Marko Hanželic
The third season of the documentary series Drive To Survive was on Netflix premiered on Friday. Documentary series is considered by most to be a real blessing for Formula 1, as it can bring new spectators to the races, but behind the scenes it is all together anything but harmonious, well-informed sources can tell. Smaller teams that contribute much more material than large ones end up getting a smaller share of the financial pie.
Netflix does not pay an individual royalty to each team shown in the series, but transfers the amount in full Formula 1 organization. The latter then pays interest to individual teams according to a special key, with most of the cake being given to the most successful teams and the least to the less successful. It is an exception again Ferrari, which gets special bonuses.
In 2019 Netflix to accounts FOM transferred about five million dollars, but it is not clear whether conditions have changed in 2020. For comparison - Formula 1 group had revenue last year, from $ 1.145 million of which they are 711 million paid to teams - not in equal parts, of course, as the richest teams got three or even four times what smaller teams like Haas, Williams ali Alfa Romeo.
A similar ratio is in income from Netflix, as they are out of five million Mercedes, Ferrari in Red Bull they put a million in their pockets, and the smaller ones only had one left $ 250.000. He is also a big critic of filming Franz tostwho said: “In the first season, I was exclusively available to the filmmakers of the series for more than ten hours, but in the end, our sponsors were not shown anywhere. I don't care if they see me or not, but sponsors need to be understood - it's important to them that they are seen - so last but not least, they pay. "
