Arrivabene sees threat to F1 from Esports

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene believes that Esports is becoming a competition to Formula One, with video games now attracting huge numbers of F1 fans.

Formula One have already announced their intentions to shake things up in 2021; in an attempt to try and create more excitement for spectators when watching F1.

The changes include a budget cap being introduced and a shakeup of the cars, with the owners trying to create more opportunities to win races for the so-called 'lesser' teams.

Esports' popularity has rocketed over the last decade or so, and in 2017 - F1 released their own series. And this season, F1 teams were allowed to enter the series; with every team but Ferrari entering the Esports competition.

Arrivabene believes F1 hierarchy should perhaps focus less on the product and consider other factors - for instance, the rise of esports.

"Our competitors today, and this is my personal opinion, they are the PlayStations," Arrivabene explained to Motorsport. "Most probably we need to switch our mind and focus attention on our competitors.

"Today we have a broad offer of entertainment and we need to look at everything, not only certain sports or trying to equalize everything.

"Is the PlayStation our competitor? In my opinion yes. What do you have to do to beat the PlayStations? You have to do something that is more interesting, most probably. Today the offer is bigger than many years ago."