F1 vs IndyCar: DocuSeries battle for new fans

–by Mark Cipolloni–

IndyCar’s “100 Days to Indy” premiere garnered 385,000 viewers total in the opening week – that includes CW and a replay on Vice.

F1’s “Drive to Survive,” which IndyCar is trying to copy, gets over 5 million viewers per episode, and that is 2022 numbers.  2023 numbers are not in yet, but will likely be higher.

IndyCar’s Docuseries is just starting out, so it is too early to tell yet whether it will move the needle for the series.

Perhaps it’s fatal flaw is its name – 100 Days to Indy.

Indy Indy Indy

The Indy 500 is all Penske and the series cares about.  The rest of the events are there only because without them, the Indy 500 would never get the 33 cars it needs.

They worship at the alter of Indy.

F1 focuses on making all the events big events, and Drive to Survive is not only about one race.

This is one reason why F1 is so popular around the world. They try to make all their races an ‘Indy 500’ event for that particular country.

Sure. Las Vegas is getting special attention this year. F1/Liberty Media are doing that deliberately to show the other race promoters how to stretch their imagination to make their events bigger and better.

It will be interesting to follow 100 Days to Indy through its 6 episodes to see if viewership increases significantly.