The Hollywood movie "F1: The Drive" starring Brad Pitt has been released for a long time. It is said that it has achieved a global box office of over 300 million US dollars in 12 days, and it is also the most popular movie produced by Apple. Interestingly, my female friends who never paid attention to any F1 competitions before have agreed to buy tickets to watch the F1 competition in Shanghai next year after watching the movie.
"F1: Fast and Furious" poster
I smiled bitterly in my heart. This time, Liberty Media has stolen the hearts of girls as it wished. Whenever F1 is mentioned, in addition to certain drivers and teams, Liberty Media is a name that cannot be avoided. After taking over F1 in 2017, this giant company from the United States made almost cosmetic changes to F1, which made this racing sport shine again and made girls who were originally very unfamiliar with racing willing to take a second look.
According to Nielsen Sports, F1 currently has 826.5 million fans worldwide. (The global audience in 2016 was 390 million.) After conducting research in 37 markets around the world, Nielsen found that female fans accounted for 41% of F1 fans; at the same time, female fans aged 16-24 are the fastest growing group in the sport.
Before "Drive", this was largely due to "Drive", the official F1 documentary that began filming in 2018. Hamilton said that because of "Drive", people around him who never watched F1 started discussing F1. However, "Drive" does not have a superstar like Brad Pitt, nor does it have a master soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.
However, the real drivers are enough to attract attention. "Drive: Survive" shows the laughter, anger and scolding experienced by 20 drivers in a season without reservation (with some bad editing). This was unimaginable in the Bernie era (former head of F1). Bernie only cared about the team and thought the drivers were irrelevant. So even in the golden 1990s of F1, hardcore fans might not be able to name the No. 2 driver.
Liberty Media has a completely different attitude from Bernie. Liberty Media realizes that although F1 is a sport about racing, racing is ultimately just a cold machine and is not the key to retaining the audience. What really makes people want to stop and linger is actually a certain bond or resonance between people. F1 wants to show that the drivers are more than the cars. Coincidentally, the drivers are not bad looking. (These drivers also appeared in the F1 movie, and the camera specially gave Leclerc and Russell a few seconds. Maybe even the director thinks that their handsome faces are enough to capture new fans.)
As the second attempt to expand the influence of F1, Liberty Media bluntly stated that "F1: Fast and Furious" is not a movie made for car fans. So even if there are many complaints about this movie, I decided to keep silent. However, I have to mention its sound effects, which are really amazing. The deafening roar may make you instinctively want to run away at the beginning, but after a while, the passion that penetrates your lungs will come, and you will be addicted to it unconsciously. Hans Zimmer really deserves credit for such an immersive enjoyment.
If I have to give some movie-watching advice, Dolby sound is great, but there's no need to be overly obsessed with IMAX.
I am still updating the F1 series. If you are interested in F1, you are welcome to check out the previous F1-related articles in the "Qigu Pai" column:
Curious | The best book about F1 ever
Curious | Zhou Guanyu, on April 21st
Curious｜When we learn about Australia from Ricciardo and Holden
Curious｜Toyota, starting a new adventure in autumn
Curious | F1's lower-tier team Williams believes success is just around the corner
Curious | The most expensive F1 viewing experience
Huggies | The driver chosen by the billionaire
Stills from F1: The Fast and the Furious
