7. The Political Economy of Formula One

It is difficult to find another sport which makes so many people travel so many kilometres around the world every year more than Formula One does. However, when focusing on three major dimensions of this sport—the number of races, drivers, and constructors since 1950—we realize that only a few countries have had the experience of hosting Formula One races, of being the birth countries of Formula One drivers, and of being the headquarters of Formula One constructors. In this chapter, we are going to explain this diversity by using (ordinary) least squares regressions and binary outcome models. We found a consistent determinant for a country falling in love with Formula One: the share of national income allocated to R&D expenses. Therefore, if you rule a country and you want to rank it as a major power in motorsports in the medium term, you should pay more attention to current R&D. Other dimensions have also been found to affect Formula One numbers around the world. Let’s check them.