Five years ago, Netflix released the first season of its Drive to Survive series, elevating Formula One into the American consciousness and making TV stars out of characters like Haas team principal Guenther Steiner and journeyman driver Daniel Ricciardo. This has not always sat well with veteran stateside followers of the sport, such as your humble author. Why, we woke up at 3 a.m. to watch the races in Asia! We paid outrageous shipping, customs, and foreign transaction fees to wear Europe-only merch from recherche teams like Jordan and Minardi! We sat through the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix, where only six cars started the race, then unhesitatingly bought tickets for 2006, proving that P.T. Barnum was probably too much of a pessimist!

If pressed, however, most of us will agree that the “DTS effect” has been absolutely marvelous for American F1 fans. We now have three races here every year, including this delightful new Las Vegas Grand Prix that cost well over half a billion dollars to put together and which shuts down the Strip for days at a time. That wouldn’t have been possible without the Netflix arrivistes.