Ex-Ferrari Boss Reveals Liberty Media’s Massive Failure in F1 Broadcasting

F1 races last year recorded an average of 1.11 million viewers. The sky-high viewership of the motorsports franchise has only grown higher with every passing year in the last decade. And this is all because the American group Liberty Media purchased ownership of Formula 1 from Bernie Ecclestone and gave it a complete makeover. Earlier, many regarded F1 as an aristocratic sport that was only open to the European elites. But with the help of Liberty Media’s extensive publicity, F1 has become a household name. However, Peter Windsor believes there is a way to amp these viewership numbers up even further.

Formula 1 races are broadcast through various channels to the people worldwide. Liberty Media has signed contracts with broadcasters in various countries, and they control the format in which the Grands Prix is shown. But according to ex-Ferrari manager Peter Windsor, the US-based firm has made a fundamental mistake. The Briton wants Liberty Media to let the audience in on the violations of the track limits that happen in F1.

Peter Windsor spoke on the CameronF1 channel, revealing, “Liberty has missed a massive trick in not making track limits a part of the TV show. We should have proper electronic sensors and we should have photocells under the sensors that tell us if a driver’s gone over the track limit in real time.”

Track limits have been a huge topic of discussion in F1 town in the wake of the Austrian GP. The Red Bull Ring, home to the Austrian race, is famous for its tricky Turns 9 and 10 where drivers are prone to violate the track limits. Last year, due to the absence of gravel tracts to sense track limit violations, the FIA manually checked a total of 1200 possible offenses to narrow down on 88 actual violations. This year, the hosts introduced the new gravel tracts with AI technology to ease this job.

Thus, Windsor wants Liberty Media to include a signal that goes off to alert the audience whenever a Formula 1 racer goes off the track limits. This way, the viewers will be more engaged and they will understand where the penalties come from when the FIA stewards levy them on the drivers. In fact, last Sunday, Lando Norris incurred a similar time penalty for going off the tracks during his chase after Max Verstappen. But how did Lando escape the penalty?

Lando Norris’ DNF helped escape penalty due to track limit violations in Austria

Lando Norris’ Austrian GP outing was disastrous as he collided with Max Verstappen and severely damaged his McLaren. The Belgian-British driver had to retire from the race but not without a penalty that resulted from his violation of the track limits. Usually, if a racer retires without serving the time penalty, it gets carried over to the next Grand Prix. But Lando Norris could not afford to serve the penalty in the upcoming British GP since he must score well after the disappointing Austria race.

Fortunately for Norris, the FIA ruled that he had driven enough of the race before retiring for him to be classified. Thus, they added the 5s penalty to his race timing at the Red Bull Ring. Hence, Lando Norris has already paid the penalty as far as the FIA stewards are concerned, and he will not need to serve it at his home race next Sunday. Now, the 24-year-old needs to focus all efforts on winning another Grand Prix soon to further his chances of usurping Max Verstappen from the top spot on the World Championship standings.

In Austria, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ tight racing is the most-discussed topic that has been going around in F1 town. But the young McLaren racer’s track limit violations had landed him a 5s penalty. If Norris had overtaken Verstappen instead of colliding with him, that penalty could cost him a race win. Thus, the papaya army racer needs to make fewer mistakes now as he is going up against a 3-time World Champion. Do you think Lando can prevent making mistakes to take on Max in the future races of this year? Let us know in the comments below.