To Formula 1, With Love from Netflix
A lot of us gasp at the sight of a sportscar running through the street. We marvel at the coolness of the person driving and owning the car. However, watching more than 60 minutes of racing in a car tends to be boring. That gets even more boring when it is meant to happen across the same circuit more than 50 times. Formula 1 Championship is all about this. 20 drivers race across different racetracks across the world to win the coveted Formula 1 World Championship. Any common sports viewer would perceive it to be a mundane sport and would chaff at anyone with a passion of following the F1 Championship. I was no different in this regard. For me, F1 world championship was all about keeping abreast with the happenings and not following the sport religiously.
Fast Forward to 2022 and I can’t wait for the Bahrain Grand Prix to start on 20th March. What transpired in past few years that has converted me and many others into ardent fans of Formula 1.?
Love from Netflix’s series Formula 1: Drive to Survive is the answer to this.
Drive to Survive arrived on Netflix in 2019 and there has been no turning back since then. The web series has managed to show a live portrayal of what goes behind the 50+ laps of intense racing ranging from high emotions, politics, huge money, skillset, and sacrifice. Such has been its influence that the average viewership per race was recorded at 946,000 viewers which is 56% higher than 2020 figures. So, how has Netflix expressed its love to Formula 1 to build such a huge fan following over the past 2 years?
It has been a perfect blend of generating adrenaline rush from critical moments in different races to building anticipation of driver pairings and dynamics between the teams. In addition, they have added scientific details (though very small) on aerodynamics which play a significant role in the races. Let’s understand the factors which have made Formula 1 one of the most watched sports in recent times vowing to Netflix’s support
1. Education: Netflix has managed to educate the public on the 20 drivers and their backgrounds. There are multiple steps to the ladder of success for becoming a Formula 1 driver. Generally, the top 3 drivers (rather only the champion) in Formula 2 (Junior level racing) gets an opportunity to race in a F1 car. There are definitely multimillion-dollar contracts that are handed over to the drivers, but they are not handed over on a platter. There comes great expectation and the insecurity of not having a seat in the impending future if they don’t perform to their optimum level.
2. Adrenaline Rush: Editing within the TV series covers multiple races and significant events within the race in a matter of 30–40 minutes. This keeps the viewers glued to the episodes and makes them realise the thrill they would get on seeing a live race even if it is for more than an hour. There are crashes, strategic overtaking, supreme skillset that is on offer which we often miss while watching the complete race and do not realise it until we are hooked to that specific moment. One can still recall the crash that Romain Grosjean had in the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2020 which made everyone around the world pray for the man on fire.
3. Anticipation: Drive to Survive has inculcated a sense of anticipation among the viewers on possible driver pairing that each team will have in coming years. There are 10 Formula 1 teams that compete every year with 2 drivers being part of race grid from each team. Performance and future plans determine the driver pairing for each year. Netflix helped us realise how importance of driver pairings that go a long way in determining which driver and team wins the world championship. Mercedes are 8 time world champion in Formula 1 with Sir Lewis Hamilton winning 6 of them with them and another with Mclaren. His teammate, Valtteri Bottas has played a key role in majority of these titles. On the other hand, there are teams where rifts between drivers and the desire to succeed while ignoring the team’s cause has led to several disappointments. Such events build anticipation post the summer break on the possible driver pairing. In fact, Sir Lewis Hamilton was on the other side of bad driver pairing when his childhood friend Nico Rosberg and himself were involved in a season long duel to win the world championship leading to unnecessary crashes and culminating in a shock retirement by Nico Rosberg after winning the world championship
All this has translated to a huge fan following which has resulted in high viewership of the races across the year. This brings more endorsements for the F1 teams and Formula 1. The merchandise sale of the Formula 1 team is skyrocketing. The Formula 1 drivers are getting more recognised with people like Carlos Sainz, Sir Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris becoming household names and content for memes as well.
Netflix has allowed us to access the garages and the pitstops of the Formula 1 teams which we would never have imagined in our lifetime or been aware of the same.
There are multifarious sports across the world which are as interesting as football or cricket, but awareness of the same is missing. We need more shows like Drive to Survive to inculcate an all-round interest in sports rather than being focused on high profile sports with huge fan following. This will not only build equity for sports like Golf, Formula 1, Rugby, etc., but also encourage the youngsters to take up these sports instead of focusing only on the common sports. Netflix and other OTT platforms need to extend their love like they did to Formula 1 for a diverse sporting portfolio in everyone’s lives
