New Game, Real Joy

Just a few years ago, Formula 1 was old. Brilliant in terms of technology, but culturally running on fumes. Too much engineering, too little emotion. Too much strategy, not enough story. A sport for experts and tech nerds – but definitely not the kind of thing that hits with the social media generation.

Then came Liberty Media.

In 2016 the American media company secured the rights to the racing series for $4.4 billion – and with it, a legend on the verge of fading away. The vision: to transform fossilized tradition into a fast-paced pop culture format. Complete with a Netflix docuseries. And the plan worked. Formula 1 has been undergoing a total transformation ever since – visually, structurally, narratively. From lap times to story arcs. From competition to content.

Liberty Media pushed Formula 1 into the U.S. market with strategic force, launching new races in Miami and Las Vegas. The Grand Prix wasn’t just held – it was produced. As an event, a spectacle, an experience. In Miami, they built the Miami International Autodrome: a synthetic cosmos of racetrack, celebrity circuit, food festival and content machine. Liberty Media spared no expense – the Grand Prix Plaza infrastructure was built from scratch. And by the second Miami race in 2023, Formula 1 had already sold about 25 percent more tickets than the Miami Dolphins did over an entire NHL season. Pit lane, paddock, VIP stands – all styled like a mashup of Silicon Valley and South Beach. Formula 1 got faster, flashier, more accessible – and, more importantly, social media ready.

Especially for the younger crowd. Netflix played a key role as the messenger. With Drive to Survive, they created a show that turned a sport for tech-freaks, with cool-headed drivers, closed garages and cryptic data on encrypted servers, into a drama of intrigue, hero worship and high emotion. The drivers became characters. Daniel Ricciardo grinned his way into viewers’ hearts. Toto Wolff rumbled with CEO energy. Günther Steiner swore his way into meme-dom.

And Hollywood? Didn’t wait long. Brad Pitt in a white racing suit. Lewis Hamilton as co-producer. The result: F1. Filmed during actual races with real drivers. Brad Pitt at the drivers’ briefing in Silverstone, right there with Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Reality and fiction blending together. And maybe that’s the real thrill of this new Formula 1: not just watching people drive – but understanding why they do it.

The fact that Formula 1 now functions as a platform for storytelling is evident not only in its staging but also in the products launched within that context. Take Tudor, for example, which unveiled its Black Bay Chrono Carbon 25 at the Miami Grand Prix – projecting the narrative of modern motorsport onto a piece of precision hardware. It starts with the choice of materials: The case is made entirely from carbon fiber – right down to the connection elements – paired with titanium pushers. Both materials are borrowed from F1 lightweight construction.

Miami knows a thing or two about image – we’ve known that since the eighties, when Miami Vice turned government-issue detectives into pop culture icons. Don Johnson, aka Sonny Crockett, drove a Ferrari instead of a squad car, wore espadrilles instead of boots, and had more pastel in his wardrobe than a jumbo Crayola set. The classic cop – once bland, stiff, a tool of the law – became a canvas for cool. The show invented a whole new aesthetic: music videos instead of dry dialogue, fashion spreads instead of field reports. Even back then, the city was a place of transformation – loud, open, raw – an urban chameleon with endless sun and no fear of contact. And even today, no other city stages performance with as much lifestyle, or technology with as much velocity.

→ Read the entire story in the new 
ramp #68 »Happy as a Clam«.