Motorsport global contribution to economy and community development: a new relevant report from the FIA
18 July 2021

Recently the FIA has released a research study focusing on the contribution of motorsport to economy and community development.

It represents the first substantive overview of the topic since 'Motorsport Going Global' was written in 2007 by Dr Tim Angus (Synergy Pathways Associate and RPM Board Advisor / UK Representative) and co-authors Professor Nick Henry and Professor Mark Jenkins.

The report was produced by Ernst and Young (EY) (Australia), it took two years to produce and cost 605.000 euros:

EY surveyed over 20.000 motorsport participants from all over the world  and conducted over 50 interviews.

As Dr. Tim Angus summarises: 

• The FIA report estimate Total Gross output from motorsport as 159.2billion euros;

• Of this 159.2 billion euros, 59.8 billion euros was direct output from motorsport with 99.4 billion euros being indirect output;

• The 59.8 billion euros of direct motorsport spending was split roughly equally between 'engineering' and ‘services’;

• The Report claims motorsport employs 1.5 million globally with 576,000 direct motorsport jobs and 924.000 indirect job;

• The report suggest there are 917.000 competitors competing globally at 7.200 motorsport venues, in 60.700 events per year;

• The report provides a set of global figures for motorsport but does not split this down into specific countries;

• It is a demand led piece of research which means that the figures provided rely on adding up competitor spending, rather than the turnover from industry, the approach which was followed in 'Motorsport Going Global’.

The figures pointed out reveal the global relevance of the Motorsport Industry and it is to note that the research does not even focus yet on motorsport active contribution to many other fields as aviation, aerospace, nautical, biomedical, virtual reality as it was recently outlined during the conference Motorsport Next: Industry Innovation and Technology Transfer Global Forum.  

The full report is in attachment.  

We are committed to contribute generating synergies among private and public organisations and institutions in order to stimulate the necessary cooperation to acknowledge and support the growth and strengthening of the Motorsport Industry in Italy. Motorsport Next, and the players it has involved has exemplified a first cornerstone on which to build all of this. Stay tuned for developments.