The Covid-19 pandemic last year meant that Formula One and its about 1.9 billion TV viewers needed to find new ways and venues to keep one of the world’s most-watched sports alive – and it was then that the Middle East came to the fore.
The revised 2020 championship salvaged 17 of F1’s initial 21 races, with every race held either in Europe or the Mena region. With that came a wave of new fans, spurred on by the impending arrival of the first Saudi Arabia Grand Prix this December.
Speaking the language
With six potential races in the Mena region, comprising the three Grands Prix in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Jeddah, two in the wider catchment area of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and speculation of races in Egypt or Morocco, the region surpasses Asia and the Americas as the second biggest behind Europe’s eight races held last year.
“We need as many touchpoints as possible to entice fans and one way we plan to enhance this is with the introduction of Arabic text across our media platforms,” says F1’s global director of media rights Ian Holmes.
“Even though the region varies enormously, [as] part of our engagement, we need to push more Arabic content … whether that be through TV graphics or across online and social portals.”
Catching them young
Holmes says the Mena region has one of F1's youngest demographics and is a prime market to nurture the next generation of fans – those who embrace online and social media platforms to support the traditional outlet of TV.
The F1 management states that F1 was the world’s second fastest-growing sport across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube last year, rising 36 per cent with the inclusion of TikTok, Snapchat and Twitch, while video views jumped 47 per cent to 4.9 billion.
“While the international TV feed will always remain our core product and the move in 2019 to MBC Action has been perfect to place the sport in front of non-core fans, the region also has a very young demographic who engage through mobile devices,” says Holmes.
Enhancing output
Outperforming other major sports in the digital arena, including La Liga, the PGA tour and the Premier League, US sports, such as the NBA, are being monitored by F1 with regards to their online and social media strategies.
“The NFL and the NBA are terrific examples of always pushing the envelope for what they license to their media partners and what they push themselves,” says Holmes.
“While the NBA has over 1,000 games a year, our advantage is the depth of coverage we offer with data analysis and timing information. This is relevant for the avid fan, but also entertains the casual viewer.”
Given the technical nature of motor racing, Holmes says the use of graphics to explain technical details has been key to winning new fans, which will expand with his plans to localise content for the TV package.
“We spend a lot of time thinking about graphics because you don't want to oversimplify something for the avid enthusiast, yet we're also focused on engaging with new fans who appreciate the extra information.
“We're working on Arabic graphics for the feed that goes out to MBC Action and is something we'd like to introduce this year or early next year."
Building bases
As recently as four years ago, F1 didn’t have a digital media department, yet its YouTube channel now has 5.76 million subscribers, while the highlights from the recent Austrian Grand Prix gained 4.2 million YouTube views in two days.
“With online and social media, the Mena region has enormous potential because it's an incredibly important market, being so young. Our Middle East TV coverage goes to 200 million households, which shows the audience base we can build from.”
It’s important we build on this momentum from the younger Middle Eastern fans and drivers because ...[Saudi Arabia] is attracting more interest every month
Ian Holmes
The aim isn’t to cannibalise TV viewership, which the F1 management says increased by its highest margin since 2012 of 9 per cent in 2019, but to discover how platforms can deliver incremental audiences with experiences that connect fans as they switch between platforms.
Of that 9 per cent rise, Mena was the second-largest growth market for F1, the organistaion recorded a 228 per cent rise following its switch to MBC Action and was significantly above the 56 per cent increase in the Netherlands that was spurred on by home-town star Max Verstappen.
Driving ambition
F1’s popularity in the Middle East is also starting to pay dividends on the track with young drivers emerging on the European open-wheel racing scene.
Abu Dhabi’s Al Qubaisi sisters Amna and Hamda are competing in European F3 and F4 championships respectively, while Saudi Arabia’s Reema Al Juffali is racing in the British F3 championship, all of which are critical stepping stones to F1.
With races during the day, at night and in the twilight, you instantly know the difference between Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Baku and Jeddah
Ian Holmes
“It’s important that we build on this momentum from the younger Middle Eastern fans and drivers because we've never raced in Saudi Arabia before, but we can see that the region is attracting more interest every month,” says Holmes.
He likens the Mena region to Europe, “in that it's important not to think of it as one place. Each race has a different atmosphere, so it’s like a microcosm of the world championship where we have some events on the streets like Jeddah, some on big, old venues like Baku and some on super-new circuits like Abu Dhabi.
“With races during the day, at night and in the twilight, you also instantly know the difference between Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Baku and Jeddah as they all have unique characteristics.”
The inaugural Saudi Arabia Grand Prix will be held from December 3 to 5, with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix closing the season on December 12
Honeymoonish
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MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
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Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
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Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
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Tickets range from Dh110 for an advance single-day pass to Dh300 for a weekend pass at the door. VIP tickets have sold out. Visit www.mefcc.com to purchase tickets in advance.
'Munich: The Edge of War'
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Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
1. Your pension fund has been placed inside an offshore insurance wrapper with a hefty upfront commission.
2. The money has been transferred into a structured note. These products have high upfront, recurring commission and should never be in a pension account.
3. You have also been sold investment funds with an upfront initial charge of around 5 per cent. ETFs, for example, have no upfront charges.
4. The adviser charges a 1 per cent charge for managing your assets. They are being paid for doing nothing. They have already claimed massive amounts in hidden upfront commission.
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
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Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)
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Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
No.6 Collaborations Project
Ed Sheeran (Atlantic)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
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Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
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Amazon Prime
Four stars
Christopher Robin
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The specs
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THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Norway
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Canada
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What is Reform?
Reform is a right-wing, populist party led by Nigel Farage, a former MEP who won a seat in the House of Commons last year at his eighth attempt and a prominent figure in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union.
It was founded in 2018 and originally called the Brexit Party.
Many of its members previously belonged to UKIP or the mainstream Conservatives.
After Brexit took place, the party focused on the reformation of British democracy.
Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson became its first MP after defecting in March 2024.
The party gained support from Elon Musk, and had hoped the tech billionaire would make a £100m donation. However, Mr Musk changed his mind and called for Mr Farage to step down as leader in a row involving the US tycoon's support for far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson who is in prison for contempt of court.
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GP3 race, 12:30pm
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Formula 1 qualifying, 5pm
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UAE cricketers abroad
Sid Jhurani is not the first cricketer from the UAE to go to the UK to try his luck.
Rameez Shahzad Played alongside Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett in Durham while he was studying there. He also played club cricket as an overseas professional, but his time in the UK stunted his UAE career. The batsman went a decade without playing for the national team.
Yodhin Punja The seam bowler was named in the UAE’s extended World Cup squad in 2015 despite being just 15 at the time. He made his senior UAE debut aged 16, and subsequently took up a scholarship at Claremont High School in the south of England.
