Lewis Hamilton Says F1 Is ‘Stuck In Stone Age’, Should Embrace Social Media

When it comes to popularity, it’s hard to compete with sports such as soccer or leagues such as the NFL or the NBA in terms of commercial success as well as athlete influence.

And yet, Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Lewis Hamilton believes that Formula 1 can make leaps ahead as international appeal is concerned, and it all starts with social media.

“Really, Formula 1 has been in the Stone Age compared to NFL and soccer and all big other sports and we’re trying to catch up, but it’s a long process,” said the four-time F1 champion.

“It’s a big job for Chase (Carey, F1 CEO) – he has only come in a couple of years ago, before that social media wasn’t allowed in. Bernie (Ecclestone, former F1 CEO) said it was not important. Now something as big as social media is huge and a really powerful platform, and now that’s allowed if people want to use it.”

Aside from an impending 2019 race on the streets of Miami, F1 has also been linked with a Grand Prix in Vietnam, as reported by Autosport. Meanwhile, over a quarter of the races on the current calendar didn’t even occur prior to 2004.

As far as new races go, Hamilton said that it’s great for F1 to go to new places. However, such a growth would have to be a meaningful one.

“It’s a real slow process to broadcast Formula 1 around the world. It’s crazy to think Formula 1 is still so unknown in so many territories, yet it’s global and on TV.”

“There’s more to be done, but I think they’re doing the right steps. Having more races in the US is a good thing. I’m looking forward to it, but the actual racing needs to be super-exciting still.”