Last year’s last race was watched by 108.7 million viewers on TV

The final race of the 2021 season was held on December 12 in Abu Dhabi. Before the race, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Britain (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen of the Netherlands (Red Bull) stood on the same point in the fight for the championship title.

The British drove the race confidently from the start, but a few laps before the fall, a safety car hit the track due to an accident. In the final lap of the race, after a restart, Verstappen overtook Hamilton and became world champion for the first time, but this was also helped by disputed race judgments that ousted Michael Masi, the current race director, from his post on Thursday.

The total television audience in 2021 was 1.55 billion, 4 percent more than in the 2020 season. The number of people watching at least one race in 2021 was 445 million. China was the largest market with 70.8 million unique viewers, a 13 percent increase over 2020. Significant increases were also recorded in Spain (plus 272 percent), Russia (plus 129 percent) and the U.S. (plus 53 percent). The average audience was 70.3 million people worldwide.

In 2021, the number of followers of Formula 1 races on social media increased by 40 percent to 49.1 million, the number of video views rose by 50 percent to 7 billion, and total web tracking by 74 percent to 1.5 billion. The number of page views increased by 23 percent to 1.6 billion.

“The 2021 season was special,” said Stefano Domenicali, president and CEO of Formula One. "There was a big battle going on and the World Cup title was decided in the final race. Although we had limited opportunities due to the coronavirus, it was great to see 2.6 million fans in the stands around the world. We could see very strong numbers in TV broadcasts and digital also on our platforms, which again shows a huge interest in Formula 1. "

(Source: autokalauz.co.hu; MTI | Image: pixabay.com)