders.
The 2018 F1 season introduced the Halo system, which weighs no more than 7 kilograms, but is capable of withstanding 12 tonnes of impact, which is equivalent to a double-decker bus overhead, and can increase the driver's survival rate by 17%.
Rumor has it that nine out of 10 teams voted against the Halo system during the pre-season 2018 strategy group meeting.
Mercedes-Benz team manager Wolf publicly stated, "If I had the chance, I would like to use a saw to cut off the Halo." ”
But it was also from that season that the Halo system relied on its strength to fight back and save the driver's life in a number of fatal accidents.
Grosjean, who once did not support the Halo system, was also "saved" by Halo, and after escaping death, he said: "Halo is the greatest invention, without which I may not be able to talk to everyone anymore." ”
In the past 50 years, in addition to the Halo system, a series of high-tech equipment has been continuously upgraded in addition to the Halo system, flexible fuel tanks, fireproof racing suits, carbon fiber helmets, monocoque cockpits, HANS systems, and rescue operations that arrive at the scene in seconds after an accident.
For example, the latest FIA test standard for fire-resistant racing suits stipulates that racing suits must remain intact for 20 seconds in a fire at 800°C.
The seemingly impossible requirements were really rolled out by F1.
In the 2020 season in Bahrain, driver Grosjean's car was hit and the battery pack ignited the fuel tank, causing an explosion and a fire.
After the fire was extinguished, Gros suffered only minor burns to his wrists and ankles, in addition to the impact on his ribs.
And many of these technologies that have been tested to the extreme of F1 cars have already appeared in our lives.
Carbon fibre monocoque frames used in supercars such as the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro, Maserati's new supercar MC20 and McLaren Senna were first used in Formula 1 cars.
The high-strength body, which is often used as a selling point by new energy vehicle companies, is also inspired by F1 cars.
For example, the range of new energy vehicles has always been a big pain point, and in order to improve the range, various manufacturers will draw a lot of experience from the racing field in terms of appearance and aerodynamic design.
This is also why many consumers will complain that "the appearance and shape of new energy vehicles are similar", and the cruise control, which is now widely used in cars, was first derived from F1 cars.
This can also understand why Lei Jun posted the first car-related book after announcing the construction of the car, which was the book "How to Build a Car" by Neuvey, the chief designer of Red Bull Racing.
In F1, it is not only a competition of speed and money, but also a competition of technology.
Racing may have thresholds, but love and technology don't.
The picture comes from the Internet, please contact to delete the infringement