How Netflix Changed Formula 1

"I'm not interested in tweets or Facebook. I don't know why people want to get the so-called 'young generation'. Most of these kids haven't got money. I'd rather get the 70-year-old guy who's got plenty of cash."

The words of Bernie Ecclestone, then 83, in 2014 to the Campaign Asia-Pacific magazine. The man who controlled the business of Formula 1 for 30 years. From 1987, he had played a big hand in making F1 one of the biggest money spinners in the world. But by 2017 - as you can gather from the quote above - his game plan had unravelled.

How F1 Was Losing Fans

To elaborate, let's focus on two distinct F1 seasons that took place nearly a decade apart: 2008 and 2017. In both years, Lewis Hamilton was the world champion. Both times he beat a Ferrari driver (Ferrari is the biggest team in F1) to win the title. But while 2008 was a baby-faced Hamilton's first championship, by 2017 he had won it four times and become the most recognisable face in motorsport. His main rival in 2017, Sebastian Vettel, was the second-most popular.

So, by that logic, surely 2017 would be watched more? Incorrect. The 2008 F1 season had a reported 600 million unique viewers. By 2017, the figure had almost halved, to about 352 million unique viewers. And the blame - by and large - had to be borne by Bernie.

In fact, since the turn of the decade in 2010, F1's viewership had been sliding year after year. Sponsors were packing their bags, newer car brands were disinterested as critics blamed a combination of factors from overexposure to the dominance of only two teams where nail-biting finishes were a thing of the past. You did not even get the race highlights on YouTube. Much of this blame was laid at Bernie's door. The man who had once built F1 was on course to ruin it.

Change was long overdue. And it happened. In January 2017, Liberty Media freed Formula 1 from Bernie Ecclestone's shackles.

"F1 has huge potential with multiple untapped opportunities. I have enjoyed hearing from the fans, teams, FIA, promoters and sponsors on their ideas and hopes for the sport," said Chase Carey in 2017, the new CEO of the sport.

Liberty stuck to their word. F1 started on a journey of modernization. You could finally see the race highlights on YouTube. Up came a podcast, and snippets of the drivers and the persons behind them. Not just the two or three drivers who won races, but even the bloke who finished last.

Did the kids buy it? Oh yes. In 2018, unique viewership soared from 352 million to 490 million. F1 had unlocked the social media door. It had breached the attention span of Gen Z. The power of digital media.

But one big step was yet to be taken.

Drive To Survive And The F1 Boom

Arguably, the single most successful collaboration between entertainment and sports has been the Netflix F1 docu-series 'Drive to Survive' (DTS), which ran for the first time on March 8, 2019. With the sport on the rise after the takeover by Liberty Media, DTS hit the jackpot in capturing the youth. With state-of-the-art production, the viewer was catapulted into the cockpit of a Formula 1 car for 10 episodes.

It is often debated that Formula 1 should not be considered a "sport". In India, the Formula 1 Grand Prix couldn't flourish beyond 2013 due to being considered entertainment, and not sport. DTS brought forward the persons behind the wheel - the mind, the emotions and the drama. The reality of one of the most dangerous sports on the planet was brought to the fore, with a tinge of entertainment.

The show curated storylines in a way that transformed F1's highly mechanical outlook into something more suitable for reality TV. And it wasn't the well-known dudes. The biggest hero emerging from DTS was Italian engineer Guenther Steiner, whose heart-on-sleeve, expletive-filled personality became an overnight hit.

Drive to Survive helped establish the danger, drama and lesser-known faces of Formula 1 amongst the youth. Even if you weren't a fan of the sport, the storyline gripped you into taking notice. And to F1's humongous benefit, the youth got attached quickly.

The success of Drive to Survive goes beyond the numbers, but let's look at the statistics first. As per research by YouGov in 2023, DTS was watched by one-fifth of Netflix's entire viewer base - a staggering number. According to the study, the overall reach, across the first five seasons (now we have seven) has been well over 100 million.

In particular, F1 was now catching up fast in the United States, the biggest economy in the world.

"I spend a bit of time in the (United) States, and up until a year ago, not really anyone would say 'Hi' to me - not in a bad way, but they wouldn't recognise me for being an F1 driver. And now it's all: 'We saw you on Netflix, it was great, Drive to Survive'," said Australian F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo in 2020.

It collided with a boom on social media, one that no other sport could compete with. In fact, as people got stuck at home during the Covid-19 lockdown phase, they would tune into F1 more than to any other sport.

In terms of percentage growth in 2021, F1 viewership grew by nearly 100 per cent. The next best weren't even half of that. The unique viewership of Formula 1 has never shrunk to the 2017 levels, not even in a shortened Covid-hit season in 2020.

In terms of raw figures, as can be noticed from a 2022 survey by Motorsport Network, the average age of an F1 fan had reduced (from 36 to 32) and the number of female fans had doubled. Money-wise, F1's revenue in 2024 was a whopping, record-breaking $3.6 billion.

Outside the Excel sheet, Formula 1 is the new cool sport to watch. Go on an online dating app, and you'd see far more F1 references on people's bios than any other sport.

But while the cash continues to grow, F1's 'sportainment' era can cause significant problems to the integrity of the sport.

Entertainment Over Sport In F1?

Despite the overwhelming success of Drive to Survive, Max Verstappen - now the reigning four-time F1 world champion - refused to take part for two seasons. In fact, he blasted the whole thing as "fake".

"They faked a few rivalries which didn't really exist. I decided to not be a part of it and did not give any more interviews," Verstappen had told Associated Press in 2021.

"I am not really a dramatic show kind of person, I just want facts and real things to happen."

How can you believe what you're watching if the biggest rising name of the sport thought you were not real? Verstappen's comments put the integrity of F1's biggest advertisement at stake.

In its attempt to bring out the graphic reality of Formula 1 to the non-F1 fan, Drive to Survive's curated storylines often veered away from the reality of situations. One of the 'victims' of this was Verstappen, who was portrayed to have a frosty relationship with then-teammate Ricciardo, forcing the latter to leave the team.

The truth appears to be quite different. Verstappen and Ricciardo actually appear to be friends outside the DTS world.

But the biggest error of Formula 1's 'sportainment' era came on December 12, 2021. Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton had been locked in one of the closest title battles in history, and entered the last race on level points. Winner takes all.

And on race day, Hamilton was winning. In fact, he was cruising to victory. He had overtaken Verstappen on the very first lap and had dominantly led the race. That was until late chaos allowed Formula 1's then-race director Michael Masi to wipe out any advantage that Hamilton had, and curate a last-lap shootout between the two title-contenders.

'Why have the world champion be decided in a boring finale, if you can have an entertaining last-lap shootout to decide the winner?' seemed to be the untold message.

Verstappen won, Hamilton lost, and a huge stain was put on the integrity of the sport. So much so that the FIA conceded that Masi had made a 'human error'. But how did human error come about? The unspoken, yet deafeningly loud, answer seemed to be to increase entertainment. In this case, at the cost of sporting ethics.

Moving On...

In 2025, Formula 1 continues to grow at a rapid pace. But this growth is no longer reliant on Drive to Survive. The show saw a massive 23 per cent decrease in viewership in 2024, compared to the previous year. As curated storylines and changed narratives continue to be the norm, viewers are slowly beginning to call the bluff.

The show had delivered and now the sport had taken off.

F1's growth also comes at the risk of affecting the sport's heritage. Formula 1 was built on the pillars of iconic race tracks like the Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, the Monza Circuit in Italy, Silverstone in Great Britain and the Circuit of Monaco on the streets of Monte Carlo.

But as F1 grows and more money is pumped in, everyone wants a piece of the cake. Investors from the US, middle east and east Asia all want a race of their own. And F1 seems to be ready to say goodbye to heritage to fit in new guests.

Spa will feature on the F1 calendar only on a rotational basis between 2026 and 2031, and while Monza, Silverstone and Monaco are safe for now, conversations on their futures have also been rife.

Conclusion

Formula 1 has evolved from the Bernie Ecclestone era and will only get bigger. Having tackled the dwindling attention span of the youth, F1's commercial future is in safe hands. But whether the sport will survive the entertainment - that is the question.