Drive to Survive Continues to Grow in the US as F1 Nearly Beats NASCAR Over Jeddah Race Weekend

The rise of Formula 1 has been astronomical over the last few years. The sport has gained lots of attention all over the globe for its breathtaking entertainment and craziness. Among every other side of the world, F1 gained most of its fans from the United States.

The US has always been a home for its sports such as NBA, NFL, and NASCAR. However, this is a great achievement by the F1 to gain such an important position in the US market. F1 is mainly a European sport, as it started in Europe, and most of the teams participating in the sport today hail from there as well.

Currently, Haas is the only American team on the entire grid. However, the popularity of F1 in the US has encouraged Michael Andretti, F1 champion Mario Andretti’s son to come up with an F1 team in 2024. If FIA gives a nod, it’ll be the second American team to be in F1 and it’ll be named “Andretti Global.”

How did F1 gain so much popularity in the United States?

America is famous for its NASCAR, a stock car racing championship. This sport has been very popular in the country for years now and tops the viewing chart over any other motorsports. However, F1 has closed much of the gap as they inched even closer in terms of viewership.

Talking about this, Adam Stern, a Motorsport journalist has stated, “@F1 was the highest-rated show on U.S. cable TV on Sunday in the 18-49 demographic, beating among others the @USMNT/@FIFAWorldCup qualifier on @FS1 versus Panama later that night. NASCAR, on broadcast @FoxTV, got 758K viewers in that demo on Sunday while F1 on ESPN got 649K.”

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Much of the credit for the surge of viewers goes to Netflix. The Drive to Survive docu-series has been immensely popular in the country. Into its fourth installment now, the show has helped grow F1 in one of the most influential countries in the world.

The statistics say, “Among fans between the ages of 18 and 34, 42% said they came on board in the past year. Fifty-eight percent of adult F1 fans in the United States are under the age of 45, up from 49% in 2020.”

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As things stand, the United States remains the second most important market for the sport apart from Europe. The country is set to host Las Vegas Grand Prix next year after setting up Miami and Austin Grand Prix already for this year.