F1 hopes to fuel growth in North America with Netflix and Apple
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McLaren's British driver Lando Norris during the second day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir on Feb 20.
PHOTO: AFP
SAKHIR – Formula One is well anchored in the US with its American owners and three Grand Prix races, but the sport hopes to push its growing popularity further with the help of Netflix and Apple.
The Netflix documentary, Formula 1: Drive To Survive, which began its eighth season on Feb 27, has already taken motor racing’s top discipline into a new dimension.
The series provides a behind-the-scenes look at the sport’s drivers, managers and team owners.
While critics complain that the show magnifies tensions between drivers and managers for entertainment value, it has introduced a younger audience – particularly women – to F1.
The documentary series and the additional races in the US have been “seismic changes in terms of where we were as a sport”, said Liam Parker, head of communications for F1, which has been a subsidiary of American company Liberty Media since 2016.
Founded in 1991, Nasdaq-listed Liberty Media has spent the last decade pushing hard to boost F1’s audience in the US, where Nascar and IndyCar dominate.
Drive To Survive co-executive producer Tom Rogers believes F1 has enormous potential in the US thanks to it now hosting three Grand Prix races – in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas.
Out of F1’s global audience of about 800 million viewers, some 52 million are in the US, according to Parker.
“We’re not really scratching the surface in the US in terms of what we can do given the size of that audience,” he said recently in Bahrain, where F1 teams held a series of pre-season tests.
The sport is also still basking in the success of F1: The Movie, which starred Brad Pitt. In addition to box-office success in 2025, the film garnered four Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture.
In 2026, five of the 24 Grand Prix races will be broadcast live at giant-screen IMAX cinemas across the US, while the sport will also see a switch in TV broadcasting rights from Disney’s ESPN to Apple TV.
The deal is worth a reported US$150 million (S$189.8 million) per year to F1.
“When we are talking about Apple in the US, we are talking about a new partner of Formula One that is believing in us with a great plan of being the protagonist of the growth in the US,” said F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali.
But F1 is setting its sights on more than just the US.
“I think we’re all anticipating probably a Latin American boost in Formula One interest... with Franco Colapinto, the Argentinian driver for Alpine,” said Rogers.
“And I think Latin America is an enormous market, especially for Netflix.”
Mexican driver Sergio Perez with Cadillac and Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto with Audi are also draws for Latin American viewers. AFP
