F1 should be more interesting than Pokemon Go - Button

40

Jenson Button says Formula One should be more interesting than Pokemon Go after witnessing "horrific" numbers of people playing the mobile game.

F1's new owners Liberty Media have highlighted targeting a younger demographic as one of its key aims in the coming years, as well as expanding the sport in the United States.

Pokemon Go sees gamers use their mobile phone to track fictional creatures to real-life locations where the creature will then appear on their screen to be caught, and Button says an experience in Singapore on Wednesday alerted him to how much F1 needs to focus on engaging a younger audience.

"I’ve only heard a couple of things, I don’t really know much about them," Button said when asked what the new owners can do for the sport. "I think them being American is a positive, bringing the sport more to the States and getting people there more interested in the sport.

"From what I’ve seen they’re interested in getting a much younger audience involved the sport, which is again something we need. The average age is much too high for where it should be considering we have an 18-year-old on the grid. I think the average age is high 30s, maybe early 40s. That needs to change, we need to target youngsters and the younger generation.

"And from what they say they are still very interested in keeping historic tracks on the calendar, that’s important to them and it should be because the heart and soul of Formula One."

Asked what F1 can do to target younger fans, Button replied: "That’s not my job, that’s for them to do.

"But they have an idea of what young people want with social media and technology. This is a very technologically advanced sport, Formula One, so you would think there would be a lot of interest from youngsters but there isn’t. As soon as youngsters sink their teeth into the sport they’re going to love it."

Bringing up a video on his phone, Button continued: "I filmed last night, I was in the shopping mall and posted it, and this is the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen!

"Have you ever seen the films of the future, how people are going to be? This was last night in the shopping mall. All these people walking one way, you know why? Pokemon.

"There must have been 2,000 people all walking to one spot, through the shopping mall, across the road because there’s a Pokemon there to grab.

"I don’t even know what you do with them. Do you win money? Or presents? Chocolate? You’d do it for chocolate wouldn’t you.

"Come on. Is Formula One not more interesting than that? It should be, I think it is! If they can get that many people interested at trying to flick something at a yellow dot which isn’t really there – you don’t really touch it – I think we can make Formula One better than it is."

Romain Grosjean column: Drivers have a certain shelf like

Chris Medland's 2016 Singapore Grand Prix preview

TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the Red Bull RB12

2017 F1 driver line-ups so far

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.