I’m a fan of F1 through ‘Drive to Survive,’ so I raced to see this Formula One exhibit
If you want to witness the science and art of racing up close, this show brings it
The first thing I see is the Red Bull.
I’ve never seen a Formula One car in-person — never realized how meticulous every curve and indent is, how precise the margin of victory. But there, in the lobby of the new F1-Exhibition in Toronto, stands the RB18. Its measured, matte-black livery belies the dominance that lies inside: 17 race wins, 28 podiums and a world championship for Max Verstappen.
This is the car that welcomes fans to the F1 exhibition, which opened on May 3 at the Lighthouse ArtSpace at 1 Yonge St. in Toronto. The creators of the exhibition know their customers fall squarely into two categories: The first is the core fan, the one who has followed the sport for years, maybe decades, and knows its history, strategy and identity. The second is the group I fall into: the “Drive to Survive” fan.
In just five years, the massively popular Netflix docuseries has transformed F1 from a fledgling operation in North America into a Canadian and American phenomenon. The sport averaged only 554,000 viewers in the U.S. in 2018, according to ESPN. In 2023, it averaged 1.11 million.
The exhibition, a showcase of the sport’s science and art, is short on the personalities that power “Drive to Survive” — there is little or no mention of Guenther Steiner, Daniel Ricciardo and Christian Horner — and that is by design.
“For me, what couldn’t be less interesting is a ‘Drive to Survive’ experience,” Tim Harvey, the exhibition curator, told the Star. “That’s a show that does absolutely brilliantly in a broadcast format, but … really what we’re trying to create here is a counterpoint to ‘Drive to Survive’ that offers this new audience the next step on their journey.”
Instead, the experience, for which tickets are $46.99 for adults, begins with a brief history of F1, something most fans who have come to the sport since the Netflix series debuted in 2019 will have never seen. On display are iterations of cars through the ages, including Aryton Senna’s stunning yellow and blue 1987 Lotus 99T on loan from Toronto lawyer William Halkiw.
The history is bite-sized — well suited for me, uneducated on the days of Jim Clark, Niki Lauda or Michael Schumacher, but perhaps too surface-level for those who already know the basics. After all, this is an experience, not a museum.
The real selling point of the exhibition is the cars, and that’s what comes next. Romain Grosjean’s Haas VF-20 from 2020 is presented in its entirety, lit from beneath on a silver podium. At the rear, the carbon fibre exterior of the car is peeled back to give an internal view of Haas’ engine, supplied to the team by Ferrari.
The car is identical to how it presents on TV. But somehow, seeing it in-person was a different experience entirely. The nature of F1 as a global sport — 24 races across 21 countries, often taking place in the dead of night for Toronto fans — means fans here, myself included, will likely never get up-close to the cars. Indeed, the closest race to Toronto is hundreds of kilometres and a small fortune away in Montreal.
“The NFL has 17 weeks and three pre-season games and there’s Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, Saturday in the playoffs … There’s not a scarcity of product,” exhibition producer Jonathan Linden, who grew up in Toronto, told the Star. “There’s a bit of a barrier to entry and a scarcity of product to F1.”
That’s what makes the exhibition work. I found it to be scant in some parts, especially when it came to the sports’ greatest figures. There was only a video presentation on Schumacher’s seven world championships, and little on the phenomenal 2021 title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. (You can watch “Drive to Survive” for that.)
The exhibition is more about the sport than the stars. But the proximity to these machines and the technology that helps them keep running — even if it’s off the track, in a travelling museum, located in the Toronto Star’s old newspaper printing room — mostly makes up for it.
The crown jewel of the exhibition comes toward the end. A touching display on the drivers who have lost their lives on the track, including Gilles Villeneuve, the Canadian racing legend, takes you through the history of motorsports safety. It culminates with the wreck of Grosjean’s near-fatal 2020 crash, when he was engulfed in flames for 28 seconds but miraculously emerged with only burns to his hands.
It’s only the back half of the car; the rest of it is on display in Vienna, where another F1 exhibition is running. From pictures, the Vienna half is far more shocking, ragged and gnarled and torched. But even the Toronto half, with its twisted wires and ripped carbon fibre shell, packs a punch. It’s a reminder of the dangers of F1 and the fine line between performance and peril. And for the “Drive to Survive” fan, mired in the reality show drama of the paddock, it’s a welcome education, even if it is shorter and lighter on history than I might have hoped.
It is also humbling. One reaction-time instalment tests how fast you can tap a button when the race lights go out. Schumacher’s reaction time was 0.16 seconds. Mine was 0.334.
THE FORMULA ONE EXHIBITION RUNS UNTIL MIDSUMMER AT THE LIGHTHOUSE ARTSPACE TORONTO AT 1 YONGE ST. TICKETS START AT $46.99 FOR THOSE 16 OR OLDER AND CAN BE PURCHASED AT F1EXHIBITION.COM