D8 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 , 2021
apolis that ended in 2007 with
then-F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone
casting doubt on the sport’s future
in America — despite continued
efforts to bring back the U.S.
Grand Prix. Previous races were
held in Detroit, Phoenix and Las
Vegas. Watkins Glen, N.Y., hosted
races for nearly 20 years starting
in 1961.
Formula One and its U.S.-based
owner, Liberty Media, have
pushed to ensure the sport has a
more lasting place in American
culture.
The 2022 Formula One calen-
dar will include a s econd Ameri-
can event in Miami in May, and
Domenicali sees “huge potential”
for a third, which reportedly
could take place in Las Vegas.
Those developments accompa-
ny reports that Michael Andretti,
one of auto racing’s most success-
ful drivers and son of 1978 Formu-
la One champion Mario Andretti,
is nearing a deal to purchase the
Alfa Romeo team and could insert
IndyCar star Colton Herta as F1’s
only American driver. Formula
One currently has one American-
owned team, Haas F1, which sits
last in the standings.‘It’s been crazy’
On Sunday, after fans spilled
onto the track for postrace cele-
brations and before children ran
in front of traffic to chase a white
SUV carrying star driver Daniel
Ricciardo as he departed, drivers
said F1’s growth felt more appar-
ent than before.
“It’s been crazy, just away from
the circuit, even in the hotel every
morning, [fans were] waiting
there. I feel like they just never
sleep,” said Lando Norris, a
McLaren Racing driver from Brit-
ain. “I guess ‘Drive to Survive’ has
made a massive difference from
that aspect.... We had a lot of fans
last time, [but] I feel like there’s a
lot more now than there were in
2019.”
Said Ricciardo, his Australian-
born McLaren teammate:
“There’s a f ew races that I treat
like a second home, but this is
certainly one of them,” he said,
describing Austin as the “busiest
it’s ever been” during U.S. Grand
Prix weekend. “Just seeing up the
hill, just the sea of people in the
crowd. It’s one of the cooler ones,
so I hope we keep coming back
again and again.”
[email protected]pandemic. “ But to see four con-
secutive years of double-digit
growth, I don’t know if I could
single out something that com-
pares to that.”
Suchenski sees other factors,
too.
He said he believes ESPN has
made the sport more accessible to
American fans who have become
accustomed to finding races on its
platforms on Sundays and, when
they do, they’ve increasingly seen
more content: more races, more
race-day coverage and a Spanish-
language offering.
Formula One CEO Stefano Do-
menicali credits both Netflix and
ESPN for extending the sport’s
reach in the United States, which
he considers critical to its growth.
“The U.S. market is crucial for
us because being a world plat-
form, we believe the potential for
the biggest growth is in the area of
the U.S. For sure, [‘Drive to Sur-
vive’] has been huge in terms of
positive feedback with a younger
generation that were not really so
interested in sport so much as the
narrative of Formula One,” he
said.
Formula One has been here
before.
Sunday’s race was its ninth in
Austin after Circuit of the Ameri-
cas landed a 10-year contract to
host races starting in 2012.
That followed a sometimes
rocky eight-year stint in Indian-with the most recent season at-
tracting the largest audience to
date.”
“I think there’s a variety of
different contributors,” said John
Suchenski, ESPN’s director of pro-
gramming and acquisitions. “A lot
of people have asked about the
Netflix series, and while there’s no
way to quantify what audience
Netflix brought in, it’s clearly
helping.”A surge in viewership
ESPN initially aired Formula
One between 1984 and 1997. It
rekindled that partnership in
2018 as F1 looked to expand Amer-
ican interest in and awareness of
the sport and as ESPN sought to
replace an expired I ndyCar Series
partnership.
Since then, the broadcaster has
seen a surge in viewership that
Suchenski struggles to compare
with those in other sports. That
trend has continued this season,
when F1 races on ESPN and
ESPN2 averaged 916,000 viewers
through the first 15 races, a 51 per-
cent increase over the 2020 sea-
son average (608,000).
“We’ve seen a very positive pro-
gression over the last four seasons
where we’ve been able each year
to grow that audience by double
digits — p articularly this season,”
Suchenski said. He added that the
U.S. Open tennis tournament saw
a similar trajectory before thescenes, the skill of the Formula
One drivers really kind of cultivat-
ed [my interest in] the sport,” said
Derek Kennedy, who came from
Seattle to attend his first F1 race
Sunday after he started watching
the series in 2019. “As I followed it
on Netflix, I really started track-
ing the drivers and I wanted to
really see them in person, so I
made that dream a part of my
bucket list.”
Many fans who spoke to The
Washington Post cited “Drive to
Survive” for either drawing them
to the sport or convincing them to
attend an event after years follow-
ing from afar.
George said he and his wife
have been “massive” F1 fans for
eight years. He noted that “Drive
to Survive” eventually split their
allegiances, pushing his wife to
favor Red Bull Racing, its team
principal, Christian Horner, and
its top driver, Max Verstappen,
while he remains loyal to Aston
Martin driver Sebastian Vettel.
Sunday was his first race in per-
son, after their children bought
them tickets for Father’s Day, and
he is planning to attend more.
“One of the reasons I actually
love [Formula One]... is the
engineers have to come up with
some really creative ways to hold
downforce, not just per track
[but] in the middle of the races.
You may have to change the tires,
there’s different strategies, and
there’s a l ot of thought that goes
into it,” George said. “It’s brilliant,
and you just don’t get that when
you get in a Chevy and turn left.”
They witnessed Verstappen
edge Hamilton for first place Sun-
day, doubling his points lead in
the standings as the drivers’
somewhat quarrelsome champi-
onship chase nears its conclusion.
The racers’ rivalry could be a
central theme of the next season
of “Drive to Survive,” which was
renewed for a fourth season in
August.
The show, which has occasion-
ally been accused of overdrama-
tizing the realities that it captures,
is seen as a driving force behind
Formula One’s growth in the Unit-
ed States among the sport’s lead-
ers, too.
While Netflix declined to share
the show’s viewership figures, a
spokesperson said the series “has
grown in popularity over time,
FORMULA ONE FROM D1
Formula One’s growing fan base is along for the ride
ROBYN BECK/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
A crowd estimated at 140,000 was on hand at t he Circuit of the
Americas in Texas for the U.S. Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen.ASSOCIATED PRESSst. paul, minn. — T he U.S. wom-
en sent Carli Lloyd into retirement
with a 6-0 rout of South Korea on
Tuesday night.
Lloyd didn’t score in her final
match, but it hardly mattered be-
cause the night was all about her.
Fans chanted Lloyd’s name before
the match, with one holding a s ign
that read: “One More World Cup,
Please?”
Lloyd is retiring after a c areer
that includes two World Cup titles
and a p air of Olympic gold medals.
She scored three goals in the open-
ing 16 minutes of the U.S. victory
over Japan in the 2015 Women’s
World Cup final.
“It’s been emotional. But there’s
just a sense of peace and content-
ment that I feel — it’s just joy and
happiness,” Lloyd said. “It’s been
an amazing journey and I gave it
all I h ad, and now I can walk away
into the next chapter.”
Lloyd’s final match was her
316th with the national team, the
second-most international ap-
pea rances of any player. She
scored 134 goals for the United
States, third most in team history.
Lloyd was subbed out in the
65th minute and sobbed as she left
to a standing ovation by the crowd
of 18,115 at Allianz Field. She re-
moved her cleats and pulled off
her jersey, revealing another jer-
sey with her married name, Hol-
lins, emblazoned on the back.
“Somebody said that Carli is the
U.S. women’s national team. She’s
brave. She’s relentless. She’s deter-
mined, intense and just doesn’t
take no for an answer,” U.S. Coach
Vlatko Andonovski said.
Lloyd, 39, had hinted she was
nearing the end of her career be-
fore the Tokyo Olympics. The
United States won the bronze
medal this summer, with Lloyd
scoring a pair of goals in a 4-3
victory over Australia. She an-
nounced plans to retire shortly
thereafter.
She became the first American
to score in four different Olym-
pics, and her 10 goals in the event
are the most for a U.S. pl ayer.Lloyd made her first appear-
ance with the national team in
2005, and her career reached its
high point with her hat trick in the
World Cup final. Her third goal
against Japan was a blistering
strike from midfield.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
Lloyd scored in a 1-0 overtime
victory over Brazil for the gold
medal. Four years later, she scored
both goals in the gold medal
match against Japan at Wembley
Stadium, becoming the only play-
er to score winning goals in con-
secutive Olympic finals.
“The way I feel now is literally
the happiest I’ve ever been,” Lloyd
said. “And I t hink having a really
tough career and really having to
dig deep, the end feeling has been
the most rewarding.”
A New Jersey native, Lloyd has
also played professionally for
some 12 years, spanning stints in
the now-defunct Women’s Profes-
sional Soccer league and the Na-
tional Women’s Soccer League.
She will finish her pro season with
Gotham FC, which has two games
left in the regular season.
Lindsey Horan, who inherits
Lloyd’s No. 10 jersey; Alex Morgan,
who subbed in for Lloyd; Megan
Rapinoe; Rose Lavelle; and Lynn
Williams scored as the United
States, which also benefited from
an own goal, extended its home
unbeaten s treak to 62 matches.Lloyd goes out a winner
in national team finale
ANDY CLAYTON-KING/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Carli Lloyd didn’t score as her
prolific international career
was celebrated Tuesday night.UNITED STATES 6,
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