23/01/2020
NEWS STORY
Season 2 of Netflix's Formula 1: Drive to Survive is to become available to subscribers on 28 February.
The first season is credited with bringing a new army of F1 fans on board, with Formula One Management's Director of Media Rights, Ian Holmes, praising the success of the first series earlier this week.
"We ran four fantastic Fan Festivals, introduced ever more digital offerings and games, further developed our esports series and enjoyed great success with the Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive' which really resonated with lapsed, light and new fans," he said. "All these elements aligned with our on-going event by event marketing efforts such as those we put on around F1's 1,000th Grand Prix meaning that we are talking to ever more people through so many different channels.
"Engagement with F1 has increased significantly year on year," he added. "We have a similar size group of people watching more content and for longer than they did a year ago. This was of course helped by more compelling races and a more engaged fan base who have increased the amount of content that they are watching compared to 2018. We have found this with all F1 touchpoints.
"It's no coincidence that 72% say that the sport has improved in the last two years. Helped by improved digital & social, F1 TV, the launch of esports and the success of Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive', the average number of F1 touchpoints consumed per F1 fan has also increased year on year as F1 becomes a more multimedia organization – rather than just focusing on TV."
Though Mercedes and Ferrari chose not to be involved in the first season, both will be seen in the new series, with fans eager to see behind-the-scenes footage following the German outfit's disastrous home race at the Nurburgring.
Despite the absence of Mercedes and Ferrari in the first series, there was still much to entertain fans, not least Guenther Steiner, whose expletive-laden rants made him a start overnight.
Fans also enjoyed the increasing tension between Christian Horner and Cyril Abiteboul in the last season of their 'partnership', as well as the rivalry between Daniel Ricciardo and his teammate Max Verstappen, not forgetting Romain Grosjean's slow fall from grace.