- A F1 team principal says Taylor Swift would be "lucky" to attend a grand prix nowadays.
- Red Bull's Christian Horner made the comment during a recent appearance on an ESPN F1 podcast.
- Given F1's surge in popularity due to Netflix, he said Swift would struggle to get a race pass now.
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said Taylor Swift would have a tricky time getting into a Formula 1 race now that the sport is more popular than ever thanks to Netflix's docuseries "Drive to Survive."
During a recent appearance on "Unlapped," ESPN's F1 podcast, Horner told hosts Katie George, Laurence Edmondson, and Nate Saunders the sport's rise to fame in recent years means that high-profile stars like Swift would be "lucky" to attend races nowadays in comparison to a decade ago.
On the podcast, Horner discussed how at the Austin Grand Prix in 2016, organizers struggled to draw attention to the racing event, prompting them to hire Swift to perform.
"If you remember Austin a few years ago, we were having to get Taylor Swift there to get a crowd there," he said. "Now she's lucky if she's allowed in, if she can get a pass."
"It's changed so much," Horner said of the fandom surrounding F1, which he credits to the Netflix reality-style documentary "Drive to Survive," which aired its fifth season in February.
"It's transformed the sport, it's taken it into households it would've never been in previously," he added. "It's now made drivers and some team principals household names."
Fans of "The Kardashians" and the royals are now equally invested in F1, he said.
Horner continued by naming the US as a prime example of an unlikely hotspot where the sport has exploded in popularity because of the Netflix show. "It's been a game-changer," he said.
One such race to be added to the F1 2023 calendar for the first time in the sport's history is the hotly anticipated Las Vegas Grand Prix, set to take place on the strip in November.
Asked about his expectations for the race by George, Horner responded by saying it's going to "be insane."
"I've never known so much hype around a sporting event," he said. "The whole world is going to be watching and hopefully we can put on a great show."