Given its reputation in the last couple of years, nobody expected the French Grand Prix to be exciting. However, the F1 race was an expectation subversion, as there were several battles up and down the order. Owing to this, it seems that the French GP spectator count skyrocketed spectacularly.

According to reports, ESPN reported a grand total of 1.056 million viewers for race day. Apparently, they were the best figures for a live race since the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix. That year, the ABC network reported that they had attracted 1.13 million viewers for the race weekend.

It is also worth mentioning that it surpassed the tally that the Azerbaijan Grand Prix had posted. As it turned out, the street race recorded a total viewership count of around 950,000 for the race alone.

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Considering that they witnessed Max Verstappen’s spectacular crash and Lewis Hamilton’s lockup, they got their money’s worth.

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Why is there a sudden increase in F1 viewership at the French GP?

As mentioned before, not many expected the French GP to be a nail-biting one. This was because the last two editions were admittedly snoozefests with hardly any overtaking.

As a result, people watched the race with fairly low expectations. However, the past few races were enough to give the fans some form of cautious hope.

To be honest, the nail-biting nature of the 2021 season and the popularity of Drive to Survive could be a factor. The Netflix series has been growing increasingly popular since its debut in 2019.

Since then, each season has attracted more and more viewers. Furthermore, it was not just the die-hard F1 fans, but casual F1 fans had their interest reignited.

Hopefully, this is good news for Formula One as a whole. With the Netflix series raking in interest, if the sport can provide the same kind of exciting racing like the French GP, it will work wonders.

READ MORE: Azerbaijan GP Reportedly Pulled in Record F1 Numbers from the United States of America