Is Formula One at risk of losing the millions of new fans they gained from the Netflix series?

Formula One, the peak of motor racing, is full of soap drama behind the scenes in the pits and cars driving around corners at the speed of light.

According to frontofficesports.com, six years ago, the worldwide viewing of the sport was down by 110 million from its 500 million peak in 2012.

After the catastrophic loss in viewers, Liberty Media purchased F1 in full for $8 billion, hoping to inject some much-needed branding into the sport.

In the hope of injecting more viewers and increasing its popularity in the United States, Liberty Media reached an agreement with Netflix to create a series called 'Drive to Survive.'

Since the inaugural series in 2019, the sport has seen a 40% increase in its viewers from the US, has seen seven of the ten most-watched races, and attracted the biggest crowd for a race weekend (400,000 for the Austin Grand Prix).

Since the 2019 series of 'Drive to Survive', viewership in the US has grown from 547, 722 to 1,400,000 in 2022.

However, could all this work to grow the sport through the Netflix series now be in jeopardy, with the 2023 season becoming more predictable with every race?

No one who likes sport likes seeing the same person win every week, making it boring and predictable, making people switch off from the action.

For Red Bull and Max Verstappen, winning has become inevitable at every race, with Verstappen winning the last eight races and Red Bull winning every single race due to the efforts of Sergio Perez.

How Red Bull dominating is a cause for concern for the sport, beating teams by an average of over 20 seconds, including last week at Belgium where Charles LeClerc was 32.3 seconds behind Verstappen in third.

What has that meant for the sport this year?

The early signs that Red Bull's dominance has affected the US viewers from 'Drive to Survive' was at the Miami Grand Prix in May.

According to gpblog.com, ABC had 2.6 million people watching the 2022 Miami Grand Prix and lost a quarter of those viewers for this year's event. The New York Times named the race 'Duller than Usual' thanks to Red Bull's dominance.

One of America's most treasured sports is NASCAR, and 'Drive to Survive' looked to have taken some US fans away from that and turn them into Formula One fans.

Two key examples are the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and Bahrain Grand Prix. ESPN had 1.5 million viewers for the Saudi Grand Prix, while FOX had 3.4 million for the NASCAR. In Bahrain, ESPN got 1.3 million viewers compared to FOX, which got 3.9 million for NASCAR.

For Red Bull, their exceptional performances may only benefit themselves as the F1 organization needs to find a way to keep the fans interested in every race.