How Netflix has become a part of the F1 furniture

Not long after a winter without racing the coronavirus outbreak has meant that, for the time being, Formula 1 fans have been left without any action to watch. The only bright light for those anxious to get their fix is that the hugely popular Netflix series, Drive to Survive, returned for series two at the end of February.

As part of the shift towards greater digital output from F1 commercial rights holder Liberty Media, Netflix's cameras were allowed into the paddock for the first time in 2018, shining a spotlight on its rich tapestry of characters, rivalries and stories.

But Drive to Survive has achieved more than simply being additional content. It has been a catalyst for its growing fanbase, arguably of greater importance than anything else seen in recent years, and has shifted perceptions both inside and outside the paddock. Netflix has changed F1 for the better.

Changing perceptions

When it completed its acquisition of F1 in January 2017, Liberty Media was clear about its desire to change the championship's approach to digital media. Long gone were the days of Bernie Ecclestone believing the social media boom would be "very short-lived". Instead it become a key facet of F1's strategy. F1 became the fastest-growing sports series on social media which, while not an insurmountable challenge given it effectively started from zero, was impressive nevertheless.

F1 soon identified the need to think outside the realms of its regular broadcasting agreements. The success of sports documentaries on streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Video, the latter through its All Or Nothing series following teams in football, American football and rugby, made it a natural format for F1 to consider.

A bidding war followed. F1 weighed up impressive offers from both Amazon and Netflix. Amazon put more money on the table, but F1 opted to work with Netflix knowing that viewers would be subscribing to the service purely to watch content - and not as a bolt-on bonus for quicker delivery of online shopping.

The decision paid off handsomely. Drive to Survive was one of the most-featured shows on Netflix at the time of initial release in February 2019, positioned at the top of users' video feeds. While F1 fans could be counted upon to seek out the show wherever it was, the possibility now existed for all viewers to stumble across the show and, potentially, become fans of the sport.

Such a growth in awareness of F1 has been noted throughout the paddock. Daniel Ricciardo was one of the stars most closely followed through the first season, and said he could notice the difference in his own profile as a result.

"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," Ricciardo said on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, one of America's biggest chat shows.

"And now it's: 'We saw you on Netflix, it was great, Drive to Survive.' We wear helmets, so not really many people can see our faces a lot of the time. So putting a face to a name, that helped."

Pierre Gasly, whose turbulent 2019 season is revealed in unprecedented detail during the second series of Drive to Survive, noted a similar change: "Even people that didn't really know much about Formula 1 started to watch this, and enjoyed the stories. I think the TV audience has increased partly thanks to this. I think it's great, that's what we want. If we do Formula 1, it's thanks to the people who are watching us as well, and if that number can increase, it's really good."

F1 managing director of motorsports, Ross Brawn, said at a pre-season event that he was pleased with how Drive to Survive had spoken to both existing fans and potential customers.

"I think it was really great to show the fans the other side of F1, because most of the fans have only seen what goes on at the track or the interviews at the track," he said.

Regardless of the accessibility, the success of Drive to Survive rests on the quality of the series. Netflix is not known for persisting with shows that do not capture viewers' interest

"What we've discovered is it's been very appealing to the non-race fan - in fact it turned them into race fans. Some of the promoters in the past season have said they've definitely measured the increase in interest in F1 that has come from the Netflix series." F1 reported a 1.85% rise in average attendance through the 2019 season, and promoters in both the United States and Mexico highlighted the impact of the Netflix series on getting more fans through the gate.

The Netflix impact has also aided F1's drive to speak to a younger fanbase, once derided by F1's commercial leaders. Remember when Bernie Ecclestone airily dismissed anyone unable to afford a Rolex watch or bank with UBS? F1 reported late last year it has the greatest proportion of under 25s as fans of all sports leagues except the NBA, and that 62% of its new fans were under the age of 35.

"There's no question the way you engage fans is through digital media," says F1 CEO and chairman Chase Carey. "Realistically it's not the way people connected in years past. Not just young people - fans who are 40 or 50 years old, who follow things they care about - a sport, team, hero, driver, they follow you on some form of digital media. It's a foundation to growing a sport because it's the engagement and path through which you follow your sport."

The drive for authenticity

Regardless of the accessibility, the success of Drive to Survive rests on the quality of the series. Netflix is not known for persisting with shows that do not capture viewers' interest, which makes the fact the series has completed two seasons significant in itself.

A small crew from Box to Box Films, the production company behind Drive to Survive, is sent to each race with a different remit each time. And it quickly becomes clear which team is the focus as cameras hover around one garage or hospitality. In some cases it results in spectacular coverage, best reflected in the season two episode 'Dark Days' where Mercedes' capitulation at Hockenheim was captured in full.

While the sit-down interviews are set up for the drivers and team personnel to open up to hard questions, the majority of the footage is authentic and in real-time. There is no better example of that than Haas F1 chief Guenther Steiner's depiction through seasons one and two, where his no-nonsense, often expletive-laden approach made him a fan-favourite overnight.

Steiner claims he never watched the first season. "And I'm not going watch the second one after they told me what it's about," he jokes. Probably for the best: his fulminating fury at Haas's yo-yo-ing form, the on-track clashes between Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, and the Rich Energy sponsorship saga is all condensed into one episode that involves a hole being kicked in a door.

"I think people see that I actually didn't play an actor," he says, "and people try to tell me: 'You just did this to raise your profile' - no. I'm just here to do my job. I'm not a good actor. I don't look good, my language is not appropriate for an actor, and I don't want to be an actor!"

Steiner's authenticity is aided by how seamless the Netflix cameras fit into the team's day-to-day operations, ensuring they are not intrusive or hindering any regular activities. "They're very good, they know what they're doing," Steiner said. "They're not in the way. I cannot complain about them. I don't even notice them anymore."

Does Steiner notice the microphone when he launches into his rants? "Unfortunately not! I've got a short memory, so I forget I'm mic'd up. You know what I say... I realise but then it's too late!"

Such was Steiner's comfort with the Netflix crew that he even allowed them into his home to film some family time - with permission from his wife. "Again, we didn't behave any differently than we would if they weren't there," he says.

Seeing Gasly being battered by career setbacks and by the death of his friend Anthoine Hubert makes for difficult viewing, but it reveals more of his personality than you would ever divine from rounds of sanitised press calls

But there is one person he doesn't want seeing the episode: "My daughter cannot watch it! I would not hear the end of it."

The cameras were also embedded within Williams during its disastrous 2019 pre-season when delays to the car build caused the team to miss the start of testing. But at no point did deputy team boss Claire Williams feel they were getting in the way or making things harder.

"You ignore the cameras," Williams says. "The Netflix team are fantastic. We've obviously worked with them for two years now, and they've always been very mindful and conscious of where they are and where they've put themselves.

"We've always been a team that is quite open about sharing with people this great sport that we're involved in, and show what it takes to be an F1 team. So for us, having cameras around, it doesn't necessarily bother us because we understand the long-term impact of what those cameras are doing."

The producers do not shy away from asking the tough questions, either, aided by their 'outsider' nature to. Williams is asked at the end of the episode depicting her team's struggles whether she believes it even has a future - something she initially declines to answer. Gasly's ousting from Red Bull is also dealt with head-on in the sit-down interview format, during which the Frenchman asks frankly: "Is this going to be about my seat?" before sitting down in his new Toro Rosso gear for the first time.

Seeing Gasly being battered by career setbacks and by the death of his friend and Formula 2 driver Anthoine Hubert makes for difficult viewing, but it reveals more of his personality than you would ever divine from rounds of sanitised press calls. It's this element of the storytelling which has helped win over new fans to F1, and Gasly acknowledges that it's worth the pain of having one's darker moments captured for posterity.

"I feel who I am in the paddock is maybe five or ten percent of my personality compared with what I'm like in normal life," he says. "I think Netflix is bringing a bit more of an inside story from all the work that is going on behind the scenes at races. I think it's great."

Daniel Ricciardo also highlights the "very authentic and natural" depiction of life inside the paddock. "Some of the interviews, they're structured - they need to get you in a quiet room at times - but for the most part, it was fly-on-the-wall, which I think is the best way to capture the raw footage," he said. "I know it was very successful, the first programme. I think it worked because it was pretty organic."

What changed for season 2?

One of the biggest changes was the addition of Mercedes and Ferrari, both whom had declined to take part in the opening series.

While both gave access to Netflix this time around, it was still limited. Mercedes only allowed cameras into its garage for the German GP, while Ferrari picked the United States GP in Austin. The producers spliced footage obtained at these races into the rest of the series, giving both teams presence beyond a single episode.

Valtteri Bottas hadn't watched the opening series, but was aware of its impact and happy to work with the Netflix crew. "I think many people got quite excited about Formula 1 seeing that series," Bottas says. "I think the team decided it would be positive for us to be in it - and yes, they [the camera crew] were in Hockenheim..."

Despite the presence of the cameras at the low point of Mercedes' season, Bottas didn't feel that being filmed had any impact on the way events unfolded: "That didn't really distract anything, although the result wasn't great in Hockenheim for us. I think they did it really professionally, and they knew when they had to step away and when they could be involved and so on."

The success of the series shows how important new media outside of the traditional pay TV model have have become for F1's future

Charles Leclerc had previously worked with the Netflix crew in 2018 while at Sauber, making him the only member of the Ferrari team who had an idea of what to expect. But he didn't feel F1's most famous team got any special treatment.

"In the way we work, last year they only did one race with us," Leclerc says. "But then we didn't have Netflix with us for the rest of the year, which was the only difference [compared with Sauber] to be honest."

Although access to Mercedes and Ferrari was limited, the upside was that neither team came to dominate the second series. Some stories that are often skipped over in mainstream media, such as those of Haas, Toro Rosso and McLaren, continued to be the big themes. It didn't become 'The Mercedes and Ferrari Show'.

There was, however, some negative reaction to the series, most notably from Max Verstappen. "I don't think it was the real me," he said in an interview with ABtalks. "The problem is they will always position you in a way they want."

F1's post-Netflix future

The huge buzz around Drive to Survive shows little sign of dying down. Although there has been no official announcement, filming for a third season is already underway after crews were on-site for pre-season testing in Barcelona.

The success of the series shows how important new media outside of the traditional pay TV model have have become for F1's future. "This kind of TV, like Netflix and Amazon, is now standard," says Steiner. "I think there are fewer people who don't have it than have it. Netflix don't give numbers, but apparently [the series] is successful - why would they do more?"

The challenge for F1 will be to continue to engage the fanbase it has built through Netflix. It's noticeable that the film-makers take some liberties to amplify the on-track drama - such as suggesting Max Verstappen passed Sebastian Vettel for third place in Australia on the last lap when it happened shortly after half-distance. Perhaps that says more about F1's on-track product - but it's also an element the commercial rights holder is working on for 2021 and beyond.

Accessibility is key. While many customers are happy to pay the Netflix fee for its wealth of content, racing fans have been vocal in their dislike of F1's gradual move towards pay-TV platforms. Could the perceived success of Drive to Survive - even if Netflix doesn't divulge viewing figures - be an argument for F1 to consider more free-to-air race coverage in future?