36 Roaring Engines, Raging Fans: Unleashing the Fury of Fans at the Las Vegas Formula One Race. – Tyler Martins
Roaring Engines, Raging Fans: Unleashing the Fury of Fans at the Las Vegas Formula One Race.
Tyler Ventura Martins
The audience of Formula 1 has seen immense change in the last three years. According to Yahoo Sports and Nick Ashbourne, the sport saw an increase of nearly 55% of viewers on ESPN in 2021 compared to 2020, and again another increase of 27% in 2022 (Ashbourne, 2023). This exponential growth shows a huge increase in fandom in North America. The sport itself dates back to 1946 and has consistently been a hallmark of European sports. The fandom has always been adapting the sport and wanting changes to regulations to foster more competition and better spectating. The sport has had some popularity in the United States and North America they have even had races there for years. But the sport saw immense growth with the release of “Drive to Survive”, a Netflix documentary-style series where the true dynamics and drama of the sport were revealed to the world in a more dramatized Hollywood fashion. Many ‘original’ F1 fans criticized the series, and many said the fans that it brought in were not true fans. The series grew the sport within North America, but in doing so discourse online regarding the direction of the sport has bloomed.
The recent race in Las Vegas has brought up a massive amount of backlash and anti-fan discourse. Originally fans were disappointed mostly because they didn’t see the location as a fit, but as the race weekend went underway issues accumulated that made fans and anti-fans even more skeptical of the success of the event. This paper will address the fandom of F1 and argue that although some fans are against the Grand Prix it is not solely because Las Vegas is ‘unfit’ for racing, but because those fans do not want to see the change in the sport and a focus on America. Additionally, this paper will break down the participatory culture, fandom, and anti-fandom to highlight how the fans identify with the sport and affectively negotiate their own identity through it.
This discourse and fandom’s overall debate is centred around the evident presence of the F1 board and leadership changing the ways the sport is done. For instance, over the last two years, the sport has introduced not only one but two additional races to the United States in Miami and Las Vegas. These additions meant that audiences would see fewer of the usual races and more new ones, which some fans did not appreciate. F1 as a sport has been around since the 1950s and is constantly evolving not only in skill but also in technological output, the fan base in Europe has grown to love the sport and it has become a staple of many people’s lives. When the Netflix series drew mass attention from the United States for the first time F1 was quick to notice the potential market growth if they were to cater to American fans. With this many races away from the sports home many fans took an anti-fan approach to the way F1 was looking to spectacle rather than the better of the sport. This brings up the relevance of alienating the fan base as they now feel forgotten. As Mumucu and Lough point out alienating a fanbase is a particularly threatening thing to do, they say, “The league’s 18 years of hesitancy toward marketing to the LGBT community was due to the fear of alienating other fan segments and negative public reaction.” (Mumcu & Lough, 2017) This shows that sports leagues like F1 are aware of the potential of alienating their fanbase, in the case of F1 it was a choice to do so to get new fans. And the fans of F1 that don’t care for Vegas are speaking their opinions.
In the last 6 months, F1 fans have seen news coming from Las Vegas in preparation for the first race there. In this, numerous have taken to Reddit saying that the event is more spectacle and profit-driven than for the betterment of the sport. Other users have commented on how it would be wrong for F1 to not jump on the opportunity of a new market with vast amounts of potential new fans. The contrast can be seen clearly on Reddit just by looking through the search “Las Vegas Formula 1” and going through different posts which talk about the wellbeing of the fans and the status of the race weekend. This brings up the overarching theme of fans and fandoms, and the audience dynamics involved in fandoms. The Reddit posts regarding the event show an extremely high level of prosumer activity where the consumer is both producing and consuming the Reddit posts in some shape or form. This paper will examine some of the different prosumer approaches to the Las Vegas Grand Prix and examine how the fans are affectively negotiating their identity and relationship to the sport. As the Symons article on fandom points out, communities under stress often fluctuate in the way they perceive the fandom and its discourses, saying, “As such, this study illustrates the evolving and fluctuating nature of communities and supporter identity, and the fluctuating sentiments and actions of participants within communities under stress.” (Symons et al., 2023) This quote tells us that fans often change the way they interact with social media texts and fandoms depending on what is going on in their life or depending on certain standards of the group. In the case of F1’s Vegas race, many fans feel the event is alienating them or not meant for the fans and this is why various actions of participation and fan engagement have been seen. The contrasting fan ideologies on the race can be seen on the Reddit post “Verstappen pans F1’s Las Vegas GP as ‘1% sporting event’” By user “LonelyisIland” where commentators address leading athletes take on the race, saying it is more spectacle than sport.
The fan engagement and contrasting ideas can be seen specifically through the comments to the original post. Some fans mentioned in the introduction have responded extremely negatively while others have seen the positives. This brings up the topic discussed in class regarding reception versus consumption and the overall interpretations which vary from fan to fan. The F1 fan “James_its_Valterri” on Reddit responded to the LonelyisIland post saying, “100%. It has slowly moved away from being a sport to pure entertainment. Everything in this ‘sport’ is financially out of reach of the common man. Impossibly expensive Tickets, you are not allowed to race on the streets (for obvious reasons) but that means you can never try to emulate what your racing idols do – as a fan, all you can do is watch. No different from any other entertainment show on TV.” (Reddit, James_its_Valterri, 2023) Not only does this comment show a high amount of fan engagement, but it also develops a strong case of passion within the fan identity which can tell us that the affective engagement in fandom can make consumers prosumers.
Aside from the comment being a clear example of affective engagement within F1 fandom, it can also serve as another example of different fan perceptions and reception versus consumption. In this case, the James fan received the message interpreted it and acted on it through engaging with the content, this is different from a user who would have just read and consumed the original post. Other fans even responded to his comment saying that the sport has always been like that. The fan interactions tell us that although the fandom of F1’s participatory culture may be very active, the interpretations of the sport are still subjective. This is relevant as it can be seen as a way affective sensibility comes into play within fandoms. That is that affective sensibility in this case is that fans with the same connections are drawn to the post, whether the fan agrees or disagrees with it the affective sensibility allows and draws those fans together in an engagement-prone environment. In other words, in F1 fandom those fans all clicked on that post and commented because they have similar affective sensibilities. The idea of these fans coming together highlights the collective experience often involved in fandoms.
The fan engagement on Reddit regarding the Las Vegas race weekend has also been a huge sight for anti-fan discourses regarding the race. Even in the above-quoted fan participation from Reddit, the fan is voicing his anti-fan perspective on racing in Vegas, saying that it was not made for fans and that it is out of reach for most to go to, which was anti-Vegas race. Anti-fandom or anti-fan is a portion of fandom or a fan who prefers to pick apart the media and take an opposing stance from the hegemonic fan depiction. For instance, anti-fandom can be seen explicitly within Reddit’s discourse of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, especially in the Reddit post comments by user “ChineseGoddess” where they highlight a resident’s opinion on the event. The post is titled “I Hope It Bankrupts Them’: Las Vegas Residents Enraged Ahead Of Formula 1 Grand Prix…”, the post focuses on the resident’s anger toward the event as the palm trees across the strip were cut down for more seating. Other anti-fans were quick to hop on the trend of commenting on how they agreed or why they thought the event was bad for the sport and the city. The discourse of disliking the Las Vegas grand prix is seen particularly clearly in the comments of ChineseGoddess’ post where user “emceelokey” responds by saying, “The amount of money they paid off the casinos to do this in the first place has already been lost. I doubt this will end up being a profitable endeavour.” (Reddit, emceelokey, 2023) This comment is significant as it tells us numerous anti-fans agree and have taken a position of calling out the nonsense that went on in preparing for the race. This is also a definitive characteristic of anti-fandom, where individuals are affectively enticed by messages so much that they feel the need to engage with them and belittle what they believe is wrong.
A resemblance of this anti-fandom and fans being worried about the change in something they love can be seen in Matt Hills’ article regarding the British television series Doctor Who. The article focuses on the anti-fandom discourse of the casting of the first-ever Women Doctor Who(Jodie Whittaker) and comments on how hate and even misogyny entered certain discourse when something new was said to be coming, much like how F1 Vegas anti-fans reacted to something new. Hills quotes miller in explaining the depth the anti-fandom goes saying “They were not long in making their feelings clear via social media, where #notmydoctor began circulating on Twitter and Instagram.” (Hills (Miller)), p.70, 2021) Not only does this quotation from the Hills article resemble the fan interpretations and reaction of F1 Vegas, but it also points out another commonality in the anti-fandom, that is that both F1 Vegas anti-fans and Jodie Whittaker Doctor Who anti-fans are both examples of disappointed anti-fan within participatory culture and fandom.
Disappointed anti-fans are very apparent within the F1 Vegas discourse. As was shown previously many residents have pointed out their dislike of the event but many F1 fans have also pointed out how this event leaves a bad taste in their mouth. This brings up the notion discussed in the second part of the introduction regarding certain F1 fans feeling as though they are being alienated by the sport taking such a focus on expanding its American market. These fans exemplify a distinct characteristic of participatory culture and disappointed anti-fandom. Disappointed fans are those who generally like something as a whole but feel the need to fix or mend what they dislike in what they love. These disappointed fans of F1 are clear in their engagement that they don’t think the event as a whole is going to benefit the sport or be fun for them to watch. Many fans from different teams have come together to comment on how they dislike the event and disapprove of what F1 has given them in terms of content. This brings up the presence of bad objects in anti-fandom, the way the majority of the fandom agrees with F1 being bad is an example of bad objects within anti-fandom. Bad objects relate to how these fans of distinct teams who would normally not agree or cooperate have bonded over what they deem is outright bad for the sport. Not all fans in the F1 case are in agreement that the event as a whole is bad but many have come together over certain aspects of the race weekend. For instance, Reddit user “Aliensomewhere” posted a blog post concerning the cutting down of fees for those who attended due to the event being disorganized to attendees. Context is that the people who paid for tickets were not allowed in because the event was understaffed in security. The bad object consists of the fans rallying behind the ones who were left paying for the event but not getting to watch all of it. This can be seen by the fan interactions like this user who says, “Cowards tbh. Should have milked plastic billionaire city for all its worth instead of jacking up fees for literally everyone else.” (Reddit, Aliensomehwere (Elrond007), 2023) This is just an example of some of the things being said in the response to the article on Reddit. This bad object is significant because it encapsulates the whole fandom as they agree, that anyone who paid to see F1 deserves the right to watch and shouldn’t be penalized for poor planning for the events poor planning.
Aside from the bad object in the fandom discourse, the affective position of fans can be pointed out in terms of why they may be so distraught over the event as a whole. The article by Servicer points out how fans of sports often fantasize about what they wish might happen regarding a team or sport they like. The article goes on to discuss how these fans are often left in a worse place when the fantasies they make are proved wrong, and the affective connections they make don’t come true which causes a type of disappointment. This idea is conveyed when Servicer says, “When people fantasize positively about the future, they experience positive emotions at the moment. Positively fantasizing may backfire in the long run…” (Sevincer, 2020) This again proves the affective engagement of F1 fandom, most of the fans that are backlashing are those who wanted the sport to come to their country or who were not able to get tickets. The ongoing disappointment of these F1 fans built on not only the event being extremely exclusive but because it was organized less than most other major sports events. This collides with the notion of snark fandom and people who deliberately engage with media texts picking apart what they don’t like but still consuming the products. Snark fandom is defined effectively by Harman when he says, “This article builds on Gray and Sandvoss’s work by expanding on Francesca Haig’s (2013) discussion of ‘snark’ fandom. We suggest that the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy (2012) has generated an ironic, even guilty fandom, in which readers and viewers bemoan the series’ flaws while enjoying (sometimes furtively) the texts.” (Sevincer, p.951, 2020) This explanation of snark fandom directly relates to the argument of this paper and what has been discussed regarding Formula One fans and their change of opinion with the introduction of the Vegas race. Snark fandom is clearly laid out as sarcastic and or rude comments made by anti-fans or even some fans who want to participate in fan culture affectively but in a way that calls out the particular media.
The notion of snark fandom discussed above highlights not only F1’s different fandom and anti-fan discourses but also because it shows how affective the engagement of fans can be. That is these fans project their emotional interpretations of the event and feel so passionately about it that they need to share their discourse, sometimes in a toxic way. This is elaborated upon by Oates when he talks about sports fandom and the discourses which these fans engage and produce content for. He goes into detail about how fans can often get aggressive while debating their own opinions. He says, “Banter in sports fan communities tends to be aggressive, with adversaries commonly diminishing one another with insults and threats of metaphorical violence.” (Oates, p. 521, 2023) This is particularly interesting as it highlights the presence of hostility within sports fandom, this hostility is attributed to the affective connections which sports fans have with their teams and athletes. This is a distinct characteristic of sports fandom as sports are at the base level of competition to see which team is stronger, the fans have adopted an almost mirrored image of this in their online discourse and fan debates where they convey an aggression that is not easily explained. This is also seen in the discourse of F1 fans and the Las Vegas race weekend when fans have debated. This F1 fan with the Reddit username “chico6k” explained his anger and frustration in a lengthy comment about his experience at the race saying, “Seeing those cars tonight was supposed to be a dream come true. But instead F1 decides to basically spit in Las Vegas’ collective face instead.” (Reddit, Chico6k, 2023) This is just a glimpse of what the user goes on to say about the event and the organization and others band around him and see F1 as a bad object for doing this. In this sense, the aggression was taken away from the fans and placed back on the organization.
All these disappointed anti-fans, and fans who have agreed on a bad object feeling extremely let down by the F1 event summarizes a vast portion of fan studies and changing discourse of fandoms. Fandoms are continuously being interpreted and expanded by fans and in creating a space for more people to share their beliefs the views of the fans can be seen. By these fans like Chinesegoddess bringing attention to certain aspects of the sport it highlights a key aspect of importance within anti-fandom. That aspect is seeing the issues and passions of the fans. By examining the issues, things fans dislike, and the overall passionate engagement of them it allows outsiders of the fandom to see true insider information regarding the fandom. In other words by paying attention to the anti-fandom, anger and disputes within the fandom from an outsider perspective it will easily tell you some of the main ongoing discourses of the fandom as a whole.
This paper has explored F1 fandom concerning the new Las Vegas Grand Prix and has commented on the fan engagement and reactions to it. The thesis of this paper primarily focused on the fan engagement and affective sensibility that those fans underwent to get to their interactions. Additionally, a strong focus was placed on showing how numerous F1 fans feel as if they have been alienated by the league because they decided to make three out of the 23 races in the United States. This upset these fans because that’s nearly two times more races in a country than anywhere else on the calendar. Lastly, this set-in motion the anti-fandom of the race and F1 to comment on Reddit saying how and why they believed the race was a bad idea, overall conveying their affective connection to either keeping the sport about the racing or keeping Las Vegas the same, at the end of the day change was feared and responded to with discourse.
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