Formula One is well anchored in the US with its American owners and three Grand Prix races, but the sport hopes to push its growing popularity further with the help of Netflix and Apple.
The Netflix documentary F1: Drive to Survive, which began its eighth season on Friday, has already taken motor sport’s top discipline into a new dimension.
The series provides a behind-the-scenes look at the sport’s drivers, managers and team owners.
Photo: Reuters
While critics complain that the series magnifies tensions between drivers and managers for entertainment value, it has introduced a younger audience, particularly women, to F1.
The documentary series and the additional races in the US have been “seismic changes in terms of where we were as a sport,” said Liam Parker, head of communications for F1, which has been a subsidiary of US group Liberty Media since 2016.
Founded in 1991, Nasdaq-listed Liberty Media has spent the past decade pushing hard to boost F1’s audience in the US, where NASCAR and IndyCar dominate.
Drive to Survive co-executive producer Tom Rogers believes F1 has enormous potential in the US thanks to it now hosting three Grand Prix races — in Miami, Las Vegas and Austin, Texas.
Out of F1’s global audience of about 800 million viewers, only about 52 million are in the US, Parker said.
“We’re not really scratching the surface in the US in terms of what we can do given the size of that audience,” he said recently in Bahrain, where F1 held a series of preseason tests.
The sport is also still basking in the success of F1: The Movie starring Brad Pitt. In addition to box office success last year, the film garnered four Oscar nominations, including for best picture.
This year, five of the 24 Grand Prix races would be broadcast live at giant-screen IMAX theatres across the US.
This year also sees a switch in TV broadcasting rights from Disney’s ESPN to Apple TV.
The deal is worth a reported US$150 million per year to F1, US media reported.
“When we are talking about Apple in the US, we are talking about a new partner of Formula 1 that is believing in us with a great plan of being the protagonist of the growth in the US,” F1 chief executive officer Stefano Domenicali said.
However, F1 is setting its sights on more than just the US.
“I think we’re all anticipating probably a Latin American boost in Formula One interest... with Franco” Colapinto, the Argentinian driver for Alpine, Rogers said.
“And I think Latin America is an enormous market, especially for Netflix,” he added.
Mexican driver Sergio Perez with Cadillac and Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto with Audi are also draws for Latin American viewers.
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