British GP tops 2018 improved attendance figures for F1

Formula One enjoyed increased attendance figures year-over-year in 2018, with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone drawing the strongest weekend crowd of all rounds of the world championship.

Ironically, the future of the British race is still uncertain with Silverstone's owners - the venerable BRDC - currently locked in talks with Liberty Media for a new contract beyond 2019.

Last summer, Silverstone saw 340,000 people pass through its gates, with race day attracting approximately 140.500 spectators.

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Those numbers topped the figures registered by F1's second best attended race, the Mexican Grand Prix held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez which brought in 334,946 and 135,407 race fans respectively.

Overall, taking into account this year's schedule which included one race more than in 2017 and "adjustment made to certain 2017 attendance figures" (according to FOM), the sport enjoyed in absolute terms a 7.8% increase in attendance rates in 2018 compared with 2017, with the total tally for the 21 races coming in at 4,093,305, or an average of 194,919 per race.

"With nearly 200,000 spectators at each grand prix, and more than 80,000 packing the grandstands for Sunday's races across the season, it demonstrates that these big numbers compare favourably with other major sporting events, thus confirming a trend for growth," said F1's commercial operations managing director Sean Bratches.

"The whole show of a grand prix weekend - the Formula 1 race, all the support series and the activities around the track - constitutes a great experience for the fans, as the attendance and research figures confirm.

"We strongly believe that Formula 1 has great potential which still hasn't been fully exploited and we are fully committed to improving the fan experience in the future."

Seven races - Great Britain, Mexico, Australia, USA, Singapore, Belgium and Hungary - drew weekend crowds of over 200,000, while Azerbaijan, Austria, Bahrain, Canada, Japan and Hungary reported the biggest increase in attendance compared to 2017.

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