Netflix Formula 1 series Drive to Survive has reportedly boosted ticket sales among women by 30 per cent for the Mexican Grand Prix.
Alejandro Soberon, president of race organiser and promoters CIE, credits the docuseries, gives viewers exclusive, intimate access to the drivers, managers and team owners in Formula 1, for the increase in first-time ticket-buyers.
Soberon said, according to the Motor1 news website: “We noticed that we have a 30 per cent increase in interest from women. I think this series especially had an effect on ladies who found this racing concept extremely boring until they discovered there was drama behind it and there was a different narrative. And I think that helped.
“Many of the guys who used to come alone now have a problem! It used to be a free weekend and now it might not be a free weekend anymore because their ladies might say, ‘Hey, I’ll come!'”
Lewis Hamilton won the 2019 edition of the race, which is held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, yesterday (Sunday). The overall attendance over the weekend came to 345,694, which puts it among the best on the F1 calendar.
Soberon said that he thought the Netflix show was a success and gave fans and those that are new to F1 a “substantially bigger scope” of what goes into the sport on a human level.
“It’s not so distant anymore, you can touch it somehow, it becomes more human. All this technology and these lunatics who can race at 300km/h… They seem like aliens. And I think that series just made them humans again.
“We know exactly who buys the tickets, we know the gender, the age, where they are coming from. We investigate, we think it’s fundamental in this business. So we know. It’s a real surge in interest from windows.
“We have tested, and it’s directly related to the Netflix series. And they answer, and they comment, and at least in Mexico it was wildly successful.”