What's overtaken Drive to Survive as F1's biggest fan engagement tool?

It does not take much to realise just how much Formula 1 has come on in the Liberty Media era. We almost take it for granted that grands prix are sellouts these days. There is also live television coverage every time an F1 car is running on track, and there is more content to read and watch online than ever before.

Even off the back of one of the most dominant campaigns in F1 history, as Red Bull won all but one grand prix in 2023, audience figures held up pretty well considering how dire it could have got. It’s testament to an audience that is engaged on a day-to-day basis and is not simply tuning in and out every fortnight depending on how much of an exciting battle each race looks like being.

The other important change has been the demographic, as F1 has dramatically shifted away from being a championship for older males. The most recent F1 fan survey conducted in 2021 pointed to an average age of 32 – four years younger than the previous study in 2017 – with female participation having doubled. But the most dramatic increase in audience figures was coming from the 15-35 age range, who have been lapping up the latest offerings from F1.

It is a world away from the Bernie Ecclestone era, that perhaps was epitomised the most in that famous interview when he said he wasn’t interested in attracting young people. "Young kids will see the Rolex brand, but are they going to go and buy one? They can't afford it,” he told Campaign Asia-Pacific back in 2014. “Or our other sponsor, UBS — these kids don't care about banking. They haven't got enough money to put in the bloody banks anyway.

“That's what I think. I don't know why people want to get to the so-called 'young generation'. Why do they want to do that? Is it to sell them something? Most of these kids haven't got any money. I'd rather get to the 70-year-old guy who's got plenty of cash. So, there's no point trying to reach these kids because they won't buy any of the products here and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe they should advertise with Disney."

Thankfully Liberty had a different view of things, and its pursuit of the new audience is paying massive dividends now.

When it comes to tracking back to understand just how F1 brought that new generation of fans in, there is almost a universal belief that its opening of the doors for the Netflix Drive to Survive series was the game-changer.

Ecclestone never tried to make F1 appeal to younger audiences because he believed there was no money to be made

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

And indeed, you would be hard to argue against the impact it made. It’s estimated that around 6.8 million fans have watched the show – with 18-29-year-olds making up around one-third of the audience. The gender divide is also better balanced than F1 itself, with 46% being female.

The impact in the United States has also been significant. More than a third of new fans from the USA have cited Drive to Survive as a catalyst for their interest in F1, and the boom in viewership there coincided with DTS first appearing on screens. There is no better indicator for the growth of interest in the USA that in 2018, the US GP at Austin attracted 263,000 people. By 2022, it was more than 440,000. With evidence like that, it is little wonder that F1 continues to embrace the Netflix cameras and loves the impact the series makes when it emerges on the eve of each new season.

Review: Drive To Survive Season 6 - Netflix's 2023 F1 retrospective won't change opinions

But a new report by social intelligence company Buzz Radar has offered fascinating data on the true impact Netflix is having these days – and it backs up some views that have appeared recently that DTS should be actually viewed as a spark that ignited F1’s popularity boom, rather than it being the fire itself.

"Though Drive to Survive clearly had an enormous role to play in the expansion of F1's fanbase, it is far from the whole story. The show helped create a new audience and energised them, giving the sport a super-engaged online fanbase of creators and consumers" Buzz Radar

It seems that the true fuel that ignited F1 into its current phenomenally strong position was actually its opening up of social media. Where once F1 content online was frowned upon and actively discouraged as copyright enforcement notices became the name of the game, now TikTok, YouTube, X and Instagram is wall-to-wall full of F1.

According to its analysis in Buzz Radar’s “Does F1 need Drive to Survive?” whitepaper, in evaluating the most powerful factors in creating new fans for F1, DTS only comes in third with 14% of the audience. It lags behind the impact of family (21%), while it’s social media that comes out on top with 22%. The report cites: “In particular, algorithmic recommendations on YouTube pull in audiences by showing team radio clips, race highlights, and historical documentaries.”

It adds: “Our research shows that, though Drive to Survive clearly had an enormous role to play in the expansion of F1's fanbase, it is far from the whole story. The show helped create a new audience and energised them, giving the sport a super-engaged online fanbase of creators and consumers. Our data shows that this new audience has become self-sustaining. This massive increase in social media content, from posts to podcasts, quickly developed its own momentum and eclipsed the impact of the Netflix show. That content itself is now bringing in new fans.”

Drive to Survive has made F1 figures stars in recent years

Photo by: Netflix

Last year Autosport brought together some senior figures at Soho House in Austin for a debate about the changing fanbase in F1, and the topic of DTS came up. Female content creator Toni Cowan-Brown spoke there about her belief that Drive to Survive acted as the catalyst for a shift in fan engagement – as it helped open the door for a tidal wave of content on social media platforms.

“Cue the creator economy that lowers the barrier to entry,” she said. “Anyone can pick up a phone and do content for their own community in the way they want to do it. The incredible thing about young women, which Taylor Swift has very clearly described, is they will self-organise, they will create word of mouth, they will shout from the rooftops. But more importantly, they create relevance. And they are a huge economic power. And yet they are still disregarded, discredited and not respected. I find that absolutely fascinating.

“The sport of F1 is so lucky to have them because they are the ones that are creating all that relevance; they're buying your tickets, they're attending your GPs, buying merch, they're tuning in, they're buying F1 TV, they're bringing in their friends. How can we not respect that group, that demographic?”

Judging by the Buzz Radar report, their voice is very much being heard right now.

With F1 thriving, can it sustain this popularity wave?

Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images