The debut of Netflix’s fifth season of “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” in February saw nearly 570,000 viewers over its first week — a 40 percent jump over 2022’s Season 4 debut and the most yet for the behind-the-scenes docuseries that’s widely credited with helping boost the open-wheeled racing circuit’s U.S. popularity.

That spill-over success at a time when flat year-over-year viewership is often seen as a victory as audiences cut the cable cord or drift to endless alternative entertainment options had TV insiders expecting a wave of other sports to invest in similar programming.

With past-season viewership factored into that initial week of viewership — fans catching up on the first four years of “Drive to Survive” as they dug into Season 5 — the total jumps to more than 643,000 viewers, per Nielsen data. Each season is 10 episodes, looking back at the prior season, and all drop at once.

While not in the same ballpark as Netflix’s eyeball-hogging streaming dramas such as “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game” and “Bridgerton,” the F1 series is said to provide a halo effect that’s boosted live race viewership on ABC and ESPN networks — which are enjoying F1 sponsorship revenue gains. A poll by Morning Consult in March 2022 of nearly 1,900 self-identified adult U.S. F1 fans showed that 53 percent credited “Drive to Survive” as a reason they became viewers of F1 races.

And it doesn’t hurt that F1’s biggest young superstar, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, is finally again participating in the series.

Season 5’s gross viewing minutes for its debut week was nearly 224 million, per Nielsen, which shattered last year’s premiere week number of 169.1 million viewing minutes for the first week of Season 4. That’s grown from 109.7 million viewing minutes when the show debuted in March 2019.

Total Season 5 debut week viewership (including people catching up on all of the prior seasons) was up 35 percent over the same period in 2022. Total viewing minutes also were up 32 percent over 2022.

A message seeking comment about the halo effect of the series was left with F1’s media relations staff.

Whether the series’ popularity sustains U.S. TV audience growth for its live races remains to be seen. The fifth and sixth seasons were part of a renewal announced by Netflix in May 2022.

F1’s U.S. fan growth was about 10 percent since the Netflix series debut, per a Nielsen study of “Drive to Survive,” Formula One races and other content. The research showed that an estimated 44.9 million Americans were F1 fans in 2019, and that grew to 49.2 million last year.

Last year, F1 races on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 averaged 1.21 million viewers — the first time they’ve hit an average of 1 million with American audiences.

The “Drive to Survive” viewership is much less than that, but the business ripple effects are obvious. Below is a chart of Nielsen-tracked first-week viewership of each season of the Netflix F1 series, and the additional viewership of the prior seasons of the show also viewed that same premiere week of the new season — fans catching up on prior seasons or binging it for the first time.

(Note: The 2020 season was shortened due to the global pandemic.)

Obviously, that’s just a week’s worth of audience data for each season. Unlike live sports and events, people continue to watch streaming series after its debut week, albeit in smaller numbers. That’s why streaming programs like “Drive” are measured differently than linear television. And yes, the numbers don’t seem particularly big compared to the aforementioned Netflix giants, but they don’t have to be to trigger spill-over race viewership growth because F1 isn’t especially huge compared to, say, the NFL and its 16 million viewers per game.

Netflix doesn’t publicize most of its audience metrics but has a deal with Nielsen to measure certain programs. With “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” the audience numbers are aggregated for the six days of its debut week.

The series has resonated with F1 fans and created new ones, thanks to top-notch visuals, access, narrative storytelling about what happens on and off the track, and in particular, humanizing drivers.

It won the Sports Emmy in May 2022 for “Outstanding Documentary Series — Serialized” and is again nominated this year. The series comes from London-based Box to Box Films, whose other sports documentaries are about PGA Tour golfers, elite women’s tennis players, surfing, soccer, rugby and boxing.

Lee Berke, a longtime sports media rights consultant, said “Drive to Survive” is seen within the industry as at least partly responsible for F1’s 28 percent U.S. ratings increase, along with the creation of the Miami event, which takes place next month. That’s led other sports to take an interest in such insider programming, particularly after seeing Formula One grow in younger and female viewership demographics.

“The halo of ‘Drive’ will still be there in 2023,” Berke said via email, “plus there will be the addition of another U.S. race — the Las Vegas Grand Prix airing in prime time on ABC (in November). Between the success of ‘Drive’ and the growing presence of grand prix racing in the U.S., you have to assume another ratings growth spurt of 15-20 percent is in the offing.”

More such programming will come and will follow the trail blazed by quality storytelling around sports in the past.

“It’s all about exposing your content to those that wouldn’t regularly view to extend your reach and potential audience. From the ‘Wide World of Sports’ to the Olympic stories of the athletes who may have participated in somewhat exotic events often brought the sport into the mainstream or at least mainstream conversation,” said Brian Fuhrer, Nielsen’s senior vice president of product strategy and thought leadership, via email on Tuesday.

“ESPN did some groundbreaking work with their ‘30 for 30’ specials, exploring the story behind the story for a number of athletes and sports. It’s not a total sports analogy, but the impact that “The Queen’s Gambit” had on chess is a corollary — people that never thought of chess were suddenly buying chess boards based on watching a series on Netflix.

“Perhaps the best example recently is the Netflix original “Full Swing” (which has been featured in Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10). The documentary represents a collaboration between Netflix and the PGA Tour. While there may be some overlap, the audience profile to “Full Swing” is much younger than the actual tournament’s coverage and likely is introducing the sport to a completely new set of viewers,” Fuhrer said.

It’s not always smooth seas with such programming, however.

There’s been past criticism that the “Drive” show manufactured or exaggerated drama and other situations, which led two-time F1 defending champion Verstappen to reportedly boycott participation. He wasn’t alone in his condemnation, but a deal was eventually reached, and in Season 5, he finally does in-show interviews.

So what’s F1 American viewership looked like so far this year? It’s a mixed bag, but only three races out of 23 have been run, and the sample size is too small for any surefire pronouncements, especially with the U.S. races yet to come.

The season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix won by Verstappen on March 5 averaged 1.31 million viewers for the 10 a.m. start on ESPN. That’s actually down from last year’s 1.35 million average but still the second-best U.S. viewership for that race, per Sports Media Watch.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on March 19 was won by Mexico’s Sergio Pérez and averaged 1.52 million viewers for a 1 p.m. start on ESPN, good for a modest audience gain over 2022’s race.

The latest F1 race was the Australian Grand Prix — won by Verstappen, amid chaos — on April 2 on ESPN, but with a 12:55 a.m. ET start. That’s never great for U.S. viewership, and it averaged 556,000. A replay at 9:30 a.m. on ESPN2 averaged another 217,000 viewers.

The 2022 Australian live race averaged 568,000 U.S. viewers, which was a decline from the last time it aired live on ESPN (649,000 in 2019; the race was shelved in 2020-21 because of the pandemic). But again, with that time zone differential, the race was never going to have a big American live audience compared to more typical start times.

What should aid overall U.S. viewership growth, beyond time zones and Netflix spill-over help, is that F1 has three American races this season for the first time since 1982. They start with the Miami Grand Prix at a temporary track built around Hard Rock Stadium. It airs at 3:25 p.m. on May 7 on ABC.

The inaugural Miami Grand Prix on ABC last year (another Verstappen victory) saw a U.S. Formula One record average of 2.6 million viewers.

After that is the U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 22, which also is an ABC broadcast. And the final U.S. stop is the Las Vegas Grand Prix at 10 p.m. local time on Nov. 18 (or 1 a.m. ET on Nov. 19) on ESPN.

The Vegas race, the first F1 contest in Sin City since 1982, will have cars blasting down the iconic Strip past landmark casinos such as the Mirage, Flamingo, Caesars Palace, and the Bellagio — something that may add some additional television appeal.

Overall, ESPN will air 13 races, while ABC and ESPN2 have the remainder. Eighteen will be simulcast on ESPN+, and that’s something to keep an eye on because the network’s rights deal with F1 gives ESPN more room to play with streaming content.

If F1 continues its U.S. growth, expect to see concurrent gains in the value of its domestic media rights fee in a couple of years.

Disney (which owns ABC and ESPN) re-upped its U.S. Formula One media rights in a three-year pact announced last fall, a deal that’s led to expanded F1 shoulder programming on linear TV, streaming, social media platforms and on ESPN’s news programs. The deal, reportedly worth $255 million, is through 2025. The last deal with Disney reportedly was worth $5 million a season, so the new contract is an enormous boost to $85 million a year for F1.

Netflix, NBC parent Comcast and Amazon also were said to have vied for U.S. rights.

The racing circuit has expressed its happiness with the Disney-owned broadcasts.

“Formula One has seen incredible growth in the United States with sold-out events and record television audiences, and the addition of Las Vegas to the calendar next season, alongside Austin and Miami, will see us host three spectacular races there,” said F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali in a statement announcing the media rights deal extension. “The ESPN networks have played a huge part in that growth with their dedicated quality coverage. We are excited to expand our relationship and continue to bring the passion and excitement of Formula One to our viewers in the U.S. together.”

The 2023 race schedule also has had F1 executives optimistic that growth will continue.

“The popular commercial-free broadcasts ensure that viewers continue to engage with F1 before, during and after the race. From next year we will have six races in the Americas, which means more favorable time zones to fans in the region, making the Formula One offering more compelling than ever,” said Ian Holmes, F1’s director of media rights and content creation, in the same statement.

Prior to new U.S. audience records set in 2021-22, the previous best F1 viewership had been an average of 748,000 in 1995 — a vastly different era of television, long before streaming, social media, and the cord-cutting trend that’s reduced overall TV usage.

The next F1 race is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which airs at 6:55 a.m. April 30 on ESPN.

GO DEEPER

How ‘Drive to Survive’ remade Formula One for America

(Photo of Max Verstappen: Dan Istitene — Formula 1 / Formula 1 via Getty Images)