Scuderia Ferrari Boss Says Esports Is A Threat To Formula One

While Formula 1 is currently focused on its rules and structures overhaul for 2021, aimed at bridging financial and competitive gaps between the cars on the grid, there are those who feel as though those shouldn’t be the only factors taken into account moving forward.

Take for example Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene, who suggested that Formula 1’s popularity could be influenced by the rise of the Esports phenomena, reports Autosport.

“Our competitors today, and this is my personal opinion, they are the PlayStations,” stated Arrivabene. “Today we have a broad offer of entertainment and we need to look at everything, not only certain sports or trying to equalize everything.”

“Is the PlayStation our competitor? In my opinion, yes. What do you have to do to beat the PlayStations? You have to do something that is more interesting, most probably. Today the offer is bigger than many years ago.”

The Scuderia exec went on to say that Formula 1 needs to take a look at today’s interest levels versus those from before, and make sure that the sport can draw in a younger audience.

“If at a certain point the audience is becoming older, older, older and you work to maintain what you have and your attention is less focused on acquiring the younger generation, that means you have a problem. And you have to find a solution.”

Yet, certain factors that should make F1 racing more fun are still being regarded as a negative by some. So even though some teams are hoping that a budget cap and staffing limits will lead to all things being fair on the grid, Arrivabene suggests that it would be unfair to manipulate the competitiveness of the teams that way, comparing the issue to the disparity in size and wealth of soccer teams.

“How can you tell Real Madrid ‘I’m sorry, if you play with the small team, don’t play your best team, play with your middle-sized team.’ Come on, it’s ridiculous. The sport is done by the big teams [as well]. It’s part of the fascination of the sport.”