Part 1 - The Scorecard - Drive To Survive: Is Your Favorite Motorsport Series Ready For the Global Spotlight?
When people think of racing, they think of Formula 1 and increasingly, even among casual viewers, they know the teams, the drivers, the rivalries.
That didn’t happen by accident.
It happened because of Drive to Survive, a Netflix series that didn’t just document Formula 1, it transformed it, from a niche European sport into a worldwide luxury media property.
Since then, every struggling series has echoed the same line:
“We need our own Drive to Survive.”
But here's the truth: a docuseries won't elevate, or even save you, if your series isn’t ready to be saved.
And most aren’t.
Of course, producing good content is not a given, but it’s more straight-forward than being ready for the spotlight.
In other words, the real difficulty is having the structure in place to capitalize on that eventual good content.
When Access Becomes Chaos: The Fan Safety Crisis Motorsport Is Not Seeing
My fear is that motorsport is again careening down a treacherous road it’s already travelled, waiting for something to go wrong before writing the rules.
Let’s not do that.
I want to enjoy a day at the track with my wife, and another after that, and another, until we can’t physically go to the track anymore.
I want the same for everyone else and their family.
Let’s not wait until we’re reading about another disaster, this time not involving a car, but a crowd.
Not a fatal crash, but a failed evacuation.
Not a broken barrier, but a blocked tunnel.
This isn’t about catastrophizing. It’s about foresight, it’s about respecting people’s very lives by assuring them that if they show up to an FIA event, the only strong emotion they will feel is the joy they experience as a Hypercar or Formula 1 car flashes by them.
5 Strategies Motorsports Racing Teams Can Implement Today to Cut Costs Without Sacrificing Performance
Every year, costs go up: fuel, freight, parts, labor.
And now we should add tariffs to the mix.
Meanwhile, sponsorship dollars are harder to secure, and prize money can’t be relied on to keep pace either as both fall under the squeeze of tough macro-economic conditions.
The result? Teams are burning through budgets faster, with less margin for error. Without proactive cost management, many risk being priced out of competition—or forced to make painful compromises that hurt on-track performance.
Doing nothing is always a choice, and an understandable one: it is easy to make.
At least in the short-term.
However, in times where costs do not go down, this choice.means falling behind, or closing up shop completely.