We went on-scene at the 2021 United States Grand Prix to witness the Drive to Survive effect in real life.
The weekend before the 2021 United States Grand Prix, McLaren Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was in New York City. As he walked past a restaurant, a woman inside saw him. “She nearly flipped her table to run out and get a photo with me,” Ricciardo says. “She was like, ‘You’re funny.’ I was like, ‘Thanks. Your tacos are getting cold, but if you don’t want your margarita, I’ll have it.’”
Normally when a fan recognizes Ricciardo, they’ll point from afar. “Her excitement to see a Formula 1 driver, and just say hi, was kind of crazy,” he says.
This is the Drive to Survive effect. The series debuted in 2019, showcasing “each cutthroat season of Formula 1 racing.” Netflix says it’s grown massively in popularity, and a fourth season is in the works.
This story originally appeared in Volume 9 of Road & Track.
The crowd at the United States Grand Prix was historic. Circuit of the Americas’ first-turn hill looked fuller in Friday practice than it ever had on race day. Photos don’t do it justice. Paddock regulars, like Red Bull’s Christian Horner, seemed like pop stars. As Horner walked past, fans screamed, “Christian!”
At the race, drivers and team bosses praised the show’s U.S. impact. Fans bought tickets because of the show. A young woman told me she got into F1 through DTS—and convinced friends to join her at the race. One father-son duo came because the son got into Drive to Survive and asked his dad to tag along; for another pair, the father had followed F1 for decades. The son, Stephen Root, watched the show to understand his dad’s passion.
“F1 was always on in the Root household, so I cared from a distance until DTS brought it closer to me,” Root said. “I actually entered the show thinking I had a pretty good understanding of the sport. Since watching, I’ve realized there are way more layers.”
Jessica Smetana, who works on the podcast The Dan Le Batard Show, had no interest in racing despite working in sports her entire career. She started watching DTS when she and her boyfriend wanted a new show. “He suggested Drive to Survive,” says Smetana. “I was like, I don’t care about this, but we don’t have anything else to do. After the first episode, I was hooked.”
Smetana hadn’t missed an F1 broadcast before the USGP in 2021 and plans to attend her first race soon. She says the show welcomed her, teaching her about cars, tracks, and strategies without overcomplicating them.
It also made her appreciate the people. “I didn’t know who any of them were,” Smetana says. “But somehow Drive to Survive made me really care about them. There’s a perceived level of honesty. They all do a really good job of showing the audience how high the stakes are and how badly they want to win.”
Smetana, like many new fans, gravitated toward Ricciardo and teammate Lando Norris, two favorites on the show. Funny, considering that Ricciardo didn’t take the Netflix idea seriously at first.
“I was like, I can’t see Netflix doing a series of F1. How does that work?” Ricciardo says. “Now that it’s done, it makes sense. The sport was so closed off for so many years. Unless you were a real fan, no one really knew anything about F1. Europe grew up with Formula 1… But in America, it was zero, and now it feels close to 100.”
On a recent flight, the passenger behind me saw me watching the F1 season finale on my phone and hoped aloud that Hamilton could hold off Verstappen for the title. A flight attendant panned Verstappen’s attitude, and two more passengers chimed in, also watching on their phones. The immediate bond we formed shows how F1, a European sport, has taken hold in the U.S. I’d never seen anything like it.
It’s easy to pin F1’s U.S. boom on Netflix, but there’s no data to prove it. There’s only what we see: The show made F1 feel human, and got folks like Root, Smetana, and that woman in New York City invested in the humans behind it.
“I feel warm and fuzzy when I’m watching,” Smetana says. “I would never in a million years expect to feel that way about a show about people racing cars.”
Keyword: How the Drive to Survive Effect Flooded the U.S. Grand Prix