Liberty: Mercedes dominance stunting growth

Formula 1 CEO, Chase Carey, is not expecting any big growth spurts with TV audiences given Mercedes’ dominance so far in the 2019 campaign.

Mercedes have won all seven races with Lewis Hamilton recording five victories and Valtteri Bottas picking up the other two in Australia and Azerbaijan.

Reliability issues in Bahrain for Charles Leclerc and a controversial five-second penalty for Sebastian Vettel in Canada has taken two victories away from the Scuderia, leaving Mercedes already well on course for yet another World Championship double.

TV audience figures are dropping in some regions, with the likes of German free-to-air broadcaster RTL reportedly seeing a 1,000,000 drop compared to each race in 2018.

And Carey is well aware that a one-sided Formula 1 season is not going to help matters in the slightest.

“Basically I would say that the figures are by and large stable,” Carey told Speed Week.

“But I have to admit that in 2019 there will not be anything dramatic in that area when one team is winning all seven races so far,” he added.

“And some races were not exactly exciting all the way to the final lap, even if in Monaco and Montreal we at least had fights at the top until the end.”

The 2021 regulation changes still remains the main source of hope that Formula 1 can change for the better, but the finalisation process for the new regulations are currently on hold until late October.

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