Josh Marques has always been a bit of a revhead but he reckons his girlfriend Hannah Smith might now be more into the Formula One than he is.
“My missus got into it from Drive To Survive,” the 35-year-old said at Albert Park on Saturday. “Since then, having a perfect co-companion has made it much easier to support it. She might be more obsessed than me.”
Racing fans at the 2022 Melbourne Grand Prix.Credit:Eddie Jim
The last time Formula One race cars tore around Melbourne’s lakeside track for the grand prix in 2019, the Netflix fly-on-the-wall series following the sport had only just been released.
Drive To Survive has since gone on to become a smash hit for the streaming service and its success has been credited with introducing a whole new demographic to F1, particularly younger women.
As a record crowd of 123,247 people flocked to Albert Park for practice and qualifying on Saturday, it was noticeable how different the crowds were to the blokier atmosphere of the years before the show’s release.
“We watched one episode and I thought ‘Hmmm that was pretty good’,” said Ms Smith, 33. “Then I think we watched them all in a matter of days.
Record crowds have flocked to Albert Park in 2022.Credit:Eddie Jim
“It’s mainly the politics behind it. I don’t know anything about cars, but I just found it so fascinating – it’s a whole world I didn’t know existed.”
Mr Marques added: “She realised it’s not just for your car bogans, so to speak.”
In addition to the racing – or, as some diehards might say, instead of the racing – the series focuses on the characters involved in the sport and the rivalries between drivers and teams.
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo is a star of the show and plenty of fans were wearing the orange of his McLaren team. However, there was strong support at Albert Park for Ferrari and many other drivers featured in Drive To Survive.
Ferrari supporters were out in force on Saturday.Credit:Eddie Jim
Ms Smith said she had become a fan of Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, as he was portrayed as a bit of a villain in the show. “We named our dog after him,” said Mr Marques.
Another favourite is Toto Wolff, the Austrian team principal for Mercedes who regularly spars with Englishman Christian Horner of Red Bull.
In a sign of how Netflix has elevated off-track personalities into stars, Mr Marques and Ms Smith were wearing T-shirts with an infamous team radio comment by Wolff during the dramatic finale of last year’s championship won by Verstappen.
F1 fans Josh Marques and Hannah Smith.Credit:Tom Cowie
As for seeing the cars in person after years of watching them on TV, Ms Smith said: “We keep freaking out that we can actually see them with our own eyes. It’s amazing, the sound of it, the vibrations. It’s faster in person.”
Jade Wright, 24, was also attending the grand prix for the first time after getting hooked on the Netflix show, along with her friend Elise Ward, 25. Both were hoping for Ricciardo to do well.
“It’s more exciting I reckon,” said Ms Wright of hearing the roar of an F1 engine.
“The insights into it [that came from Netflix], I didn’t have a team to go for. I was watching the personalities and choosing which ones to like.”
Ms Ward said she remembered coming to the grand prix as a child with her dad but had been drawn back to see the racing with her friend by Drive To Survive.
“It was the inspiration for it,” she said. “And two years waiting has added some anticipation.”
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