The Alonso/Indy 500 thread has been moved out of this forum so there is no longer a place to discuss the impacts of that on F1, so I will try it here! Ultimately this post is really about potential changes to how F1 is run given the new regime change.
So apparently Alonso's Indy Rookie test drew 2 million viewers...
http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/129309
That was split between Facebook and YouTube. I watched a good bit of it on YouTube. While a lot of it was waiting around, there were moments that were very interesting such as some open debriefs and discussions between Alonso and the team between runs. They had a camera right in the pit area. I found it fascinating. This type of thing plus the use of the Periscope live streaming app for some of the Nissan LMP1 testing a while back is very much the way forward for fan engagement.
The article above also comes to the same conclusions as it wonders out loud about how F1 should be looking at this type of thing.
Richard