DAZN F1 viewership drops up to 49% as new format fails

F1 shrinks on DAZN: viewership down by up to 49%

DAZN bet on motorsport to replace El futbol español football, but so far it has resulted in a massive audience hole. The platform saw the Japanese Grand Prix drop to 63,000 live viewers, a 49% decrease from the same race last year. Qualifying was even worse with just 24,000 users. This is not exclusively a Spanish problem. In France, the drop was 43% (404,000 vs 705,000), in Austria 36%, and in Germany 21%. Only Italy broke the trend with a 36% increase. The flash offer for the motor package has failed to convince customers.

New regulations turn F1 into something else

The FIA's regulatory changes are at the center of the storm. The new hybrid V6 engines maintain over 1,000 HP, but the electric motor now accounts for 50% of the total power. Battery management and the so-called "boost mode" favor overtaking, although for part of the fanbase these are artificial races. Comparisons with Formula E keep coming up: the same button-activated overtakes, the same lack of sound, and the same feeling that drivers are managing energy rather than fighting wheel-to-wheel.

Commentator Antonio Lobato, with twenty years of broadcasting experience, rejects this thesis: "It is Machiavellian to say it is due to the regulations, but how could it be? It has nothing to do with it." For him, the decline is explained because Alonso and Sainz are performing poorly. The counterargument is immediate: if the issue were only the Spanish drivers, France would not have dropped 43% nor Austria 36%. International data disproves the local diagnosis.

Why is F1 viewership falling on DAZN?

Because three reinforcing factors converge. The first is price: €40 per month for the motor package. When F1 was broadcast free-to-air with ads, Spanish audiences exceeded five million. Now, to watch Alonso start fifteenth at seven in the morning, you must pay for a subscription. The second is the spectacle: cars gaining three tenths per lap but unable to overtake on 45% of circuits, even with the boost invention. The third is the lack of competitive references: both Spanish drivers compete in teams that barely reach tenth place.

Some argue the problem is product-related, not price-related. Current F1, they claim, has lost its risk, and without risk there is no emotion. Cars measure 5.40 by 2 meters, with aerodynamics that turn every overtake into a battery management exercise. "It is a contest for aeronautical engineers," summarizes one of the most repeated voices. Safety, unquestionable in itself, has eliminated the uncertainty component that used to thrill the public.

The Valencia precedent and Madrid uncertainty

The conversation shifts to public money. The Madrid circuit, still under construction, is compared to Valencia: a huge cost that will not be recovered, with benefits concentrated among affiliated companies. The suspicion that taxpayers fund the show while audiences plummet adds fuel to the fire. There are no closed figures on return, only the Valencia precedent as a warning.

Meanwhile, veteran fans have found refuge in eighties and nineties races. Senna against Prost, Mansell flat out at Eau Rouge, Alonso passing on the outside at the 130R corner without DRS or tube-boost. Nostalgia is not just aesthetic: it confirms that the current product has stopped interesting those who once proge up early to watch it.

The prediction, with all reservations, is that DAZN will have to rethink the motor package before the season ends. If Italy rises 36% and the rest fall, the problem is not F1 in abstract, but how it is sold and at what price. The platform can survive one bad year. Two, hardly.