Chipotle enter Formula 1, but why not SX?

Remember when they were trying very hard to cross-advertise with monster truck “racing”? That’s probably all we need to know about where the sport is in the grand scheme of things. 

That little Chipotle logo cost them millions of dollars. Enough to fund a factory team. 

The Haas team is at the back of the grid and doesn't get the same exposure as the front runners Red Bull, Ferrari, or Mercedes. That said, it is an American team and that's appealing to an American company. 

Chipotle is expanding its footprint and now has restaurants in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, and France with Germany being the only country not hosting an F1 race. 

The Netflix series Drive to Survive has helped grow the sport of F1 in the US. The US will have 3 races this year. That's up from 2 last year. The 2023 US races will be Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas. Only a couple of years ago Austin was the only US stop. That's how much the interest in the US has grown. 

For perspective, Oracle signed a 5 year deal with the Red Bull F1 team worth $500 million. 

 That's not how it works with a public company. 

I bumped into Ryan Dungey and his dad at a chipotle in norco during his rookie year. I also saw RV at a chipotle in the high desert last year. Seems like a natural fit for them to sponsor an SX team 🫶

Your head will be spinning when you see the amount of money at a F1 race, the paddock and housepitality setups are amazing.  The amount of cash they spend to make F1 the top of the heap in Motorsports racing is over the top but its a show like no other. To bad you cant see a race when they had the V12s or V10s those cars screaming at 19k RPM is something you will never forget. I think SX does a great job for the size of the sport and money available, but unless you have F1 money it wont get to much bigger or better which may be a good thing.   

Because only about 1% of the population ride dirt bikes. 

Some of the hospitality trailers. 

Red Bull 

 Ferrari 

 Mercedes 

McLaren 

 Haas 

The logo is on the side and front wing of the car as well as drivers uniforms. HAAS F1 has 2.5 million Instagram followers. Star Yamaha team 192k. RC is at 922k. Which one has more reach globally? And when HAAS askes for 5 million and an MX/SX team askes for 1 million who gets them better ROI?  Chipotle is also looking a more global expansion so this gives them name recognition. 

 If Chipotle wanted to sponsor SX they would sponsor the series not a team. Which is also a problem, Toyota, Discount tire etc were team sponsors and then the series stole them. 

Have you watched Drive to survive ? if not its on netflix and you can watch the first seasons before the new season starts. Its a great series and several of the drivers and teams didn't want any part of it the first season and then they saw the extreme popularity of the show so now they all want to be part of the story line. Verstappen was saying how its overplayed the tensions with Hamilton and himself but like most TV series they will build up the small stuff to make it look like a big deal. 

That chick is rather homely.

The series did not steal team sponsors. Lots of companies will start small by sponsoring a rider or team to see if its worth their money to invest more of their advertising dollars. People were saying the same thing about when Reed was sponsored by the CBD company that their sponsor was stolen by Feld which was bullshit. Why would Toyota or Discount or any company dive in head first without seeing if the reward was there, most test the water first.  

That sounds about right considering a title sponsor is probably close to, if not over, $50mil. The amount of world wide TV coverage F1 has probably surpasses soccer (individual event viewers of course, not vs. every soccer match).

There is quite the difference in only fans sponsoring rather than an only fans girl sponsoring. I know the team that Lewis is talking about, and unfortunately, without the only fans money, the team is now gone. Of course, this was an mxgp team, so it doesn’t affect anyone here in the states too much, but still, a company like that to come in, drop a lot of money, will only bring more outside companies in worldwide. 

To enter F1 the team must first pay $200 Million to join (if they let you in).  Each year after the team pays $575,000 plus $6,926 per point earned.  The cost cap for the 2 driver team is $142 Million/yr and they spend every cent.  This amount does not include drivers salary, top 3 team member salary, travel expense, property, marketing expense, etc Those are all on top the $142 Million!

This ^^^

Until Drive to Survive came along, F1 was always big for guys like us, but not for the masses.  Drive to Survive blew F1 up like no other and until SX or MX starts something similar, it will always be similar to what it is now.

For people other than us most racing is very boring to watch, including F1 and SX/MX.  Up until the last few years F1 races were boring boat races with little completion and passing action. I've always loved it, but other people did not watch it because of this.  Now, enter a dramatic reality show where the audience gets to know the drivers/characters/teams, and now everyone is watching.  I have friends who are into this now that I would never expect to be watching F1, all because of the show.

I've tried to bring so many people into SX and MX over the years and it's usually boring for them to watch as the field thins out and they follow each other around the track.  We need our own "Ride to Survive" to bridge the audience and riders and create a drama filled series that people can get into.  Start with Anderson and Barcia and watch the SX audience begin grow like F1's audience.

I am a diehard Ferrari fan so maybe this will be my year again. I will watch all the seasons again here before the new season starts.

The "if they let you in" is key. Michael Andretti has been trying to get a team forever and they won't let him in alone. He has finally got Cadillac onboard as a partner and he'll probably get a team. 

Supercross can't compete. 

Statistics

Supercross 

Hampton, Ga. (April 16, 2021) Round 13 of the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross series, held at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the first time in the sports history, averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 600,000 viewers, marking a season-high mark for a live race broadcast. The Saturday afternoon race also totalled the highest reach viewership for a Supercross telecast this season (1.76 million viewers) while airing against a very competitive sports programming day. 

The series continues this Saturday, April 17 on NBCSN at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the final event of the Atlanta triple-header.

F1 in the US alone.

The 2022 Formula One season was the most-viewed ever in the United States.

-The season averaged 1.21 million viewers per race across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, up 28 percent from the 2021 record of 949,000 average viewers.

-Twelve of 22 races set U.S. television event viewership records. The new Miami Grand Prix was the most-watched event ever in the U.S.

-The biggest increases in “key demographics” were among young viewers and women, per ESPN.

Formula 1 has released annual audience figures following the 2021 World Championship season.

TV audience

The season finale in Abu Dhabi drew 108.7m viewers, +29% higher than the same race in 2020 – and the highest viewing figures for a race during the season.

The cumulative TV audience for 2021 was 1.55bn, up 4% from the 2020 season. F1 also saw strong audiences for the season opener in Bahrain (84.5m), and for the three Sprint weekend events at Silverstone (79.5m), Monza (80.4m) and Sao Paulo (82.1m).

There were significant rises in season cumulative audience in several markets, including many of F1's biggest markets. The Netherlands stood out with an increase of +81% Year on Year, but there were also significant gains in the USA (+58% YoY), France (+48% YoY), Italy (+40% YoY) and the UK (+39% YoY).

TV unique viewers (the number of individuals that tune into at least one race during the season) for 2021 stood at 445m (+3% YoY). The biggest market on this metric was China (70.8m unique viewers in 2021, +13% vs 2020), but there were also significant YoY gains in Spain (+272%), Russia (+129%), and the USA (+53%).

Globally, the average audience per Grand Prix in 2021 was 70.3m. Looking only at markets where like-for-like broadcasting arrangements were maintained across 2020 and 2021, the figure was 60.3m, up +13% YoY, and the highest figure since 2013.

Social and digital platforms

Once again Formula 1 was the fastest-growing major sports league on the planet in terms of follower growth in 2021. F1 has 49.1m total followers and have seen the highest engagement rate with social posts compared to other major sports in 2021.

In 2021, followers (across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok, Snapchat, Twitch and Chinese social platforms) were up 40% to 49.1m, video views up 50% to 7bn and total engagement up 74% to 1.5bn.

Additionally, total video views across F1.com, the F1 app and social media were up 44% vs 2020 to 7.04bn, unique users were up 63% to 113m and page views were up +23% to 1.6bn. In China F1 saw very strong digital growth with followers on Chinese platforms (Weibo, WeChat, Toutiao and Douyin) up 39% to 2.7m.

The results mean that Formula 1 is outperforming other major sports in the digital arena. The digital share of total minutes consumed (across broadcast and digital) has grown from 10% in 2020 to 16% in 2021.

Race attendance

In 2021 F1 welcomed 2.69 million fans back to its events – after closed doors in 2020 – even though many races had limited capacities, and some could not welcome fans at all due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although lower than pre-COVID figures of 4.16 million, this shows that there is huge demand for Formula 1 races, and F1 expects that demand will return to normal levels once the pandemic subsides.

Three Grands Prix had an attendance of more than 300,000 spectators over the race weekend: USA (400,000), Mexico (371,000) and Great Britain (356,000).

The USA, Mexico and Great Britain welcomed more fans than in 2019, the last time full capacities were possible, with previous attendances being 268,000, 348,000 and 351,000 people, respectively.

A total of 11 events attracted crowds of over 100,000 including: Belgium (213,000), the Netherlands (195,000), Turkey (190,000), Brazil (181,000), Abu Dhabi (153,000), Saudi Arabia (143,000), Austria (132,000) and Hungary (130,000).

You guys do know that Chipotle is owned by McDonald's right?

More like 0.001%

Moto punches above its weight, but it's not even a pimple on the ass of F1 and the dollars involved in that sport.

Not since 2006 when they sold their share back to the founders. McDonalds wanted them to be a "Mexican" McDonalds with drive thrus and breakfast. Chipotle said no. 

McDonalds was a major investor before the Chipotle IPO but sold its stake a while ago so NO McDonalds does not own or have anything to do with Chipotle but thanks for playing.   But what would be your point if they were still a major investor of Chipotle ? 

Those are amazing! Maybe in another 20 years some moto team can buy a used one of those trailers.  Are there any websites that have images of the insides and or build info, images or video of them being built?  I have not looked at F1 setups in a few years, they are insane looking now.   

Please call DV and ask him this question.

I found this site that builds  trailers and other portable building like things.   And there is a Kawasaki MXgp team setup that is pretty cool. Pricewise , they do not seem like they would be much more than the current rigs. Shipping them over to the US is probable the big expense. I wonder how expensive that Honda setup is?  Cool rigs though.   https://www.expandable-trailers.com/references/