How Drive to Survive Changed Formula 1

To understand the impact of Drive to Survive, it helps to remember the state Formula 1 was in when Liberty Media acquired it at the end of 2016:

• From 2012 to 2016, the global F1 audience fell by 22%, from 500 million to 390 million viewers.
• The asset itself had also lost value: in 2012, a Formula 1 stake was sold at a total valuation of $9 billion, but by the Liberty Media deal the company was valued about a billion dollars lower. This happened while other sports leagues were booming.

One of the first tasks for Formula 1’s new owners was solving the “American problem.” In Europe, F1 had long been popular and attractive to premium advertisers. In the United States, it struggled to find its audience. Liberty Media decided to turn F1 into more of a media company: it expanded the focus on social media, launched an esports league, and a year later signed a deal with Netflix to produce a documentary series.

The Netflix deal did not create much excitement at first. Many people inside Formula 1 considered it a strange idea. Two of the most popular teams, Mercedes and Ferrari, refused to participate in filming. But that ended up helping the show: instead of focusing only on the leaders, the creators of Drive to Survive had to introduce viewers to every team and driver.

Why Drive to Survive worked

Box to Box Films, the production company behind the series, understands conflict and storytelling better than most. The creators took a traditional sport and reframed it. Racing itself takes up less than 20% of screen time in Drive to Survive.

Formula 1 has a unique structure: there is both an individual championship between drivers and a constructors’ championship between teams. This makes team rivalries, team principals, owners, and internal conflicts natural storylines for every season.

The teammate rivalry is especially useful. Among 20 F1 drivers, only a teammate drives the same car, so this is the cleanest comparison: the outcome depends more directly on the drivers’ own skill. The show’s creators understood that.

Some drivers, including Max Verstappen, criticized Drive to Survive for excessive dramatization. But the format worked because it made the sport legible for people who were not already F1 fans.

What changed after the first season

• Formula 1’s American audience grew by 40%.
• Over four years, seven Grands Prix entered the list of the most-watched F1 races.
• The United States Grand Prix in Austin became the most attended race in F1 history, with 400 thousand visitors.
• Two more American races were added to the calendar: Miami joined in 2022, and Las Vegas followed.
• The success of Drive to Survive also affected Formula 1’s financial performance. Over three years, its total valuation grew by 63%, from $8 billion to $13 billion.