Fewer people watched Drive to Survive in the first week a new season arrived for the second year in a row.
The sixth season of the hit Netflix Formula 1 series, covering the events of last year’s world championship, debuted last week. Netflix reported 21.8 million hours of the show were watched during that week.
This is a fall of 15% compared to the previous year, when 25.7m hours of the fifth season were watched during its first week. The previous season attracted even more views: 28m hours were watched during its opening week.
While season four was the fourth most-watched programme in the week it debuted in 2022, this year’s new season reached only eighth on the same chart. It appeared in the top 10 in 42 different countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico but not the USA.
Drive to Survive has been credited with spurring interest in F1, particularly in the USA. Its second season coincided with the onset of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and attracted especially strong viewing figures.
Programme makers Box to Box faced several challenges with the latest season. The 2023 championship was a one-sided affair in which Red Bull won all bar one of the 22 grands prix, and Max Verstappen took 19 of those.
Post-season developments overshadowed the content of some episodes. One focused on Lewis Hamilton’s decision to extend his Mercedes contract, but by the time it aired news had broken of his decision to join Ferrari in 2025. The series makers were able to edit in a late reference to show favourite Guenther Steiner being replaced as Haas team principal in January.
F1 last renewed its contract with Netflix in 2022, when it agreed to produce the fifth and sixth seasons of Drive to Survive. Filming for a seventh has already begun.
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