50 GP RACING APRIL 2020
What’sthebestthingthathas happened in
F1 since Liberty Media took over? Most casual
fans and maybe even many paddock insiders
would probably answer the Netflix series
Drive to Survive.
To the uninitiated, F1 can seemhard to
penetrate and it’s not particularly interesting to
watch if you don’t knowthe context or havea
deep understanding of the drivers or what goes
into running a team.Drive to Surviveis part
of Liberty’s strategy to attract new fans and it
proudly claims that 52% of new F1 fans since it
took over the sport areunde r 35, which is critical
to the championship’s long-term health.
The great achievement of the first season
ofDrive to Survivewas to enlarge the cast of
characters we’re interested in, beyond the top
drivers. Although the producerswere unha ppy
Ferrari and Mercedes chose not to take part it
actually worked out well becausethat gave achance for audiences to get to know characters
such as Kevin Magnussen and Guenther Steiner.
The original intention of F1’s then commercial
boss Sean Bratches when he went for this Netflix
series, over a rival bid from Amazon, was to “treat
all our children the same”, meaning to give equal
coverage to all theteams and drivers.
But the producers have strayed from that brief
and the ten episodes this season don’t cover
the ten individual teams; instead theyfocus on
specific themes and strangely ignore quite a few
drivers. The producers love Daniel Ricciardo,
Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, the Haas
drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Daniil Kvyat, Sergio Pérez, Lance Stroll, Kimi
Räikkönen, Lando Norris and Antonio Giovinazzi
may as well notexist.
Where the series works best is where it
highlightspersonal rivalries or juxtaposestwo
connected storylines. A good example of that
would be the season oneepisode that focused on
Christian Horner and Cyril Abiteboul. Horner
delights in embarrassing the Frenchman by
announcing that Red Bull will be dropping the
“underperforming” Renault engines for 2019, but
later in the episode Abiteboulhas the last laugh
when he poaches Horner’s driver Ricciardo.
This perfectly sets up an episode in Season
Two where theproducers look at the contrasting
fortunes of Gasly and Albon.
The Ricciardo swoop leaves Horner needing
a driver and so Red Bull promotesGasly, who
had a strong debut seasonwith Toro Rosso. But
it soon becomes clear that he isn’t ready. Red
Bull has always proudly been a “sink or swim”
environment. But drivers aren’t all the same;
they need different amounts of development
time before they are ready toshine and quitea
few promisingdrive rs have been lostfrom the
Red Bull programme as a result. Gasly almost
becomes another casualty as Horner describes
him as the “Achilles Heel” of the team before
demoting him in the summerto Toro Rosso.
The producers benefit greatly here from the
fact that F1 has always thrown up plenty of real
drama and naturally occurring plot twists. For
decades Bernie Ecclestone’sgenius was to know
how to exploitthis.
The twist here is that Albon’s step up to the
Red Bull team and Gasly’s demotion at Spa
coincides with the death of their friend Anthoine
Hubert in the F2 race on Saturday afternoon.
Undaunted, both drivers climb intotheir cars
the following day and race atthe a bsolute limit,
taking huge risks. It isstirr ing stuff and reminds
us why we love grand prix racing.
Their explanations of why they don’t have any
doubt or fear about doing that,so soon afterayoung colleague’s life hasbeen lost, are moving
and eloquent and in stepwith generations of
drivers before them. Motorsport has always been
difficult and dangerous and a largepart of its
appeal for drivers and fans alike isthat death is
always lurking, though mercifully rare these days.
Having been given access to Ferrari and
Mercedes in season two, the way the producers
treat the two teams is interesting. With Ferrari
they maintain a certain detachment, not seeking
to explore the mystique of theFerrar i brand in
any way; instead they focus on Leclerc and Vettel,
with a simple master and apprentice narrative.
Mercedes, in contrast, is presented at the start
of its episode as a military force. Toto Wolff notes
that “F1 is like war planning”. This is intercut
with shots of him addressing the huge Brackley
workforce stretched out as far as the eye can see,
all wearing identical white shirts. “Let’s crush
them!” he says to applause from the massed
ranks. It sets the team up as a Panzer division.
But a couple of minutes later, as the narrative
shifts to Niki Lauda’s death on theeve of the
Monaco GP, Wolff is shown reflecting on Lauda
fondly:“I find myself looking at the pictures and
having tears in my eyesevery half an hour.”
Netflix andMercedes selected the German GP
for their ‘behindthe scenes’ raceand it wasof
coursea complete disaster: Hamilton andBotta s
both crashed,throwing away thechance to winon
Mer cedes’ 125th anniversary event. It didn’t helpWORDSJAMES ALLEN
PICTURES
DRIVE TO SURVIVESEASON2 REVIEW
TAKE
2
WHYNETFLIX
MUST BEWARE
50 GP RACING APRIL 2020
What’sthebestthingthathas happened in
F1 since Liberty Media took over? Most casual
fans and maybe even many paddock insiders
would probably answer the Netflix series
Drive to Survive.
To the uninitiated, F1 can seemhard to
penetrate and it’s not particularly interesting to
watch if you don’t knowthe context or havea
deep understanding of the drivers or what goes
into running a team.Drive to Surviveis part
of Liberty’s strategy to attract new fans and it
proudly claims that 52% of new F1 fans since it
took over the sport areunde r 35, which is critical
to the championship’s long-term health.
The great achievement of the first season
ofDrive to Survivewas to enlarge the cast of
characters we’re interested in, beyond the top
drivers. Although the producerswere unha ppy
Ferrari and Mercedes chose not to take part it
actually worked out well becausethat gave achance for audiences to get to know characters
such as Kevin Magnussen and Guenther Steiner.
The original intention of F1’s then commercial
boss Sean Bratches when he went for this Netflix
series, over a rival bid from Amazon, was to “treat
all our children the same”, meaning to give equal
coverage to all theteams and drivers.
But the producers have strayed from that brief
and the ten episodes this season don’t cover
the ten individual teams; instead theyfocus on
specific themes and strangely ignore quite a few
drivers. The producers love Daniel Ricciardo,
Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, the Haas
drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Daniil Kvyat, Sergio Pérez, Lance Stroll, Kimi
Räikkönen, Lando Norris and Antonio Giovinazzi
may as well notexist.
Where the series works best is where it
highlightspersonal rivalries or juxtaposestwo
connected storylines. A good example of that
would be the season oneepisode that focused on
Christian Horner and Cyril Abiteboul. Horner
delights in embarrassing the Frenchman by
announcing that Red Bull will be dropping the
“underperforming” Renault engines for 2019, but
later in the episode Abiteboulhas the last laugh
when he poaches Horner’s driver Ricciardo.
This perfectly sets up an episode in Season
Two where theproducers look at the contrasting
fortunes of Gasly and Albon.
The Ricciardo swoop leaves Horner needing
a driver and so Red Bull promotesGasly, who
had a strong debut seasonwith Toro Rosso. But
it soon becomes clear that he isn’t ready. Red
Bull has always proudly been a “sink or swim”
environment. But drivers aren’t all the same;
they need different amounts of development
time before they are ready toshine and quitea
few promisingdrive rs have been lostfrom the
Red Bull programme as a result. Gasly almost
becomes another casualty as Horner describes
him as the “Achilles Heel” of the team before
demoting him in the summerto Toro Rosso.
The producers benefit greatly here from the
fact that F1 has always thrown up plenty of real
drama and naturally occurring plot twists. For
decades Bernie Ecclestone’sgenius was to know
how to exploitthis.
The twist here is that Albon’s step up to the
Red Bull team and Gasly’s demotion at Spa
coincides with the death of their friend Anthoine
Hubert in the F2 race on Saturday afternoon.
Undaunted, both drivers climb intotheir cars
the following day and race atthe a bsolute limit,
taking huge risks. It isstirr ing stuff and reminds
us why we love grand prix racing.
Their explanations of why they don’t have any
doubt or fear about doing that,so soon afterayoung colleague’s life hasbeen lost, are moving
and eloquent and in stepwith generations of
drivers before them. Motorsport has always been
difficult and dangerous and a largepart of its
appeal for drivers and fans alike isthat death is
always lurking, though mercifully rare these days.
Having been given access to Ferrari and
Mercedes in season two, the way the producers
treat the two teams is interesting. With Ferrari
they maintain a certain detachment, not seeking
to explore the mystique of theFerrar i brand in
any way; instead they focus on Leclerc and Vettel,
with a simple master and apprentice narrative.
Mercedes, in contrast, is presented at the start
of its episode as a military force. Toto Wolff notes
that “F1 is like war planning”. This is intercut
with shots of him addressing the huge Brackley
workforce stretched out as far as the eye can see,
all wearing identical white shirts. “Let’s crush
them!” he says to applause from the massed
ranks. It sets the team up as a Panzer division.
But a couple of minutes later, as the narrative
shifts to Niki Lauda’s death on theeve of the
Monaco GP, Wolff is shown reflecting on Lauda
fondly:“I find myself looking at the pictures and
having tears in my eyesevery half an hour.”
Netflix andMercedes selected the German GP
for their ‘behindthe scenes’ raceand it wasof
coursea complete disaster: Hamilton andBotta s
both crashed,throwing away thechance to winon
Mer cedes’ 125th anniversary event. It didn’t helpWORDSJAMES ALLEN
PICTURES
DRIVE TO SURVIVESEASON2 REVIEW
TAKE
2
WHYNETFLIX
MUST BEWARE