Gen Z, Drive to Survive and the rise of alcohol-free booze… why the next generation of F1 fans couldn’t be further away from the drink and drug-fueled days of James Hunt and the 70s
- Max Verstappen won the Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday
- He couldn’t be further from the playboy figure of 1976 champion James Hunt
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
James Hunt is a Formula One champion. He is perhaps just as well known, though, for his playboy lifestyle, for the drink and drugs he consumed, and for his tragic death from a heart attack at 45.
There are infamous tales of him drinking a British Airways plane dry on the way home from winning the 1976 world championship in Japan – and further stories of how he slept with 33 of their air hostesses during his two-week stay in Tokyo.
After races, he ‘drunk himself silly’, and when he began his broadcast career with the BBC, he is said to have downed two bottles of wine while live in the commentary booth on his first day.
Fast forward 50 years, and how times have changed. Every one of the 20 drivers on the Formula One grid is a picture of health, and you’re more likely to see them in a cryotherapy chamber than a champagne bar after a race.
On Sunday at the Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix, the three drivers who finished on the podium – Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez – sprayed their customary bottles at the crowd and even took a sip of the bubbly, but you can be sure they suffered no hangover the following morning.
James Hunt lived a fast life on and off-track, and was well-known for his alcohol consumption
Nowadays, the current crop of F1 drivers are super-healthy and won’t often be found in the bar. Pictured, left to right, are George Russell, Lando Norris, Alex Albon and Max Verstappen
Heineken’s branding at the Las Vegas Grand Prix centered around its Silver and 0.0 products
Instead, by the point they walked off the podium in Sin City, all eyes will have been on next weekend’s race in Abu Dhabi – and Verstappen’s private jet to the other side of the world certainly won’t have featured any in-air funny business.
It is a different world now, one of peak performance and draining every split-second out of their engines. The cars are faster, but life off the track is slower.
In many ways, that same mentality is true of viewers off the track, too. Fans have idols, and when the men they watch racing on the screen are living fast and dying young, there is more of an onus to follow in their booze-fueled footsteps.
The rise of the Drive to Survive F1 fan has also changed the dynamic.
Now, in 2023, the average age of racing fan is down amid the triumph of the Netflix series, and the eSports success of the likes of Lando Norris is bringing in a whole new audience, a world away from the old days of motor racing.
Hunt was said to have slept with 5000 women and drunk the plane dry flying home from Japan
Formula One was a different world back in the 70s, and fans also drunk more than they do now
The drivers sprayed champagne after Verstappen’s win, but they won’t have drunk much of it
Indeed, that too translates to the rise of moderate drinking advertising too, with Heineken Silver and Heineken 0.0 featuring heavily on branding throughout the 2023 Formula One season.
The Dutch brand’s ‘When You Drive, Never Drink’ and ‘Always a Choice’ campaigns have been at the heart of their messaging throughout, as they promote fans safely consuming the products they advertise around the track.
Recent research has found that Gen Z alcohol consumption is down 25 percent in the last four years, and in the Netherlands, 30 percent of Heineken’s consumers are buying zero-alcohol beer.
Heineken were title sponsors in Vegas, promoting their ‘When You Drive, Never Drink’ message
The Sphere turned out to be an insane backdrop during the Heineken Silver Las Vegas GP
In the US, sales of non-alcoholic beer are up 32 percent, and two-time world champion Verstappen is Heineken’s ambassador specifically for the 0.0 product.
It is impossible to imagine a scenario 50 years ago in which Hunt signed up for a gig like that, but is indicative of the changing times in not just Formula One, but sport as a whole.
Abu Dhabi next weekend marks the end of the 2023 F1 calendar, and the conclusion of a grueling 23-race schedule for the drivers.
When they’ve seen the checkered flag for the final time, they may well raise a glass with their mechanics in the hotel bar before flying home… just don’t expect to find the kegs empty come Monday morning.
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