Netflix’s Drive to Survive has been a huge impetus for Formula 1 and its teams. It not only made the sport very popular worldwide but also brought in a huge cash flow for all the teams, especially Christian Horner’s Red Bull.
The documentary popularized the sport in the United States and opened up a huge market there. This has benefitted Horner and Red Bull as he recently opened up about having five Fortune 500 companies have ties with the Austrian team.
Christian Horner on how Red Bull became huge in the US: pic.twitter.com/Ok12CtaEVs
— TheF1Guy (@Sabyasaachii) November 2, 2023
Revealing this as per Business F1, he said, “Drive to Survive has opened up the US market. We’ve got five Fortune 500 partners on the car now. We’ve got such a big following in the US, Las Vegas is going to be insane. And that would have been unimaginable even four to five years ago.”
Notably, companies like Oracle, Tag Heuer, Mobil 1, Hard Rock, Heineken, Siemens, and HP are a few of the names associated with the team. Admittedly, this was all because the energy drink-based team was the wisest team of all when Netflix knocked them with their Drive to Survive idea.
How did Red Bull fare better than its competitors when it comes to Drive to Survive?
When Netflix came out with Drive to Survive, Ferrari and Mercedes decided not to be a part of the show. On the other hand, Red Bull accepted their initiative and got the headstart in popularity right from season 1 itself.
As the docu-series grew popular right after its first installment, Ferrari and Mercedes did not delay and jumped onto the bandwagon to be a part of it. Nevertheless, they still lack the screen presence that Horner and Co. still have on the show.
2)F1 is one of the most viewed and exclusive sports in the world and its popularity rapidly grew with Netflix’s “Drive to Survive”. At first season of the serie, Teams like Mercedes didn’t sign up for the serie but after seeing the success of it, they changed their mind. pic.twitter.com/pOeivbLNLR
— Matt Lab aka “Balyan” ❤️ Memecoin (@MattLabArt) March 24, 2023
Notably, the Drive to Survive was initially expected to be a docu-series surrounding the Red Bull Racing. However, it was soon expanded throughout the paddock, and Netflix hasn’t looked back ever since.
Apart from being hugely popular in the sport, the series by Netflix is the sole reason why Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have now become a household names in the United States.
