Silverstone attracted the biggest single Formula 1 Grand Prix crowd of 2018 as the sport saw strong attendance growth this past season.
Figures released by Liberty Media reveal 340,000 people attended the rare sun-kissed weekend at the British Grand Prix with roughly 140,500 turning up on race day itself.
With the event’s future currently uncertain beyond next year, this news will certainly be a strong argument for the BRDC who are trying to negotiate a deal.
Mexico wasn’t far behind with just under 335,000 passionate fans heading to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez over the three days with 135,400 packing the grandstands on Sunday.
Though the return of Germany meant F1 had one more race than 2017, Liberty say total attendance figures over the 21 rounds rose 7.8% year-on-year with almost 4.1m fans going through the gates.
“With nearly 200,000 spectators at each Grand Prix, and more than 80,000 packing the grandstands for Sunday’s races across the season [on average], it demonstrates that these big numbers compare favourably with other major sporting events, thus confirming a trend for growth,” said F1 commercial director Sean Bratches.
“The whole show of a Grand Prix weekend – the Formula 1 race, all the support series and the activities around the track – constitutes a great experience for the fans, as the attendance and research figures confirm.
“We strongly believe that Formula 1 has great potential which still hasn’t been fully exploited and we are fully committed to improving the fan experience in the future.”
In total, seven races saw crowds of over 200,000 for the who weekend including some surprise venues like Australia, Singapore and Hungary.
In terms of most improved, Azerbaijan led the way as the race on Baku’s streets becomes a fan favourite, with Austria, Bahrain, Montreal, Suzuka and Budapest not far behind.