John Riordan: Surviving and thriving as US fans embrace F1 drama

With America hosting two F1 races this year, is reality TV partly responsible for a post-lockdown explosion in popularity across the country?

BIG IN THE USA@ Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner poses for a photo with Shaquille O'Neal on the grid before the F1 Grand Prix of USA at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. 

I was always of the firm belief that there was no room for Formula 1 in the American psyche.

Speaking in purely general terms - always unwise when considering a nation of around 350 million people - there has long been a fascinated suspicion in Amercians of what is considered 'Eurotrash'. Just as much as the US is painted with broad brushstrokes on the other side of the Atlantic, Europeans, too, have long been tarred in the States because of simplistic imagery derived from the Eurovision and long lunches, street cafes and questionable fashion choices on Mediterranean beaches. All the good things in life, basically.

The traditional playboy racing driver moves in Eurotrash type circles but of course the real barrier was always that the centre of F1 power resided firmly in Europe. Meanwhile, the homegrown US car guy is more of a working class hero, be it as an IndyCar driver - F1's closest cousin - or a NASCAR driver - F1's distant redneck cast-out relative.

So where's your market after that? The banner races held by both those institutions draw in huge crowds and command decent airtime on nationally broadcast TV networks. Especially so for NASCAR, the Florida headquartered boxcar behemoth which, in spite of its interminably basic and boring oval laps, is the dominant motorsport in the US.

As with anything, a niche following in the wide expanse of North America can count for something and F1 always had its small yet dedicated fanbase. Clearly it was a market that always needed to be breached and there was an on-again, off-again type relationship which took breaks between stints at Watkins Glen, New York and in Phoenix, Arizona during the 70s and 80s before arriving to Indianapolis, Indiana at the start of the 2000s.

Since 2012, it has raced at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, arriving just in time for an overall F1 revival. October's US Grand Prix broke weekend records for attendance, clocking in at around 400,000 through practice and race day. The demographics of that crowd, however, was the most notable factor. Young and hip is an Austin thing but not necessarily a Texas thing. The swathes of new young and hip fans that flew in to be there was an overwhelming sign of something new happening.

Down in the pit lanes, the current Queen of Generation Z, Megan Thee Stallion, traipsed around and stole the show.

Max Verstappen edged out Lewis Hamilton for first place, doubling his points lead in a championship battle which would culminate several weeks later in the sort of high drama, controversy and intrigue that seemed scripted.

If it had been scripted, it might have been rejected. Instead, the many tens of millions of viewers who had been waiting in anticipation for the fourth season of Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” got to relive the December mayhem that handed Verstappen his first title from the comfort of their homes over the last week or two. And all of this timed perfectly to whet the appetite before we settle into today's first practice in Bahrain.

It's well documented that opening out access for a documentary crew to be able to capture an acceptably revealing slice of the behind-the-scenes plots and subplots was a genius marketing move.

Drive to Survive is edited to within an inch of its life and is understandably a carbon copy of the production values which deliver sugar highs on HBO's NFL's Hard Knocks and Amazon's All or Nothing series. There are undeniably great moments and as a reality TV series which is a questionable version of reality, it easily exists in the upper echelons of that space.

But whatever the flaws a joyless person like me tends to seek out, the overall impact of it has been undeniable, converting notable American sports people, casual fans and even those who do their best to avoid professional sports into F1 diehards. The US broadcast rights holder is ESPN and they have been the surprised recipient of an unprecedented surge in viewership.

“I think there’s a variety of different contributors,” ESPN’s director of programming and acquisitions John Suchenski told the Washington Post last October. “A lot of people have asked about the Netflix series, and while there’s no way to quantify what audience Netflix brought in, it’s clearly helping.” 

During ESPN's first decade when they experimented with the scraps discarded to them such as college soccer, Aussie Rules and GAA highlights, they also aired Formula 1 for a short spell to what can't have been more than several thousand viewers.

They rekindled that partnership in 2018 as the sport's governing body sought to expand American interest in and awareness of F1 while simultaneously ESPN found itself needing to replace an expired IndyCar partnership.

Without putting much in the way of resources in - they simply transmit the Sky Sports broadcast to us which makes for some awkward moments - viewership went up by 50% in 2021 to just under a million each race weekend.

“We’ve seen a very positive progression over the last four seasons where we’ve been able each year to grow that audience by double digits — particularly this season,” Suchenski told the Post. “But to see four consecutive years of double-digit growth, I don’t know if I could single out something that compares to that.” 

October's race was its ninth in Austin after Circuit of The Americas signed a 10-year contract and now Miami has been added to the biggest F1 calendar ever. That May Grand Prix is already a sellout and if you want to buy a ticket on the secondary market, it will cost you a few months rent. 

F1 boss Stefano Domenicali sees “huge potential” for a third, which reportedly could take place in Las Vegas. And they would be very ill-advised to up sticks out of Austin which is paired nicely with the Mexico City round of racing.

The one piece missing is a successful American team to really scoop up the potential for partisanship fervour. The Haas team is a bit of a joker character in the Netflix series and there are no signs they'll be able to challenge the big players any time soon.

The success of the series is helped along by the willingness of the drivers - for the most part - to sit in front of the camera and, crucially, to air their strong grievances. Of course, they - more than anyone - see the huge potential for personal brand elevation that will come hand in hand with the growth of the American market.

Many of them have commented publicly about the novelty of being recognised out in the world here. Their eyes are very much on the big prizes. A Red Bull car drove over the Brooklyn Bridge. Lewis Hamilton visited with fashion editors Anna Wintour and Samantha Barry.

The truest Formula fans hate this, naturally. After the Eddie Jordan / Michael Schumacher / Damon Hill / Eddie Irving glory days that had me and my brother getting up at all hours to watch the Australian Grand Prix in the 90s, I’m one of those people who did not stick around after the thick became a lot of thin in the 2000s.

I observed from a distance as they muddled through rule changes to make things more competitive. Now I’m having the rules explained to me by young Millennials who didn’t know the sport existed two years ago.

It’s an incredible sea change and, anecdotally, bodes well for the potential of the sport to expand its reach in a way which would have been absolutely unfathomable five years ago.

I might even watch a race or two this Spring in the hopes that there is a run-in later this year that is even half as jaw-dropping as the one we witnessed last year.

@JohnWRiordan