The Amazing Race For The States

Amanda Baucher '25

Social Media Coordinator

The world of motorsports is no stranger to the United States. NASCAR and Indy Car have historically dominated the scene regarding viewership and attendance. However, Formula 1, the biggest motorsport in the world, is attracting American viewers ever since the Formula One Group was bought by American mass media company Liberty Media in 2017.

Liberty Media hit the ground running to start promoting F1 to an American market through broadcasting, sponsorship and media coverage. One of their most successful initiatives is the docu-series “Drive to Survive.” The trailer for the series was announced just two years after Liberty Media’s takeover and was released on March 8, 2019. The series made the complicated rules and customs of motorsport more accessible to a new and inexperienced audience.

The second season of the series marked the beginning of the docuseries takeover. “Drive to Survive” now follows the 10 teams, 20 drivers and many other important figures of the sport. Each season covers a racing season that starts in March and ends in December, traveling to numerous countries in five different continents. Despite the storytelling aspect of the series, the heart of the narrative remains in the sport. The series gave the sport significant success in the United States and introduced a younger demographic to the Formula 1 World Championship.

Viewer of the Monaco Grand Prix 2024.

The series also gave Americans new personas to root for: The championship dominating Max Verstappen, the legendary veteran Sir Lewis Hamilton, the smooth operator Carlos Sainz and the promising Australian sophomore Oscar Piastri. Ultimately, it was the stories and the human experiences of these drivers that captivated the American audience.

This was just the beginning of the many initiatives to make the sport more available to an American audience. Along with the United States’ Grand Prix held in Austin Texas, the Miami Grand Prix was introduced in 2022 and returned to Las Vegas last year in 2023. The league then announced that the total attendance for 2022 was 5.7 million spectators over the season, going up 36% compared to attendance in 2019.

New agreements with ESPN made broadcasting more accessible in the states and later in Latin America and the Caribbean. This only increased the audience watching from home on TV. In 2022, ESPN announced a 28 percent increase in viewership, surpassing the U.S. television record of 949,000 average viewers in 2021. Since Liberty Media’s allocation and the release of “Drive to Survive,” the numbers in the states have only been climbing.

The fear is now that with a lack of competition in the World championship, that those increasing numbers will plateau in the United States after a successful five years. An American audience may be late to the party that is Formula 1, but it’s clear now that there is an audience there that craves more.