“Millions of dollars are at stake between two teams, Renault and Haas. It’s old Europe against the New World. French royalty against American power.”
The ninth episode of the first season of the series “Drive To Survive”, released by Netflix in 2019, was dedicated to showing the backstage of a dispute that involved teams in the middle of the grid of the 2018 F1 World Cup. The narration, however, sought to create a greater meaning than the rivalry itself. Hence the tone of grandeur.
The two teams had no chance of winning races that year, but that story was central to the entertainment giant’s plans — and the series itself.
Since 2017, when the North American company Liberty Media bought F1 from the Briton Bernie Ecclestone, the new owners have set as goals to modernize the championship, attract a younger audience, increase their presence on social networks and expand some markets, especially in the United States. .
On Sunday (7), when Miami becomes the 11th place on North American soil to host an F1 event, the plans outlined five years ago could be considered quite advanced.
The fifth stage, with a start scheduled for 16:30 (BrasÃlia time), had sold out the tickets on sale. The race will be held on the newly built circuit around Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. The organization’s promise is precisely to create a Super Bowl atmosphere.
For four days, starting this Thursday (5), a series of events will attract thousands of fans to the circuit, as well as stars from other sports and celebrities, such as LeBron James, Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, David Beckham and the Williams sisters. On TV, ESPN, which owns the broadcasting rights in the United States, expects high ratings.
In more than 70 years of history, the competition created in Europe is experiencing the moment of greatest rise among North Americans. They represent the market hardest hit by the success of the Netflix production and will be the only ones with three races in 2023, with the addition of the Las Vegas GP, joining Miami and Austin.
“F1’s momentum has been demonstrated over the past few seasons, and we’ve seen that potential come true as we see our fan base really grow across the world, but especially here in the United States,” said Greg Maffei, Liberty’s President and CEO. Average.
An example of this was seen in 2021, when the GP in Austin, Texas, recorded a 56% increase in attendance compared to 2019 – in 2020 there was no race at the venue because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the course of last year’s three days of on-track activity, the event had 400,000 tickets sold, hitherto the highest mark in F1 history—surpassed by this year’s Australian GP, ​​with around 420,000 tickets used.
Test driver for the Haas team, the only American on the grid, Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi also feels a shift in public interest. “When I’m not traveling to the races, I live in North Carolina, where Haas’ base is. And today I see a big difference here, because before F1 wasn’t talked about much. Now, people my age, the age of my brothers, 20, speaks a lot. And it’s not just men, but women too. Most watched the series and started following the races”, he says.
Mercedes’ seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton also believes that F1 has “broken the bubble” in the US. “I felt there was a huge disconnect between the US and the rest of the world in terms of our passion for F1, and it’s amazing to see that we’ve broken that.”
The category’s TV audience in the United States reflects this interest. According to F1, there was a 58% increase in the number of spectators compared to 2020, which made ESPN register important marks as it starts a new era of motorsport on its grid.
At the end of the last decade, Disney channels were moving towards abandoning race broadcasts on American soil. First, they did not renew their contract with NASCAR in 2014. Then, they stopped showing the NHRA and IndyCar in 2015 and 2018, respectively.
In 2018, however, when NBC withdrew from showing F1, ESPN received an offer to take over the Worlds. According to a report by Morgan Stanley, the channel received the rights for free. In 2019, the parties entered into a three-year extension, without disclosing the financial terms, which were certainly voluminous due to the growing audience.
The current season opener in Bahrain averaged 1.35 million spectators during Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s victory. It was ESPN’s biggest viewership since the category’s recent acquisition.
The race was also the second most watched in the history of cable TV in the United States, surpassed only by the 1995 Brazilian GP, ​​with an average of 1.74 million spectators — the first race held at Interlagos after the death of Ayrton Senna, in 1994.
A record was set in 2021, when ESPN averaged 949,000 viewers per stage. The season that championed Dutchman Max Verstappen, of Red Bull, was the most watched of all time on American television.
“[Os Estados Unidos] are the big market where we’ve seen an incredible shift in appetite for F1. Above all, a change in the average age of the people involved, thanks to new ways of communicating with young people, thanks to Netflix and social networks”, says the category’s CEO, Italian Stefano Domenicali.
A survey presented by the category in partnership with Motorsport Network, in 2021, commissioned to Nielsen Sports, indicated that the F1 audience is, on average, 32 years old, including in the United States.
Compared to other American sports, Worlds has a much younger fan base. According to data from the consultancy Magna Global, between 2006 and 2016, the NASCAR audience rose from 49 to 58. The same company also points out that the average age of the NFL fan is 50 years old, and that of the NBA (the North American Basketball League), of 42.
“This is an effect of the right language, the right narrative and the right tools, which are closer to how the younger generation is behaving,” Domenicalli said.
A report released by F1 at the end of last year pointed out that the category had a 40% increase in its follower base on the networks on which it maintains active profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, Tiktok, Snapchat and Chinese social platforms). ), reaching 49 million in total.
The document states that video views have increased by 50% to 7 billion, and total engagement has increased by 74% to 1.5 billion interactions. It was essential to gain space in this terrain, always neglected by Bernie Ecclestone.
“I’d rather hit a 70-year-old rich man. […] If marketers are targeting this audience [jovem]maybe they should advertise at Disney”, he even said while running the category.
Liberty’s vision was different. And that became clear when the partnership with Netflix was signed. The series has been responsible for attracting more and more young people to F1. Season four, released in March, was the most viewed on the platform over the weekend of its release in 33 countries.
Although criticized by some drivers, such as Verstappen, who sees some excesses in the construction of the narrative when talking about rivalries, the positive impact of the production is almost a consensus in the paddock.
“F1 is a fascinating sport, with politics and personalities. I think ‘Drive to Survive’ hit the nail on the head, exposed it to the world and seems to have really resonated in the United States,” summarized McLaren boss Zak Brown.
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