Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff has cited low TV ratings and a poor return on investment as the reason Mercedes pulled out of Formula E.
Mercedes has been in Formula E for three years, two of which were won by Nick de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne.
However, Mercedes withdrew from Formula E at the end of the 2022 season, instead selling the team to McLaren.
When asked why Mercedes chose to withdraw from Formula E, Wolff said F1’s immense popularity had “dwarfed” other championships.
“Formula 1 has gotten so big that I think everything else has gotten smaller. I was really happy to have been successful in the DTM for over 30 years,” Wolff told Swiatscigow.
“But we’ve gotten to the point where 40-50 million euros are needed if the factory teams are to compete, and the return on investment was too low.”
Formula E says TV viewers have risen to 216 million worldwide, a 20% year-on-year increase. But by comparison, Formula 1 will reach 445 million viewers worldwide in 2021.
Toto Wolff explained that Formula E has fewer spectators than other championships, so the investment needed to get the team up and running was not justified.
“It’s the same with Formula E. There weren’t enough spectators. There’s DTM there, there’s Formula E here and there’s F1 everywhere.”
“So instead of being distracted and diluted by other things, we decided to focus and put our resources into F1 to get it right.”
Category: F1 / mercedes / Formula E
