Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen Drive to Survive (DTS). The Netflix breakout hit is released its sixth season last week with what may be their best yet. The 2023 season was a bit boring with Max Verstappen’s championship lead pushing into another universe, however the rest of the grid had plenty of drama. With multiple standing changes across the teams and drivers throughout the season, the 2nd-10th place chase was electric compared with previous seasons. Although needing a good narrative has never been DTS’s problem. They have been plagued with controversy with some drivers like Verstappen refusing to appear in the series due to some ‘manufactured” stories. Fake fights and highlighting commentary that didn’t actually happen has been some of DTS’s tactics in the past, but season 6 promises to be less “reality TV” and more reality, only time will tell.

When DTS first launched, I was in awe. I loved every second of it. But as the seasons progressed, it became much more like a race car driver version of The Bachelor than a documentary about the racing season. As a Formula 1 fan, I have since lost my taste in the show because of the misleading nature of the show. Regardless of what I think, it has been a massive hit and the numbers speak for themselves. Since Season 1, the US now has 3 Grand Prix and a 4th in Chicago as a street circuit has been rumored. You don’t get that kind of growth from fans not liking your product. DTS’s growth has been astronomical. For perspective, my first Grand Prix was in Austin in 2019 where 268,000 other fans joined me in cheering on the race. Fast forward to the last event I attended, the 2022 Austin GP, and there were over 440,000 in attendance. That’s a 64% increase in only 3 years. CEOs would sell their souls for this type of growth. What has become worrisome for me though is the intangible effects, the parts that you can’t really see on paper but you can feel at the race in person. To this I raise the question, “Is DTS’s growth starting to hurt the fan base?” 

I have attended 4 total Grand Prix in my life, 3 of which have been in Austin so I have seen some change worth pointing out. With the exponential growth, one HUGE change has been the ticket prices. As the sport gains traction, this is to be expected. However, unlike a baseball or football game the circuit doesn’t really have a limited capacity as you can purchase general admission tickets. This means that the capacity of the event can increase and they don’t necessarily have to raise prices as they are selling more tickets. The Circuit of the Americas in Austin is aiming to hit 500K attendees in 2024. Having said that, they very much have raised the tickets by almost 2X rate, despite the increase in ticket sales. To rub salt in the wound, they have also started building more grandstand seating in previous general admission sections so there are less places to watch the race from if you get the cheaper option tickets. They are charging more people more money, with less viewing areas. To me, this is highway robbery. To make it worse, there are 2 other grand prix in the US now, so you’d think that competition would keep the prices lower as they have to compete with each other, but it doesn’t appear to have worked out that way. Am I bitter? Yes. Is it valid? I think so. 

Formula 1 has always been the pinnacle of racing and is synonymous with glitz and glamor, so don’t get me wrong. However, the glitz and glamor has always been just a part of the racing, not the entire focus. There are expensive box seats and hospitality suites for the rich and famous and I am okay with that, its simple marketing. The issue is that the average fan shouldn’t need a second mortgage just to attend a grand prix. The “cheap seats” should be just that, cheap. For example, in 2022, I paid about $350 for a GA ticket and another $80 a day for a bus ticket to the circuit. Even the food and beverages are expensive, as I paid around $60 for 5 tacos and 2 waters, with beers being around $16 a piece. You are looking at a $1000 weekend for two people to attend the race for a local, that doesn’t even include airfare or hotel if you are traveling. Those prices are Disneyland high. In 2023, I was offered an early access ticket, but they were running around $550 so sadly I decided not to attend. This huge growth spurt is no doubt attributed to DTS, but at what point do the fans want the growth to stop. For me it is now. I don’t want to sound like the gatekeeper, as if this my sport and I wont allow it to change. I think the need is to mitigate the change to a gradual growth and not an uncontrollable spurt. A soft landing to allow for the change to settle in before people don’t have the chance to be a part of it.

In my opinion, Formula 1 in the US is beginning to turn into the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl has become bigger than football. It has turned into an event where the fans attending seem to be more interested in being at the Super Bowl than watching the Super Bowl. Attending has become a “things to show people I did on Instagram”. Huge corporations bring their clients and the ultra rich attend while the true fans have to watch on TV at home. It’s a shame that fans that bleed the sport get boxed out of being able to attend. And to be fair, I could have bought a ticket to the last race, but was not willing to pay almost double what I did in 2019. Formula 1 has become a once and a while event for me and not a once a year event as I would’ve hoped. My future vision for Formula 1 is that there can be some type of cap put on at least a portion of the tickets to keep them affordable. Something to help the locals or the ‘attended last year” crowd. Anything to help keep the dedicated fan base able to see the sport they love. The die-hards are the ones that keep the sport relevant and through this growth spurt they have been placed on the back burner. 

Hopefully, Formula 1 will see that they may be getting a ton of new fans, but hidden in that number they may be losing a lot of established fans. Getting 1,000 new fans and losing 150 old ones looks like 850 new fans on paper. Mitigate that loss will be crucial for Formula 1’s long-term success. The fan base is changing and change is a part of life. As long as Formula 1’s spirit and personality aren’t swayed from what is actually important: the racing. It’s all the fans want to see at the end of the day. With the undoubted success of Drive to Survive, I wouldn’t expect it to go away, even if Formula 1 started to see it as a problem. It is just too damn good at bringing in new fans to the sport. A small tweak to make the show seem more realistic to weed out the fans looking for only drama would be a welcome sight. It’s not my sport, it is our sport. As the sport grows and enters a new era, I do want to be part of the new wave of fans and embrace the change. All that I am asking is for that I can actually be a part of this new wave, instead of being forced to the confines of my living room wishing I was at the race.