Formula 1: Drive to Survive Season 7. Carlos Sainz Jr. in Formula 1: Drive to Survive Season 7. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Formula 1: Drive to Survive is now one of Netflix’s longest-running documentary series, having first premiered in 2019. Now in its seventh season, viewership appears to be on a downward trend, but there’s still plenty of fuel left in the tank.
Premiering on March 7th, we’ve just gotten the first week’s worth of data from Netflix for the seventh season. Here’s how it stacks up:
- Season 7 featured in the top 10s of 39 countries (down from 61 for season 6)
- Premiered ninth in the English TV top 10s (season 6 was eighth)
- The global hours watched watched decreased by 11.93% (from 21.80M for S6 to 19.20M for S7)
- The total views decreased by 10.34% (from 2.9M to 2.6M)
Given that we’ve now got views stats since season 4, here’s the first week premiere season over season:
If we compare season over season over the first month of release, you can see that the show has lost some ground, but ultimately, it is decaying at a rate that shouldn’t be overly alarming. Note that Seasons 4 and 5 had the exact same views in weeks 1 and 2. Also, note that no season of Drive to Survive has managed to last beyond two weeks in the top 10.
As we recently covered, most English-language shows in 2024 struggled to gain viewership season over season. In fact, we only found one show that actually grew its audience throughout that year.
Of course, F1: Drive to Survive has served as a blueprint for Netflix’s bullish expansion into sports-adjacent documentary series, although it’s arguably hitting points of diminishing returns.
Formula 1: Drive to Survive did rank in the global top 10s, though. That’s more than you can say for some of Netflix’s other sports docu-series. Full Swing, for example, hasn’t managed to feature in the global top 10s beyond its first season in 2023 when it secured 17.10M viewing hours / 2.8M views. According to the Netflix Engagement Report, opinions on that series nearly dropped by almost half between seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 secured 8.8M views in the first half of 2023 for season 1, with season 2 in the same period in 2024 doing 4.8M views.
Tour de France: Unchained, which will return for its third and final season this June after its recent cancelation, dipped from 6.5M views for the entirety of 2023 for seasons 1 to 3.9M views for season 2 in 2024. We don’t yet have stats for Six Nations: Full Contact season 2, although that similarly won’t be returning for any additional seasons.
Although the show’s viewership is on a downward trajectory, it’s still remarkable at how competitive it is in its seventh season. If we stack it up against some other relatively recent sports documentary series debuts, it’s still very much holding its own against newer titles.
Officially and at least publicly, Netflix has yet to pull the trigger on season 8 of the show. Given that the season is just a week away from getting underway in Melbourne, Australia, we suspect that decision has already been made. We’ll have more on that as and when we learn more.
What do you think about F1: Drive to Survive season 7? Let us know in the comments.
