When a friend of mine strongly urged me to watch the new F1 docuseries on Netflix years ago, I was reluctant. After all, I’m a traditionalist. An avid tennis fan and a casual football follower, I had no interest in watching fast cars going around in circles. Where’s the sweat? Where’s the craftsmanship? Where’s the visible tension in being down a break? But when I finally clicked on the first episode of the first season, albeit a couple years late, I was all in.
Back in 2022, when my childhood idol Roger Federer hung up his racket, my connection to the sports world fell apart. After watching him on court for nearly two decades, his retirement left a void I had not yet figured how to fill. I returned to football, observed from afar the NBA, even tried again to be excited about tennis, but it just didn’t feel the same. The 2024 Paris summer Olympics sated temporarily my need for action, but the void soon returned after a fortnight of thrill and entertainment.
While it’s unlikely I’ll ever find another athlete to root for like I did Federer, I was not ready to turn my back on all sports just yet. I was reinitiated into the idea of watching Formula One just as the tour concluded its stop at the Singapore Grand Prix. We’ve seen the celebrities on the paddock, from Dua Lipa to Blackpink’s Lisa, it seems like all the hottest names have been vying to get on the F1 scene. Perhaps it was yet another wave of fashionable stars on the grid, or perhaps it was the Olympics withdrawal finally kicking in, but I decided to begin my journey into the world of F1 racing. At a distance, of course.
Fast and Furious meets The Real Housewives
With shows like Love is Blind and Too Hot to Handle plaguing our reality show scene as of late, it seems almost impossible to quench our thirst for drama without sacrificing some of our sanity in the process. Admittedly, I had fallen victim to their advertising a couple times myself. But who would’ve thought the best reality show actually came in the form of professional athletes and middle-aged businessmen?
A large part of Formula One’s surge in popularity these last few years is owed to the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive. Premiering in 2019, the series takes the audience beyond the races into the ups and downs of an extreme sport. A couple episodes in, you will quickly understand why some dub the show The Real Housewives of Monte Carlo.
The real treasure is the friends you pass along the way
10 teams, 20 drivers. That’s pretty much all a watcher of the series needs to know about the sport. Because while the show does cover informative aspects about the world of F1, it’s less so about the races, but more the interpersonal drama.
Formula One is a unique sport in that your teammate is also often your biggest rival. And if you thought professional athletes could not be petty, think again. With bromances, politics (the fun kind), jaw-dropping crashes, and the occasional scene of man walking out of fire, the highlight of the show is in fact the pettiness. Whoever said drama had no place in professional athleticism has clearly never seen two men who’d rather crash into one another than let either one past.
Drive to Survive introduced the human side of motorsport. Because underneath the helmet and sitting in a car that’s going 300km/h is ultimately a human being with real emotions, be it pride or envy. The series brought audiences into the lives of the drivers, and many of them quickly became celebrities that transcended the confines of the sport—from Charles Leclerc to Carlos Sainz.
The series, for all its dramatics, also sheds light on the politics that take place behind the scenes. The most expensive sport in the world, tensions often arise when large corporations enter the conversation. And in Formula One, cash is indeed king. Audiences are given exclusive access to their media training, the complexities behind crafting deals, the nepotism, and all the juicy details in addition to the technical ones.
High performance-cum-high fashion
As the world of F1 has been catapulted into the limelight, it seems that the lead-up to the races is just as important, if not more important, than the actual races themselves. Gone are the sweatpants and loosely-fitted T-shirts as we see drivers collectively step up their fashion game. In recent years, some have even asked the question: is the F1 paddock the next street style capital?
One key player in bringing style to the track is certainly seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. When he’s not in a race car, Hamilton can be spotted making appearances at various fashion shows, fronting campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger and Valentino, or running his own label +44. It’s clear why no one batted an eye when he was announced as a co-chair of this year’s Met Gala.
Not only have the drivers become entangled in the world of fashion, the sport itself has served as an inspiration to fashion designers across the board, from Chanel’s racetrack-inspired cruise collection to Louis Vuitton’s recently announced 10-year title partnership with Formula One.
Any press is good press, or is it?
Of course, a series as huge as Drive to Survive is not without its fair share of criticism, be it biased portrayals of drivers or dramatisation of races for entertainment sake. The series is self-aware enough, as Toto Wolff, team principal of Mercedes, notes in an episode, “It’s not a documentary. This is more close [sic] to Top Gun than a documentary.” It is evident that the show’s priority isn’t necessarily to accurately represent the sport, as it glosses over the lack of inclusivity in F1 and the association’s tendency to overlook certain host countries’ policies on human rights and LGBTQ+ issues.
If you’re a fan of a particular driver, or a die-hard follower of the sport, I agree whole-heartedly that the series is not for you. But for those simply looking to satiate their need for drama, welcome to a world where drama comes in the form of world-champion drivers.
This upcoming racing season promises a whole new playing field, with Lewis Hamilton’s shocking move to Ferrari and a whole new lineup and dynamics to look out for. So as I embark on my maiden year of following the F1 tour, Drive to Survive will remain as an amuse bouche, a little dose of drama to get me in the racing mood.
Drive to Survive Season 7 premieres 7 March on Netflix.
