How can motorsport unlock the true commercial value of its fans?

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There’s no shortage of energy around motorsport right now.

Across Formula 1, WEC, WRC, IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula E and beyond, fan appetite is growing. New audiences are coming in. Existing fans are staying engaged. And crucially, interest is spreading across more series, formats and experiences than ever before.

That’s the good news.

The challenge is that while attention is booming, much of the commercial value still isn’t landing where it could. Too much fan engagement lives on social platforms, with broadcasters, or in one-off event moments. It’s visible, but it’s not always ownable. And that leaves brands, teams, rights-holders and organisers asking the same question: how do we turn all that attention into something more valuable?

Following our workshop at BlackBook Motorsport Forum 2026, we sat down with Commercial Director, Dom Mernock, to unpack the bigger commercial themes behind the discussion.

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What was the core challenge behind the workshop at BlackBook?

I think the big opportunity is that there’s a huge amount of energy, passion and excitement in motorsport right now.

A lot of that is still being fuelled by the effect Formula 1 has had in bringing new audiences into the sport, particularly through the Drive to Survive Netflix series. What’s interesting is that it’s brought new fans in without pushing existing fans away. That’s opened people’s eyes to more of the motorsport landscape too, whether that’s WEC, WRC, IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula E or other emerging series.

So the appetite is there. People want more motorsport, in more places, across more formats. The challenge is what happens next.

You’ve got teams vying for attention, sponsors vying for attention, rights-holders vying for attention, events vying for attention, drivers vying for attention. There’s so much happening that fans are being bombarded with content, activations, video and experiences from every angle.

That makes this less of a problem and more of an exciting challenge. How do we harness all that attention and engagement into something that’s more ownable, more measurable and more commercially valuable?

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Why isn’t fan attention enough anymore?

Because attention on its own doesn’t get you very far unless you can turn it into something more meaningful.

At the moment, a lot of the noise sits on social platforms, with broadcasters, or around physical events. That creates visibility, but it also cuts out a huge amount of commercial opportunity. Only a small percentage of fans will ever attend a race in person. And while social channels are brilliant for reach, they still own the data, the audience and the rules of engagement.

That leaves the people creating the attention with a challenge. They’re the ones investing in building the audience, but they don’t always have a direct way to deepen the relationship or commercialise it effectively.

There’s also a saturation issue. As fans, we’re all trying to keep up with more. More teams. More drivers. More formats. More content. More channels. Even when you care deeply about a sport, it can start to become white noise. And when that happens, simply shouting louder isn’t the answer.

The real question is what value exchange you’re creating. What are you giving fans that makes them want to step into a deeper relationship with you? What are they getting that’s unique, relevant or useful enough for them to give something back?

That’s where attention starts to become valuable.

What does a stronger direct fan relationship actually unlock commercially?

It unlocks the ability to understand people properly, and once you understand people properly, you can create much more relevant commercial opportunities around them.

If we know what a fan cares about, which driver they follow, what kind of events they’re interested in, what content they engage with, where they are, what motivates them, then we can start to build experiences, offers and journeys that are much more tailored to them.

That might mean a limited-edition piece of merchandise for a very specific fan segment. It might mean a targeted offer to get someone to their first race if we know they’ve never attended one. It might mean something designed for friends and family, or a more relevant sponsor proposition based on what that audience genuinely cares about.

The point is that better fan understanding opens up more relevant commercial action.

But none of that works without a value exchange up front. You have to give people something worthwhile in return for going deeper with you. If you do that well, you strengthen the relationship and create a much better foundation for long-term commercial value.

What’s stopping progress?

I think a few things are getting in the way.

First, there’s a tendency to focus on the big shiny stuff. Experiential activity is a good example. It’s exciting, it creates noise, it drives PR and it absolutely has a place. But it’s also often gatekept to the people who can physically get there.

You can create something brilliant in one place and get some coverage from it, but the number of fans who actually experience it can still be tiny. That doesn’t mean those activations aren’t valuable. It means they can’t be the whole answer.

Second, there’s a lot of complexity in the way organisations think about this. Tech stacks feel complicated. Internal ownership can be unclear. Different priorities are pulling in different directions. These are high-performance organisations moving at speed, and not all of them have the digital or marketing fundamentals in place to tackle this in a pragmatic way.

I also think the sector sometimes lacks outside perspective.

Motorsport has incredible strength on PR, partnerships and experience. But there’s thinking from other sectors, especially ones where attention has to be earned much more deliberately, that could be hugely useful here. Sometimes that expertise just hasn’t made its way into the room.

So in a lot of cases, progress stalls because the focus is in the wrong place. Too much complexity. Too much risk aversion. Not enough simplicity.

What’s the most realistic first move?

Start by looking at it more like a business problem.

You’ve got all this marketing, all this attention, all this noise. The question is: what are you doing with it?

How are you getting that attention to drive commercial action? How are you using it to create more value exchange with fans? How are you building a stronger relationship that lasts beyond the moment itself?

That doesn’t have to mean a huge transformation programme. In fact, it probably shouldn’t.

The most realistic next move is to simplify. Get clear on where attention currently sits. Identify the most obvious opportunities to turn it into a more direct relationship. Work out what fans would genuinely value in return. Then build from there.

Too often, people get stuck because they think the answer has to be complex. It usually doesn’t. The first step is often just being more focused and more intentional about what happens after the attention arrives.

Your next move on the grid

Motorsport already has something incredibly valuable. People care.

The opportunity now is to stop treating that attention as the finish line and start treating it as the start of a stronger, more direct and more commercially useful relationship.

That’s where the next opportunity is. Not in generating more noise for the sake of it, but in making that noise work harder.

If you’d like to explore how your organisation can turn fan attention into lasting commercial value, get in touch.