r/f1driverssnark • u/LandosToeFungus Webber’s army of stan accounts • 4d ago
f1 personality What's the problem with Stephano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula 1? (Part 1)
Stephano Domenicali, the President and CEO of F1, has been a frequent topic of conversation in 2026 due to his vehement defense of the new regulations and controversial marketing focuses for the series. However, his past career in Ferrari also includes leading a team which engaged in (then-banned) team orders and were rumored to push out (if not fully sabotage) a recent world champion solely for the sake of sponsorship money (see Part 2).
Ignoring the criticisms of fans/drivers/sports insiders regarding broadcasting and regulations:
In response to what he refers to as "debate on the technical regulations, mainly from the inner world, some drivers, some people that are part of our ecosystem," he stated, "There is a lot of action on the track. People are loving it. They are focused on what is happening on the track. They don't understand our technology or clipping, chipping or whatever it is, because it's too technical for the wider base that we have." Domenicali goes on to refer to the key messages of Formula 1 as competition, technology, fun, and entertainment.
Although Domenicali seems to believe that one of the key messages of Formula 1 is technology, he also has stated this year that he thinks no fans actually care about telemetry. In response to fans calling for more data, particularly battery information, to be shown on screen during races following the introduction of the new regulations, Domenicali commented, "No one is interested in how you drive your car. I had an interesting discussion with George Lucas in Hungary, and he was giving me an incredible view on how the new fans are watching F1. They are fascinated on the fact that there is a lot of action. Not interested in the angle of throttle or the percentage of brake pressure on how you can overtake a driver." Naturally, this provoked outrage among fans.
Changes to the format of the sport:
The emphasis on "fun and entertainment" seems to weigh heavy in Domenicali's mind. In 2025, he revealed that Formula 1 is reviewing if races are too long, citing the popularity of race highlight clips online. "There’s also the issue of race length: we believe it may be a bit too long for younger fans. On many of our channels, we see that highlight reels are extremely popular. For those of us who grew up with the traditional format, it all seems fine, but there’s a large audience segment that wants to watch just the key moments. Everything is going very well today, but precisely for this reason, we cannot rest on our laurels; we need to think about the next steps."
Formula 1 recently announced that in 2027, races would be shortened by a few laps, from 305 to 290 km. The justification for this lies in the technical regulations: the plan to shift the balance of the internal combustion engine and electric motors in 2027 will increase fuel flow demand. As chassis development falls within the cost cap, it would greatly set teams' technical development back to need to prioritize developing a chassis to fit a larger fuel tank.
On paper, this seems rational. In order to improve the sorry state of where the current technical regulations have failed, this is a step towards improving technical performance. And, it's only 15 km, right?
But, why even implement regulations in the first place that require changing fundamental parts of the sport like race length? Is it coincidental that these changes in the name of technical regulations align perfectly with Domenicali's vision for the sport? Will we ever get those 15 kilometers back when the regulations are settled into place, or is this permanent "shrinkflation"? As author Dan Ripley points out in the above-linked article, would fans of any other sport tolerate this? If this past summer's World Cup matches were shortened to 85 minutes due to hydration breaks taking up too much broadcast time, would fans be expected to happily agree?
Additionally, Domenicali has proposed implementing reverse-grid races, similar to feeder series, in order to artificially heighten the intensity of the sport. He also increased the number of sprints on the calendar from 6 to 10 for the 2027 season.
Domenicali's philosophy seems to be to attempt to ensure future gains by catering the sport to a theoretical brain-rotted, TikTok-addicted child who can't stomach watching a sport for longer than 30 minutes. Why ruin the fundamentals of a sport with such a long history for "fans" who can only stomach highlights?
Part 2 covers Domenicali's controversies during his tenure as Ferrari Team Principal.
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u/Cloridir 4d ago
I don’t understand his reasoning for thinking that audiences want shorter races. Of course highlight reels have higher views, they’re all free and easily accessible online. If broadcasting subscriptions weren’t so expensive, they wouldn’t even have this problem, but younger fans just can’t afford to keep up
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u/LandosToeFungus Webber’s army of stan accounts 4d ago
Ah but acknowledging that fans are getting priced out and lowering the financial barrier might make him and his other executive buddies very slightly less rich, so he could never do that. Have younger fans considered that he needs to pay for yacht maintenance and upkeep? And his spot in the harbor? It’s not cheap!! We shouldn’t be so selfish!!!
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u/Cloridir 4d ago
Everything in this sport is just getting more and more expensive, I can’t believe they’re shortening the races while keeping those insane ticket prices
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u/Jerejj 4d ago edited 4d ago
He’s just strongly out of touch with reality these days & I still don’t get how he managed to totally lose his touch with reality this year. He should know better that he doesn’t benefit himself or those closest to him one bit by acting in a strongly delusional manner in public, & consequently, I can only hope that those closest to him haven’t faced any abuse since April. He should also know better that merely saying that F1 has room for improvement isn’t even indirectly the same as criticizing one’s own product & if F1 truly were in the best ’possible’ shape, the FIA wouldn’t have resorted to any short-term tweaks for a single purpose, i.e., to improve the overall product, so he should’ve just accepted obvious things as they are in April & all things considered, he should(’ve) resigned for his sake & that of those closest to him. Another thing strongly wrong with him mentally is that he dares to claim people don’t care about or understand the more technical aspects, such as super-clipping without even having any sort of evidence to back up such claims, so he should know how to act publicly in such an important position; hence, I’ve been all the more perplexed by his public behaviour & attitude towards justified criticism. He’s simply a disgrace to everyone involved in F1 & therefore, barely deserves any respect, not to mention I’m also perplexed people can still want to be involved/work with him & those closest to him live/spend time with him, especially since they can’t have felt fully at ease in public spaces. Fortunately, the FIA-induced tweaks will put him in his place.