Formula 1 Based Netflix Original Not a Drag
The third season of "Drive to Survive" features the behind the scenes of a shortened yet action-packed season.
By Katherine Rowe
The third season of "Drive to Survive" features the behind the scenes of a shortened yet action-packed season.
By Katherine Rowe
As teams began announcing when they would unveil their cars and designs for the 2021 season, Netflix released a trailer for Season 3 of their original series “Drive to Survive,” based around Formula 1.
The series came out on March 19 and covered the ins and outs of the Formula 1 paddock and the relationship and thoughts that fueled each team during the 2020 season.
While this season was different from the previous, I liked it and thought it was interesting how despite the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to feature more teams, especially Ferrari this year after the horrible season that they had compared to 2019. Netflix was unable to cover everything I would have liked to see from the season, but it’s understandable as it would be difficult to feature all 17 races and all 20 drivers in the ten episodes they had.
I think my favorite episode would be the sixth in the season, titled “The Comeback Kid” which focused on the odyssey of Pierre Gasly over the past two years, covering how he continued working to prove himself and compete after being dropped from Red Bull to their secondary team Toro Rosso in the middle of 2019, facing the death of his childhood friend Anthoine Hubert who lost his life in a Formula 2 accident, and still fought his way back, taking a podium in Brazil 2019 and then winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 2020.
The changes in the driver market which happened before the season drew a lot of attention from fans, but it was even better to see how they played out as drivers were set to leave their teams before the end of the season.
I think the best feature they did of these team changes was in their episode “We Need To Talk About Ferrari” as they talked about how Sebastian Vettel was suddenly dropped from the team early on in 2020. My favorite part was when they showed how Vettel overshadowed Ferrari’s 1,000th Grand Prix celebrations in Mugello by announcing his move to Aston Martin, which I felt was justified as he became Ferrari’s scapegoat, especially by the Team Principal Mattia Binotto.
One thing that I really would have liked to see was the departure of Claire Williams, former Deputy Team Principal of the Williams F1 Team, and the rest of her family as they stepped away from their team. Though they did cover the Haas team and how they replaced both drivers, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen to allow for new sponsors, Williams has been a part of Formula 1 for much longer and has been more successful in previous years as well. The show is called “Drive to Survive” so I feel like they should have shown how the Williams family stepped aside so that their team could survive in the sport.
Even though feelings run high in Formula 1, the second to last episode, “Man On Fire” was definitely the most emotional as it featured Romain Grosjean’s terrifying crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix where his car was split in half then burst into flames at the barrier. I remember how sickening it was to see and watch the replays as the race was red flagged to repair the barrier. I almost cried when Grosjean explained to Netflix how he thought he was going to die, but the thought of his kids made him pull himself through the flames to safety where the medical car was waiting for him.
Finally, I thought showcasing the battle between McLaren, Renault, and Racing Point for third place in the constructors championship in Abu Dhabi was a good way to round off the series, but the end of the last episode “Down To The Wire” felt off.
They left about five minutes at the end where they talked about how many records Lewis Hamilton has broken, despite struggles coming from being the only Black Formula 1 driver on the grid as well as the first Black driver to compete in a mostly white sport. I feel like five minutes wasn’t good enough, and it was definitely worth focusing an episode on Hamilton and the adversity he has overcome.
Overall, the series was really captivating as it explored the behind the scenes of the races and team dynamics both on and off the track, but it may not be as interesting to more avid Formula 1 watchers but also a bit confusing to viewers who don’t tune into races every Sunday. Although I would have liked to see more coverage of different races in the 2020 season and races featured in chronological order, it’s still definitely worth watching.
“Drive to Survive” is currently streaming on Netflix.
The series came out on March 19 and covered the ins and outs of the Formula 1 paddock and the relationship and thoughts that fueled each team during the 2020 season.
While this season was different from the previous, I liked it and thought it was interesting how despite the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to feature more teams, especially Ferrari this year after the horrible season that they had compared to 2019. Netflix was unable to cover everything I would have liked to see from the season, but it’s understandable as it would be difficult to feature all 17 races and all 20 drivers in the ten episodes they had.
I think my favorite episode would be the sixth in the season, titled “The Comeback Kid” which focused on the odyssey of Pierre Gasly over the past two years, covering how he continued working to prove himself and compete after being dropped from Red Bull to their secondary team Toro Rosso in the middle of 2019, facing the death of his childhood friend Anthoine Hubert who lost his life in a Formula 2 accident, and still fought his way back, taking a podium in Brazil 2019 and then winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 2020.
The changes in the driver market which happened before the season drew a lot of attention from fans, but it was even better to see how they played out as drivers were set to leave their teams before the end of the season.
I think the best feature they did of these team changes was in their episode “We Need To Talk About Ferrari” as they talked about how Sebastian Vettel was suddenly dropped from the team early on in 2020. My favorite part was when they showed how Vettel overshadowed Ferrari’s 1,000th Grand Prix celebrations in Mugello by announcing his move to Aston Martin, which I felt was justified as he became Ferrari’s scapegoat, especially by the Team Principal Mattia Binotto.
One thing that I really would have liked to see was the departure of Claire Williams, former Deputy Team Principal of the Williams F1 Team, and the rest of her family as they stepped away from their team. Though they did cover the Haas team and how they replaced both drivers, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen to allow for new sponsors, Williams has been a part of Formula 1 for much longer and has been more successful in previous years as well. The show is called “Drive to Survive” so I feel like they should have shown how the Williams family stepped aside so that their team could survive in the sport.
Even though feelings run high in Formula 1, the second to last episode, “Man On Fire” was definitely the most emotional as it featured Romain Grosjean’s terrifying crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix where his car was split in half then burst into flames at the barrier. I remember how sickening it was to see and watch the replays as the race was red flagged to repair the barrier. I almost cried when Grosjean explained to Netflix how he thought he was going to die, but the thought of his kids made him pull himself through the flames to safety where the medical car was waiting for him.
Finally, I thought showcasing the battle between McLaren, Renault, and Racing Point for third place in the constructors championship in Abu Dhabi was a good way to round off the series, but the end of the last episode “Down To The Wire” felt off.
They left about five minutes at the end where they talked about how many records Lewis Hamilton has broken, despite struggles coming from being the only Black Formula 1 driver on the grid as well as the first Black driver to compete in a mostly white sport. I feel like five minutes wasn’t good enough, and it was definitely worth focusing an episode on Hamilton and the adversity he has overcome.
Overall, the series was really captivating as it explored the behind the scenes of the races and team dynamics both on and off the track, but it may not be as interesting to more avid Formula 1 watchers but also a bit confusing to viewers who don’t tune into races every Sunday. Although I would have liked to see more coverage of different races in the 2020 season and races featured in chronological order, it’s still definitely worth watching.
“Drive to Survive” is currently streaming on Netflix.