F1 hopes to fuel growth in North America with Netflix and Apple

Out of F1‘s global audience of about 800 million viewers, only some 52 million are in the United States. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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.