It’s no secret Formula One (F1) has had an explosion in popularity among younger generations in recent years. This is partially thanks to the Netflix docuseries “Drive to Survive” (DTS), meant to chronicle the fast-paced and intense lives of the 20 drivers lucky to call this elite sport their job. Now in its seventh season, covering the 2024 Formula One season, this show has seen drivers grow up, teams shift and its fair share of drama. However, having only ten episodes, squeezing a year’s worth of on and off-track drama has often proven difficult. Despite that, Netflix delivered a primarily refreshing one that balanced the drivers’ off-track lives with their on-track battles.
This season included the buzzy headlines of Mercedes driver of 12 years, Lewis Hamilton, making a shock move to the Ferrari F1 Team, newly unemployed Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr’s search for a new team to drive for in the 2025 season, and the unceremonious firing of Visa Cashapp RB driver Daniel Ricciardo after his 14-year contribution to F1. But among all of them, mental health was very much at the forefront of this season. With episodes like Episode Five, “Le Curse of Leclerc,” Episode Six, “Wheel of Fortune” and Episode Seven, “In the Heat of the Night,” audiences were able to see how Formula One is as much of a mental sport as it is a physical one.
The two strongest episodes of the season, and arguably the series as a whole, were Episode Five, “Le Curse of Leclerc,” and Episode Seven, “In the Heat of the Night.” In Episode Five, the cameras followed Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc as he prepared for his home race, the Monaco Grand Prix. Various drivers and flashbacks to previous seasons highlighted Leclerc’s previous poor luck on this track before highlighting his very emotional win there, which everyone can agree was a long time coming. Here, the drama didn’t need to be exaggerated since the emotion of the weekend was already palpable, from Leclerc talking about the mental strain of being considered “cursed” to describe how important the win was for him and his family.
Meanwhile, Episode Seven was one of the most creative episodes in the series since five drivers, Leclerc, Lando Norris, George Russell, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly, childhood friends, were given their own cameras to film a Grand Prix weekend from their point of view. The cameras took audiences behind the scenes with the drivers’ morning, or rather, afternoon routines, media events for their teams and filming from the cars. Overall, the episode is exceptionally successful at humanizing the drivers and showing sides of them fans don’t usually get to see. My only hesitation about the episode is the intrusion of the cameras after the race in Singapore, particularly with Mercedes driver George Russell, during a very personal moment.
Another misstep of the season was the handling of allegations of inappropriate behavior made against Red Bull team principal Christian Horner by a female employee. While the writers were correct not to shy away from the investigation and take it step by step, the episode doesn’t quite sum up how tense and dramatic those opening two weeks of the season in the Middle East felt and seem to portray their conclusion of what Horner should have done in regards to managing Red Bull Racing.
One of the standard expectations of a DTS season is reliance on engineered drama engineering or interesting editing techniques that fundamentally change what drivers are saying to insinuate that they may have a more significant rivalry with another driver or their teammate. While this type of editing was prevalent in previous seasons, it was largely missing from this season in favor of highlighting the headlines fans lost sleep over.
Overall, “Drive to Survive” is the perfect gateway for new fans of the sport and a fun recap for current fans patiently awaiting the new season.