In the pre-Netflix era, F1 was either watched by motorsport nerds or middle-aged rich people with their expensive wines and cigars. And that was affecting the business side of the sport as viewership was on the decline. The current owners were reluctant to use social media for the growth of the sport. Those pesky boomers!
Enter a media giant called the Liberty Media Group, which purchased a major stake in F1 and they came up with a brilliant idea. They went straight to Netflix, pitched a docu-series for F1 and hired a bigshot production company to make it cinematic!
Drive to Survive premiered in 2019 and it was an instant hit! Remember the spicy rivalry between Christian Horner and Toto Wolff? Or the Romain Grosjean episode? And all those driver clashes. It was a never-before-seen peek into the world of F1. It sparked curiosity among the fans to know more about this sport.
Why was it so good?
- It taught you the ABC’s
“Don’t you get tired of watching the same drivers racing in circles around the track?” To answer such stupid questions, DTS explained every single detail like the pit-stops, tyre strategies, aerodynamics, and other nerdy stuff in layman terms. People started understanding the sport and what it takes to win a race. It finally made sense for people to watch a F1 race and it increased viewership.
- The perfect target audience
The demographics were young people all over the world who are not die-hard F1 fans. DTS absolutely nailed it by reaching out to them. Since the release of the series, Grand Prix’s now average 70 million viewers. Female F1 fans now account for 40%, up from just 8% in 2017. This, along with Instagram, created a whole community of F1 fans and ‘influencers’ for the growth of the sport.
- Glitz and Glamor.
F1 is a spectacle. The roar of the engines going down the straights, the iconic liveries, beautiful countryside tracks and the glamor of the Monaco GP. It was all beautifully captured in the series. Be it for the love for engineering or just for the fireworks at the end of the race, F1 became a sport for everyone.
- Story-time!
No one was ever going to watch a long documentary with company executives moaning about their struggles. So, every episode had a storyline. For a generation which has an attention span of 2 seconds, this story-format hooked the audience into watching it. The cliffhanger at the end forced us to click ‘Next Episode’. Every. Single. Time.
- A human angle in the sport
Let’s face it. We all love gossip. DTS provided us with a glimpse of the lifestyle of rich F1 drivers and the team members. It also helped us appreciate their hardships and struggles. The most unexpected antagonist to come out of this show was Gunther Steiner. His raw personality in front of the camera and his struggles to help make ends meet at Haas made him everyone’s favorite.
Drive to Survive was marketing at its best and how a video-streaming platform can turn the tables around for a sport like F1. Not only viewership, but it also attracted sponsorship from more brands into the sport.
Netflix, Chill and F1. A nice combo. What do you say?
