Results 1: Participants
Demographics and profiles.
Question 1: What is your age?
Reasoning
This aim of this question was to gauge the different age demographics following the WEC. Participants were asked to select from one of six age brackets.
Participating users
519/519 [100 percent]
This question is basic but immediately generates a profile for the spectrum of survey participants.
When I was developing the survey, I didn’t expect such a high percentage of participants to identify as over 40 years old. If I had known at the time, I would have increased the age options further out to include something like [41–50], [51–65], and [65+].
From what we can see in the data, the majority of the audience for WEC are over 26 years old, with 16.2% identifying themselves as over 40 years old and just 6.5% of participants identifying as under 18 years old. The viewer base clearly skews more towards a more mature market. Given that the live stream for races is put behind a pay-wall or broadcast only on digital satellite TV, it makes sense that fans of the WEC tend to be older, perhaps with stable jobs and disposable income.
Question 2: Where in the world do you live?
Reasoning
This aim of this question was to expand the participant profile to include basic geographical location.
Participating users
501/519 [96.5 percent]
There were 53 different countries represented in this survey, with 18 additional participants leaving this question undeclared.
The question was designed to test how well the WEC fares across the globe. The wording was specific to not phrase it as “What is your nationality?” and instead focused on the survey participant’s current residence.
It’s possible that survey participants who registered themselves in countries where the WEC may not be widely popular are people who moved there from a country where the WEC is an established and popular form of motorsport.
There is an obvious inherent bias for this question given that the survey was written in English and its participants were sourced through English-language websites. The survey clearly skews heavily towards British and U.S. participants with more than half the total of all participants stating their residences as those two nations alone.
I also received between 3–5 complaints from users unable to find “GB — Great Britain” on the drop-down menu. Every complaint was for this selection specifically. It was speculated by other participants that this may have been a result of undertaking the survey on a mobile device rather than a desktop computer.
Question 3: How many years have you been following endurance racing?
Reasoning
The aim of this question was to see how many WEC fans were endurance fans before the series began in 2012.
Participating users
518/519 [99.8 percent]
This question gives us a good example of the WEC’s ability to gather both long-term and new fans.
The WEC itself was only established in 2012, so this question had to be phrased towards the general principle of endurance racing rather than mentioning this specific championship. Most participants would have known other Le Mans series championships that acted as a precursor to the WEC.
Another problem was how many participants selected [10+ years] as their answer. I didn’t predict such a high volume of long-term fans and the question would have been better suited to options that extended beyond 10+ years of following the series.
Question 4: How long have you been following motorsport?
Reasoning
The aim of this question was to establish a baseline behind the previous question and a comparison point for the popularity of endurance racing on a long-term scale.
Participating users
518/519 [99.8 percent]
The response to this question shows that more than two-thirds of motorsport fans have been such for more than 10 years. This percentage is nearly triple that of the total that identified as following endurance racing for more than 10 years. This shows that endurance racing has grown in popularity.
Much like the previous question, the inclusion of further options would have been useful for further breaking down the participants. Options for [20+ years] and [30+ years] could have been useful.
Question 5: Which of the following motorsport series do you watch?
Reasoning
The aim of this question to find which forms of motorsport were most popular among fans of the WEC. Participants selected all applicable options that represented motorsports that they watched in addition to the WEC.
Participating users
518/519 [99.8 percent]
This question generates a good impression of what fans look for and warm to within a motorsport series. It makes sense that other endurance formulas such as the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and the Blancpain GT Endurance series would be popular among fans of the WEC.
Other than WEC, Formula 1 is the most-watched form of motorsport for WEC fans. It’s the most watched form of motorsport worldwide, so this is no surprise.
The interesting comparison here is the difference represented here between ELMS and AsLMS. More than half of WEC fans also watch ELMS, but just 7.7 percent of WEC fans state that they also watch its Asian counterpart. This might be attributed to timezones and coverage accessibility.
There may be a bias towards certain series which take place in the locality of participants who identified themselves as holding residence in locations close-by. E.G. Indycar would obviously be more popular among U.S. fans (30.5 percent of survey participants) than Japanese fans (0.4 percent) who might favour their own domestic single seater series, Super Formula.
More bike-related categories other than just MotoGP might have been useful, though the “Other” section did cover this in some way.
Question 6–9: How closely do you follow LMP1 / LMP2 / GTE Pro / GTE Am during the race broadcast?
Reasoning
The aim of these four questions was to find out what fans pay attention to during each WEC race. Participants were asked to rate how closely they followed each class within each race.
Participating users
LMP1–518/519 [99.8 percent]
LMP2–518/519 [99.8 percent]
GTE Pro — 516/519 [99.4 percent]
GTE Am — 517/519 [99.6 percent]
The results clearly favour the top prototype class. LMP1 received an average rating of 9.0 from fans. This class is obviously the focal point of the championship and receives the most coverage so that tips the scales somewhat, but the results still paint a picture of fans fascinated by the top class hybrid machinery.
LMP2 received an average interest rating of 6.9 percent, which is lower than GTE Pro’s rating of 7.6 percent. GTE Am was rated 5.6 overall, which is by far the class that fans indicated as following the least during a race. What this shows is that fans are drawn to the fastest form of each car format. It is possible that some are put off by the Pro-Am nature of LMP2 and GTE Am, where driver ratings play a prominent role in the outcome of the race.
For the most part, fans don’t really get to decide what to follow. The broadcast director chooses what gets put on the main TV feed. Fans who pay for the online streaming service will have the option of viewing on-board cameras from other cars, so that is a possible method of tracking a class of choice, but remains unlikely to be a viewer’s primary form of following a race. Possible, but not favoured by most.
The results above do not need to be viewed as a rating of a fan’s enjoyment of each class, but simply how much they follow the individual races taking part within the overall event. Scores would likely be heavily adjusted if the broadcast director focused more on the lower classes. Their job is to put the action on screen, but there is a tendency to focus on LMP1 if in doubt of what to show.
