Less than two years ago, Anton Johnson knew nothing about Formula One racing. He could not have picked Lewis Hamilton out of a lineup with Alexander Hamilton and Lewis Black.
Then again, Johnson is not exactly the traditional demo of an auto racing fan. He’s a black, not-quite 23-year-old college graduate from York, a young professional at a communications firm living in Pittsburgh who does much of his work virtually.
Then, on the advice of my son, his roommate at the time, Johnson watched the first episode of the first season of the Netflix series Drive to Survive. Johnson said he quickly became an F1 addict:
“Actually, I just had it on as sort of background noise. I had the TV on but was only paying attention here and there.”
That viewing posture did not last long. The series about the Formula One circuit and the story arcs of the elite drivers and racing managers and technical support in the racing world demands full attention. It does so with riveting footage and expert editing of action on the track, behind the scenes in the pits and conflict between and among the teams. It is, as they say in the trade, “great TV.”
“I never expected it to hook my interest as much as it did,” said Johnson. “Just the scale of the amount of risk but also the balance of technicality. And I think they did a great job of not overburdening the viewer with the tech component, explaining just the right amount to get you to understand what’s happening on-track. Not only what’s happening but conveying the rate of speed at which those things need to happen.”
Drive to Survive, now in its fourth season, was promoted by a new American-led marketing team that’s jettisoned the once-stodgy and insular F1 European management in favor of splashy presentation. It’s one that exposes all the sizzle of a fascinating and ultra-high-stakes racing circuit, the best in the world zipping around both hallowed tracks like Silverstone in England and Monza in Italy and spectacular new courses such as the Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arab Emirates and the Miami International Autodrome.
Speaking of which, all of a sudden, where there’s been no more than one American F1 race for years, there will be three next year – the year-old Miami race and a brand-new one in Las Vegas added to the oldest event in Austin.
No racing circuit has ever spent more money on technology than Formula One and that’s always been true. The sport has been massive in Europe for decades. The cars, the drivers, the teams – they all are at the forefront of the industry.
No cars are more powerful and yet nimble around turns and durable through the course of a 70-lap race. No drivers are more adept at multi-tasking the overwhelming jobs of negotiating their machines yet monitoring data from their multifaceted dash readouts all while communicating with their team managers by radio. And that’s merely during the Friday-Sunday weekend of practice, time trials and race day.
In off weeks, the 10 F1 teams and their 20 drivers must huddle with their respective management and mechanics and tech maestros and tweak the multimillion-dollar driving machines, strategizing a way to gain an edge on competitors within recently equalized parameters. Johnson loves all of it. That first season of D2S was the catalyst:
“There were a few storylines, for sure. But most interesting to me was Haas, how this American team was trying to break into that sport and how difficult that was for them. As well as the personalities like [Haas manager] Guenther Steiner.”
Running up against the traditional heavyweights of the business from Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari and McLaren and their massive bankrolls, the Haas team has been enmeshed in a long-running struggle. The first season of Drive to Survive focused on its fiery and beleaguered Italian-American manager…
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