Scott Gulbransen
If you’ve been watching F1 through a Netflix docuseries and wondering how to make the jump to actual live races, someone finally built you a bridge.
Apple and Netflix announced Thursday a content-sharing deal that puts Drive to Survive Season 8 on Apple TV and — more significantly for American race fans — streams the Canadian Grand Prix live on Netflix this May. Both platforms. Same race. No cable required.
The announcement came from Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, who didn’t bury the lead.
“We’re excited today to announce something I think that no one was expecting, and that is that we’ve teamed up with Netflix,” Cue said. “We’re going to make the entire season of F1: Drive to Survive, the new season, available to stream right within Apple TV itself. In addition to that, we’ve collaborated so that the Canadian Grand Prix, which is on May 22nd, is also going to stream on Apple TV and Netflix in the U.S.”
He went further, making clear this wasn’t just a business arrangement but an acknowledgment of what Drive to Survive actually did for the sport. “Netflix, I think, has played a pivotal role in growing F1 since the launch of Drive to Survive, and we’re thrilled to make F1 content more broadly available to new and existing U.S. fans on both Netflix and Apple TV.”
Why the Netflix/Apple F1 Deal is Huge
Here’s the context for why this matters: Apple took over from ESPN this year as the exclusive U.S. broadcaster of F1, in a five-year deal reported at around $150 million annually. That means every practice session, qualifying run, sprint race, and Grand Prix is now behind the Apple TV paywall. Netflix, which had reportedly been in the running for those same rights, didn’t land the live deal, but it built the American audience Apple is now trying to monetize. Thursday’s announcement is both platforms acknowledging that reality.
Drive to Survive Season 8, which covers the 2025 championship season, the year Lando Norris won the title for McLaren, drops globally on Netflix Friday, Feb. 27, and simultaneously on Apple TV for U.S. subscribers. That’s the first time the series has launched on two major streaming platforms at once.
Live F1 Racing Comes to Netflix
For anyone new to F1 through the show, the Canadian Grand Prix on May 22-24 is a good race to start with. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal is fast, street-adjacent, and consistently produces drama, so it’s not a bad first live experience. The fact that it’s accessible on Netflix, without requiring an Apple TV subscription, removes the one remaining barrier for casual fans who’ve been watching the docuseries but haven’t made the leap to live races.
F1’s chief media rights officer Ian Holmes framed the bigger picture plainly. “I’d say we are probably the only sport in the world whose audience is getting younger and more female skewed,” he said, “and that couldn’t be more represented than currently in the U.S.”
The season itself starts March 8 in Melbourne. Apple TV is the place for that one — and every other race not named Canada.
