Surveys, surveys and surveys

Aside from this blog’s own yearly survey, you will have been lucky to miss the two Formula 1 surveys currently making the rounds.

The first survey was launched on Wednesday 20th May by Haymarket Media, through their AUTOSPORT, Motorsport News and F1 Racing brands. The survey, touted by Haymarket as the Global Fan Survey, is open until Thursday 28th May and can be found here. Haymarket’s motor sport group editor Anthony Rowlinson says that the survey gives Formula 1’s “hardcore fans [the opportunity] to express their views on the technical, sporting and political aspects of Formula 1 and to help shape its future.” The results of the survey will be “presented to senior paddock figures over the weeks that follow.”

Less than 24 hours later, a second survey appeared. But, unlike Haymarket’s survey, this one had a much stronger backing. The Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) account on Twitter popped up just before the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. On Friday 8th May, Romain Grosjean tweeted: “Great @GPDA_ meeting today! At the #MonacoGP we will announce big plans on how to properly connect with you, the fans #RacingUnited #r8main” Daniel Ricciardo followed that up with a similar tweet five days later. The survey, in partnership with Motorsport.com, was launched on Thursday 21st May and can be found here. The GPDA hope that it is “the sport’s biggest survey ever.”

So, what’s happened here? Why have two surveys surrounding Formula 1 appeared in consecutive days? From the outside, it is impossible to say which survey had been in the planning for longer. One could join the dots and say that the Haymarket survey was released a day earlier than the GPDA survey to ‘undercut’ the other and reduce the impact that the GPDA survey had. Why? Well your guess is as good as mine. But this, again is part of a battle that is getting increasingly bigger between the two, as I blogged about earlier this week. That battle is now being played out clear as day in front of our eyes, it is not a coincidence that two surveys with similar intentions turned up one after the other.

In my eyes, this is a huge victory for Motorsport.com, by getting hands on the GPDA survey, and putting the official touch on it. It means that other motor racing websites will be linking to the survey, in turn driving traffic towards not only the survey, but also Motorsport.com as a whole. I don’t know who initiated the whole GPDA survey idea in the first place, but either way, Motorsport.com have played a blinder here…