Sport

Stream to survive: The sports seeking to emulate F1’s Netflix coup and the risks for those that don’t

From Formula 1 to the Premier League to the PGA Tour, the brains behind top-level sport are seeking out new ways to reach even more viewers, with a slew of fly-on-the-wall docuseries about household names and sporting institutions leading the way

Max Verstappen: the 2021 Formula 1 world champion features in Drive to Survive, the Netflix docuseries. Its success has opened up access to lucrative markets the sport’s administrators had struggled to crack. Picture: Getty

Max Verstappen filled his lungs and screamed into the Abu Dhabi night sky. “Yes! Yes! Oh my God!” the Dutchman bellowed from the cockpit of his Red Bull Formula 1 car, his cry almost drowned out by the deafening roar of the machine hurtling around the track beneath him.

As his car’s turbocharged V6 engine propelled the 24-year-old past the finish line and into the history books of motorsport, Red Bull’s team of mechanics, engineers, ...