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This article first appeared in GP Racing magazine.
What's the best thing that has happened in F1 since Liberty Media took over? Most casual fans and maybe even many paddock insiders would probably answer the Netflix series Drive to Survive.
To the uninitiated, F1 can seem hard to penetrate and it's not particularly interesting to watch if you don't know the context or have a deep understanding of the drivers or what goes into running a team. Drive to Survive is part of Liberty's strategy to attract new fans and it proudly claims that 52% of new F1 fans since it took over the sport are under 35, which is critical to the championship's long-term health.
The great achievement of the first season of Drive to Survive was to enlarge the cast of characters we're interested in, beyond the top drivers. Although the producers were unhappy Ferrari and Mercedes chose not to take part it actually worked out well because that gave a chance for audiences to get to know characters such as Kevin Magnussen and Gunther Steiner.
