Formula 1 Drive To Survive Impact

By Richard Janvrin Contributor Updated: 18 April 2024

Richard Janvrin Contributor

Richard has been writing about sports since he was a teenager. Still, his first professional role came in 2015, covering all things NFL and fantasy football-related. From there, in December 2018, he started in the sports betting industry, covering sportsbook reviews before arriving to where he is today. 

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Formula 1 Drive To Survive

If you’ve ever watched the Formula 1 Drive to Survive show on Netflix, there’s a good chance you’re already a fan of the sport or become one after watching it. If that’s the case, you’re not alone. Numerous new and old fans either got into the sport for the first time or revived their interest based on this Formula 1 documentary series.

Now, it’s time to look at the Drive To Survive Impact on F1 as a whole.

Before the “Drive To Survive” Netflix docuseries showcasing talent around the racing spectacle, Formula 1 racing was more of a niche interest. Now, with the booming popularity of the sport, sports betting sites with Formula One have seen a surge in betting action, and the fanbase is continuously growing.

Here, we’ll take a closer look at the impact Formula 1 “Drive to Survive” has had on the sport.

Examining the Drive to Survive Impact on F1

Before Formula 1 Drive to Survive, there hadn’t been a show like this that showcased athletes’ personalities in a way that made them relatable while increasing their appeal to fans. We’ll likely see this concept in other “single-athlete” sports as the years go on, as it exposes us to them in a way we wouldn’t be able to otherwise.

Below, we’ll see what impact this F1 racing documentary had on the sport, examining ratings, the “halo effect,” and how it grabbed new and old fans alike.

Booming Television Ratings on Netflix
Formula 1 “Halo Effect”
Brings New and Casual Fans
Drew American Fanbase
F1 Racing Documentary Wrap Up

Booming Television Ratings on Netflix

The Drive To Survive Impact on F1 can first be viewed through the lens of the ratings the show receives.

While there are other Formula 1 documentaries, Drive to Survive’s fifth season, which launched in February 2023, saw about 570,000 viewers in its first week. This was a 40% increase compared to 2022’s fourth season. In all, including the fifth season and fans catching up on past seasons, the show had more than 643,000 viewers per Nielsen across all seasons in the first week of the fifth season’s launch.

According to a poll conducted by Morning Consult in 2022 involving 1,900 adults who watch F1, 53% of them credit the show for getting them into the sport.

Further, the gross viewing minutes during season five’s debut week was nearly 224 million.

However, the sixth season, which came out on February 23, 2024, saw a 30% decrease in viewership. This could be due to numerous factors including some fatigue, now six seasons in, or perhaps the consistent dominance of Max Verstappen made for a lackluster season of the sport entertainment-wise.

It’s something worth monitoring moving forward. Still, five seasons worth of the show of consistent growth is nothing to turn a blind eye to.

Formula 1 “Halo Effect”

Some may argue that while the show is gaining popularity and viewership, that may not necessarily carry over to the actual sport.

Well, The Athletic has provided a chart that shows viewership tracing back to the show’s beginning and correlating it to the sport’s viewership.

In 2017, Formula 1 drew an average of 538,000 viewers. Fast-forward to 2022, that number is over 1.2 million.

In 2023, the sport held a race in Las Vegas that essentially turned the main strip into a racetrack. That drew 1.3 million viewers and had numerous celebrities in attendance.

Known as a “Halo Effect,” the impressions viewers of the television show get of the drivers create more of an emotional investment in them, good or bad, and that carries over to their fandom of the actual sport itself.

Brings New and Casual Fans

Getting into a new sport can be challenging for many, whether it’s the rules, learning the players, understanding the stats, or just the general intrigue of what you’re watching.

Well, this F1 racing documentary now allows new/casual fans to get to know the drivers and their personalities in a way that will make them root for or against them.

From there, the fans can watch the race to see someone succeed or fail but learn more about the sport.

People tend to connect with other people as opposed to entity. People are more likely to get invested in the journey of Lewis Hamilton as opposed to just the sport of “Formula 1.” This is especially the case in “single player” sports as opposed to a team like football, where there are 11 players on the field for each side, and they can only control so much.

In the Netflix Formula One show, you learn more about the racers and their journeys and connect with them while they’re in control of winning or losing.

Now, fans can not only bet on the sport but can build daily fantasy sports lineups at various sites to further their investment in the sport.

Drew American Fanbase

While F1 is a global sport, it was more prevalent in countries outside the United States until Drive to Survive started to capture attention. This goes back to the new and casual fans and ratings, but there was a surge in popularity in the country.

However, it has been seeing some dwindling numbers. In 2022, the Miami Grand Prix drew over 2.6 million viewers. Then, in 2023, ABC, which hosted the race in 2022, saw a 25% drop.

That’s not to say it’s all bad—there are some states more prone to interest in racing, like Oklahoma and North Carolina, which remain to have plenty of interest.

The Miami Grand Prix also saw a total attendance of 270,000 in 2023 compared to 240,000 the year before.

The problem with F1 right now, though, for American fans, has been the results, as Max Verstappen wins nearly every race, making it too predictable.

If F1 can figure out a way to level the playing field a bit more, we’ll likely see a correlation between Drive to Survive improving the overall fanbase of the sport again.

F1 Racing Documentary Wrap Up

While Formula 1 Drive to Survive saw a noticeable decrease in viewership with the sixth season, the docuseries has contributed a lot to the sport, from being more of a niche international product to widespread attention in the United States through connecting with the racer’s and turning that interest into ratings for the races themselves.

Moving forward, the “potential” new audience may shrink, leaving many current fans as the majority viewership of the show. Thus, we could see up and down ratings based on how the previous season of the sport went, as we saw with the sixth season dropping in 2024, which recapped the 2023 campaign.

As mentioned, there may only be so much this F1 racing documentary show can do as it becomes difficult to convince fans to root for drivers that rarely win, as Verstappen won 19 of them in 2023.

We’ll see how the sport progresses and how Drive to Survive is part of that.