US coal production and Formula 1 US TV viewership have, between 2017 and 2022, moved in near-perfect opposition at r=-0.987. As America has burned less coal, America has watched more motorsport. The irony of a decarbonizing country falling in love with an extremely loud fossil-fuel-dependent sport is a thing that can only be noted in passing. It should not be dwelt upon.
US coal production declined from around 775 million short tons in 2017 to about 600 million by 2022, driven by the continued shift to natural gas and renewables. F1 US viewership exploded from roughly 500,000 average viewers per race in 2017 to over 1.2 million by 2022, driven largely by the Netflix Drive to Survive series. The two trends reflect entirely separate cultural and industrial shifts: one an energy transition, one a sports-media phenomenon, with no operational connection.
Six years of inverse movement can describe two opposite trajectories in separate American domains. The coal seam and the Grand Prix are not trading places. Both, however, make noise in their own ways.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “US coal production” vs “Formula 1 U.S. TV viewership” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
