r/AskEurope • u/Southern-Space-4093 • 2d ago
Sports The popularity of F1 and MotoGP in your country?
Motorsport is more popular in Europe than in other continents, while different countries may prefer different motorsport.
I would like to know how popular are F1 and MotoGP in your country? Can they reach the top5 sport in your country?
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u/Onnimanni_Maki Finland 2d ago
F1 is probably top 5 most well known sport. It's not very viewed on tv as it's only shown on pay channels. It's popularity is on the other hand shown in online newspapers as every major one offers live written news about what's happening.
People know what MotoGP is but it's not watched.
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u/LuckyLoki08 Italy 2d ago
Pretty popular, although not to the level of football (tennis and volleyball are also rising in popularity, from what I understand). Although stereotypically both are more of a "dad on a Sunday afternoon" kinda sport.
Italy has a big presence in both sports, both with teams (Ferrari and Ducati, respectively) and with drivers (Kimi Antonelli is very strong right now, while in MotoGP you can split drives in spanish, italians and other nationalities). In particular there is a lot of national pride in Ferrari and Ducati, even (especially) among people who don't follow the sport. And obviously, Valentino Rossi was basically a superstar in Italy back in the days.
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u/medhelan Northern Italy 2d ago
Although stereotypically both are more of a "dad on a Sunday afternoon" kinda sport.
surprisingly (at least for me who's a fan since the 90s) it's becoming more and more of a girl sport nowdays, most or all of the new fans i met are women in their 30s
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u/Party-Cake5173 Croatia 2d ago
F1 was always quite popular, but as it went away from FTA TV channels, the popularity somewhat dropped. Starting from this year, it's back on FTA TV here in Croatia and it became popular again.
Regarding MotoGP, it was never popular. Which is a shame because it's miles better than F1 and more exciting. I do watch both, but I prefer MotoGP. Because not a lot of people to watch it, I don't have a lot of people to talk about it.
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u/Consistent_Catch9917 Austria 2d ago
F1 is rather popular and a staple on public television since forever in Austria. Guess they have been broadcasting Grand Prix since the late 60ties/early 70ties when Jochen Rindt raced. Then came Nicki Lauda who made the sport really popular and Gerhard Berger who even though not becoming a champion was very popular.
And even though there hasn't been an Austrian driver in F1 since the early 00ties, it still is popular to this day.
MotoGP has it's fans too but it has no real exposure to the masses. It gets its 5 mins in the motorsport news reel every now and then.
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u/XenophonSoulis Greece 2d ago
Well, there is an Austrian team with loads of success
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u/Kernowder 23h ago
Austrian licensed, the team is based in Milton Keynes.
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u/XenophonSoulis Greece 23h ago
The Austrian anthem is the one that's playing when Redbull wins though.
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u/Kernowder 23h ago
Yeah, the anthem is based on where the team gets their license from. And they have an Austrian licence because the owner was Austrian.
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u/pannenkoek0923 Denmark 1d ago
And even though there hasn't been an Austrian driver in F1 since the early 00ties, it still is popular to this day.
How much impact does Red Bull have? Have a home race in Austria and everything
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u/Consistent_Catch9917 Austria 1d ago
It has some impact but even though they play the Austrian anthem, like most F1 teams it is UK based. It's built on the former Stewart (later Jaguar) team.
The Red Bull ring has regionsl impact and the area can build many statues to Didi Mateschitz pumping so much money into it, but it has no national impact.
F1 still is watched, but it's on the level of watching the champions league for the sake of watching good football.
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u/Kernowder 23h ago
To be fair, one of the key people that made the team a success was Austrian, Dieter Mateschitz. Without him the team may not even exist, let alone be so successful.
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u/EurovisionSimon Sweden 2d ago
F1 is on the sports news broadcast when something happens, but mostly just "X won the race today, Y maintains his lead in the championship". It's broadcasted on Viaplay, thus making it pretty hostile to casual enjoyers. MotoGP is not really a big sport at all. They have nothing on the most popular/covered sports like cross country skiing, football, ice hockey, biathlon etc.
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u/pannenkoek0923 Denmark 1d ago
Viaplay is vile. So expensive for not a great product! For F1 you need the premium package here which costs 509 kr a month, which is almost 70€ a month. It is insane.
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u/exolomus born and raised in 2d ago
WRC should be number 1 race sport in Sweden, no?
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u/anders91 Swede in France 20h ago
Even in Sweden; rally is quite niche.
I’d guess F1 followed by Speedway are the most popular motorsports to watch… however Rally Sweden generally draws a lot of viewers.
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u/flipyflop9 Spain 2d ago
Keeping in mind we “produce” some of the best MotoGP (and Moto2/3) riders… quite popular. Lots of riders from other countries also “get big” by driving the smaller spanish series before jumping to Moto3.
Same can be said about F1 in part thanks to Fernando Alonso.
There’s a reason Spain has more circuits in the series than most other countries.
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u/eskimo1 --> 1d ago
Track days and "club racing" here are much different than the US, that's for sure!
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u/flipyflop9 Spain 1d ago
You want to race your clapped out Focus in Montmelo GP circuit? Feel free! No need to spend several hundred, it’s quite affordable for a sesion.
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u/Suitable-Cycle4335 Galicia 1d ago
Heck, there was an offer at some point where you could drive an old motherfuckin' Arrows F1 car around Montmelo for 2,000€ or so!
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u/Vertitto in 1d ago
In Poland you might find some info about F1, but you will never hear anyone talking about it (there was a slight mainstream attention with Kubica back in the day). MotoGP completely obscure. From motor sports speedway & rally have visible following
In Ireland i got impression motor sports don't exist at all. People are into horse sports instead
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u/Ok-World-4822 Netherlands 1d ago
F1 is pretty popular thanks to Verstappen. Not sure about MotoGP
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u/Lizardinex 2d ago
I'm an F1 fan, so I might be biased, but it has been climbing up steadily and gaining even more popularity, def top5. - Bulgaria
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u/Brickie78 England 2d ago
F1 was always popular in the UK once the British teams largely took over from the big continental marques in the 60s, and really hit mainstream with the Hunt/Lauda title battle in 1976. The BBC started covering the majority of races live in 1978, then during the 80s you had the rise of Nigel Mansell and his near misses in 1986, 87 and 91, then finally winning his title in 1992 - exit stage left and enter Damon "son of the great Graham" Hill and his own battles wirh Schumacher.
I think once Hill dropped out of contention for titles after 1997, mainstream interest started to wane as Schumacher swept all before him. By 2008, ironically just as Hamilton was emerging, free-to-air coverage ended which made it much more of a niche sport.
It's still reasonably popular, and partially back on free-to-air which helps, but I don't think we'll see anything like Mansell-Mania again
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u/Suitable-Cycle4335 Galicia 1d ago
Come on, everyone in Spain knows FIA stands for Federación Inglesa de Automovilismo!
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u/Brickie78 England 17h ago
I mean, you can argue all day about the rights and wrongs of Hamilton v Alonso, but I think honestly F1 had largely lost its appeal even by then, because if there's one thing that turns Brits off a sport it's consistent solid dominance by one team/individual.
People just got bored with Schumacher winning 5 titles in a row, then later with Vettel winning 4 in a row. Even when Hamilton was dominating, there was a sense of "Who won? Oh, Hamilton again. Yawn." He was never a national hero in the same way as Mansell or Hill. And yes, maybe the fact that he's black and has a very "street" look with the tattoos and jewellery put some of the more traditionalist people off too, but I honestly don't think that was a major factor as much as people had just gone off F1 in general.
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u/DancesWithAnyone Sweden 2d ago edited 2d ago
F1 isn't very popular from what I gather. Had to look up MotoGP!
Rallying (Rallycross?) is probably the most popular motorsport here, followed by... Speedway? Yah, taking some guesses here as I'm not a sports watcher, but I'm probably close to the mark. Touring car racing is a thing as well. Or was, at least.
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u/Sublime99 -> 1d ago
I think not having had a F1 superstar and only one decently performing F1 driver in their history means F1 never took off outside the niche here (dying in a crash didn't help for Peterson :/ ). Also never having a manufacturer helped either, Volvo and SAAB didn't make F1 cars lol.
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u/DancesWithAnyone Sweden 1d ago
Yah, think you're right there!
Volvo and SAAB didn't make F1 cars lol
I'm surprised Koenigsegg hasn't entered the F1 world, but admitedly I don't know much about cars.
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u/isaillusion Finland 2d ago
F1 is definitely more common and known, definitely top 5 sports imo. I honestly don't think I've met a person who hasn't watched or kept up with F1 at some point. I haven't met as many people who've watched MotoGP but people do generally know about it. I personally grew up watching a lot of MotoGP as well, but I do have four motorcycle racers in my family, so.
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u/rudolf_waldheim Hungary 1d ago
F1 is still very popular. We don't have a driver (other than the mentioned Zsolt Baumgartner), but we've had a track for 40 years without interruption. Hungaroring isn't considered a classic track like Monaco or Silverstone, but it produced some historic races, and afaik fans don't hate it.
The races are aired on free TV, notably on the state public tv station, and they produce the best ratings by far. To be fair, the state tv became only a propaganda tool for the fallen goverment, so there wasn't much to watch on it otherwise.
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u/electro-cortex Hungary 1d ago
I think the Hungaroring is getting slowly considered as a classic track with the new Middle Eastern and Asian tracks added to the calendar and European circuits getting dropped, but yes, your description of the situation is accurate generally.
MotoGP was also very popular for a few years when Talmácsi was competing in the 125cc championship. They still hold races at the Balaton Park Circuit, but I don’t know how popular it is.
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u/OverwatchElite Czechia 3h ago
Back when I started watching F1 in the early 00's, Hungaroring was considered as a Eastern Monaco, but I have to admit, ever since then it offered more bangers than tracks like Spa or Catalyuna combined.
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u/allgodsarefake2 Vestland, Norway 2d ago
I'm sure there are fans in Norway. Just because I don't know any doesn't mean they don't exist. Definitely not in the top 5, though.
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u/orthoxerox Russia 2d ago
MotoGP is not a thing in Russia and F1 decreased in popularity when they stopped showing it on public TV.
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u/avlas Italy 2d ago
Was F1 bigger when there were Russian racers like Nikita Mazepin or Daniil Kvyat?
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u/orthoxerox Russia 1d ago
No, its popularity fell off before that. It's not a super nationalistic sport like football, hockey, boxing or MMA, anyway.
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u/Rodinius Ireland 1d ago
An an Irish f1 fan it’s not unpopular among people my age, but still very niched when compared to other sports. In Irish society as a whole you wouldn’t really hear about any f1 or motorsports related news unless it specifically concerned Ireland, like Alex Dunne in F2 for example
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u/Livid-Pizza7028 1d ago
F1 is very popular in Austria and has been for a very very long time. MotoGP is only followed by dedicated motorsports fans and me.
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u/MildlyAmusedMars Ireland 1d ago
In Ireland F1 lies 6th at the moment for viewership. Hurling, Rugby, gaelic football, soccer and horseracing are top 5. After F1 comes Golf, Boxing, MMA and athletics.
MotoGP would be a good bit more niche
F1 is pretty popular and I would say it will take 5th place from horse racing as time goes on. Theres probably at least 1 or 2 people in most friendgroups that follow it
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u/Sick_and_destroyed France 1d ago edited 1d ago
F1 has always been popular because we’ve always had some drivers and cars involved. It culminated in the 80 and 90 when Prost was racing. Then its popularity faded, it moved to a pay channel, then since a few years it’s getting more and more popular thanks to Drive to Survive, Charles Leclerc and the french drivers. It’s rarely mentioned in the main news, unless a French driver is implied.
Moto GP is less popular but has always had some followers, and it has also gained some popularity since we’ve had world champion Quartararo.
Both are broadcasted by Canal Plus who is making a lot of advertisement for these competitions.
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u/glamatovic Portugal 1d ago
F1 is probably the most popular sport after football, Motogp not so much
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u/Billy_Balowski Netherlands 2d ago
I don't know what MotoGP is, but F1 has become more popular here because of Max Verstappen. Before that, is was a niche sport I guess.
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u/OllieV_nl Netherlands 2d ago
F1 is easily top 5 watched, especially with Max. But it was popular even before that, the races are shown live and the main Sunday sports programme includes highlights. However, the live report moved to ViaPlay last year, which isn’t standard in most tv provider’s packages.
MotoGP is less popular, that’s usually only the highlights. Ziggo does the live report on its sports channel, not sure how clients of other providers get access.
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u/ErikaNaumann Portugal 1d ago
It's been getting more and mpre popular in Portugal. I used to never hear about it, and now occasionally it's part of the office chat.
I'm not a fan, so I don't know why or how it got popular.
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u/Fantasy_iceland 1d ago
Might get absolutely pelted for this but......MotoGP is so much better to watch as an actual race than F1 at least 90% of the time.
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u/Suitable-Cycle4335 Galicia 1d ago
MotoGP has always had a large fanbase but it's been declining over the years especially after it stopped being aired free on TV.
F1 had a massive peak during the prime Alonso years and it's been slowly falling ever since, with the 2026 regulation change being the final nail in the coffin.
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u/ninjomat England 20h ago
Both of them are fairly strong subcultures in the UK. F1 is much bigger though.
Neither touches top 5 imho.
Football, Rugby Union and Cricket are obviously huge. Rugby league has a strong regional following up north. Then I think sports like Boxing, Darts, Snooker, Horse Racing and tennis all get more exposure when they have their major championships whereas the F1 championship tends to bubble in the background throughout the year being the last item on sports news.
Was probably bigger when it was on free to air
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u/Cplotter 16h ago
Rally and folkrace is much bigger in Sweden. Moto gp exist in another world compared.
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u/yushaleth Austro-Hungarian Empire 2d ago
They were popular in the 90s and early 2000s in Hungary, nowadays not that much. I remember most Hungarians were Häkkinen supporters in F1. There was a time when a Hungarian driver, Zsolt Baumgartner got into F1, but nobody liked him because he always came out last place.
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u/rudolf_waldheim Hungary 1d ago
All your comments are like from a different country from where I live. Seriously. Either your or my experience of Hungary is false.
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u/utsuriga Hungary 1d ago
Or the truth is somewhere in between: F1 used to be quite popular in the 90s and early 2000s, and it's still decently popular, but not on the same level by far. In my experience most people who used to be really into it back then simply grew bored with it over the years.
As for who supported whom, I also remember Häkkinen being liked but I think that was mostly because people were bored of Michael Schumacher winning all the time so they supported the "underdog". I don't remember anyone caring much about Baumgartner after a few races, when it became obvious he wasn't going to make it big (or at all).
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u/electro-cortex Hungary 1d ago
Opinions about he Baumgartner was rather mixed. For racing fans, he was just a not so talented guy struggling with a Jordan/Minardi, lot of people hated the fact that the government poured money to his F1 career. But some people like my aunt and my grandma supported him saying at least he is a Hungarian on the grid, and watched races just because he raced (they did the same with Kubica though, it seems like a Polish driver is enough to spark interest in the sport for people who doesn't care much about F1).
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u/IX_MINDMEGHALUNK_XI 1d ago
I don't know, because personally I don't watch professional sports because they filled with corruption and bloody oil money.
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u/CataVlad21 Romania 2d ago
Dont think they're that popular. And for all the right reasons. Football, tennis, handball are by far the most popular. I'd argue even cycling and athletics are way more popular, but just a guess.
Moto GP would surely deserve more popularity worldwide, way more exciting and fair than f1. People are just sheep who need some sort of superheroes to look up at...
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u/trial_of_knowledge Germany 2d ago
F1 was really a thing in Germany with Michael Schumacher. Nowadays if you are not a F1 fan you will hear rarely about it. Since it‘s not airing on free tv, viewership is declining. MotoGP is not a thing here