There is an apology by Mick Schumacher, German racing driver and son of the legendary Micheal Schumacher, in the latest season of the Netflix’s Drive To Survive, which is a behind the scenes look at the world of Formula 1. He says, “Excuse me for swearing,” after uttering an F-word. Why did it stand out for me? Because he is the only person in the docudrama who is apologetic about swearing.
Mick’s boss Guenther Steiner, the team principal of the Haas F1 team is a veritable star, thanks to the show. He might be a polyglot who speaks Italian, French, German, Spanish and English, but if one made a word cloud of Steiner’s vocabulary in the series, it would be populated with the F-word.
With the exception of Mattia Binotto, the team principal of Scuderia Ferrari who deliberately speaks in Italian through the show, everybody else from the reigning world champion Max Verstappen to Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda, and staff members from bosses to underlings all give you a masterclass on how to drop F-bombs. They use it for exclamations, to express disappointment, and as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb and pronoun.
Watered down drama from race tracks
Drive To Survive has been a hit for Netflix but an even bigger one for Formula 1. The show’s success has brought in a whole new generation of fans to the sport, particularly in the United States of America. In fact, the US will host three F1 races this year. One in Miami, Austin and a brand-new race against the backdrop of Las Vegas’ bright lights. Yes, some of these new F1 fans are more tribal than older ones like your columnist, but at the end of the day you don’t’ mind more eyeballs.
But has the season 5 of Drive to Survive built any excitement for the upcoming 2023 FIA Formula 1 Championship?
Yes and no. One major problem of the series looking back at the previous season of F1 championship is that it lacks a strong narrative point. That is because after a slow start, the 2022 championship was dominated by the Red Bull Racing team and Max Verstappen. The show does get into Scuderia Ferrari’s strategy and how their decisions seemed not only questionable but utterly bizarre at times. But there aren’t enough barbs as previous seasons even though Max Verstappen made a comeback after boycotting the show last season.
Verstappen boycotted the show earlier because he felt that the show ‘overdramatises’ the world of Formula 1, particularly the relationships between drivers. He made a fair point about the previous seasons but in season 5, the show completely glossed over the tension between Verstappen and his Mexican teammate Sergio Perez. The Red Bull ‘cheating’ scandal was showed in an episode but it lacked some of the drama of what actually happened.
Make no mistakes, the show has some great episodes as well. It showed the battle between the Alpine and McLaren teams, the relationship between the drivers at the AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda—especially with the former leaving the team at the end of the season—and even Verstappen’s comments about his relationship with Mick Schumacher. But things like the former world champion Sebastian Vettel’s heartfelt retirement are not on the show.
Maybe the producers of the show took Verstappen’s criticism to heart or they watered down the show in order to get him back. After all, not having the person who won the 2022 championship would have considerably reduced its watchability. For a successful show that gave a boost to the sports-behind-the-scenes genre, its new season felt quite underwhelming.
The new season of Formula 1 might have some hope for the show’s run.
Also read: Ferrari’s principal,Mattia Binotto | Drive to Survive, YouTube screenshot
2023 Formula 1 championship
One would assume that Verstappen and Red Bull Racing will be the favourites for 2023 as well. But there was a major change of regulations in 2022 and the previously dominant Mercedes-AMG team was left reeling. However, towards the second half of 2022, the German team did start to get its act together.
Scuderia Ferrari, which at the start of 2022 season looked like the team to beat, might have retained its two drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr but they have changed things in the team. Their new head of strategy is Ravin Jain, an Indian-origin engineer. After multiple strategy errors in 2022, Jain’s job is cut out for him.
But while the ‘Big 3’ teams Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari might go for gold and dominate the headlines—especially Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton—the real drama might lie with the midfield teams. The teams such as McLaren, Alpine, Aston Martin and AlphaTauri, have new drivers. McLaren exchanged one Australian, Daniel Riccardio, for another—Oscar Piastri, who is a young extremely talented racer. Aston Martin took Fernando Alonso from Alpine, and the latter team brought in Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri. And Gasly was replaced by Verstappen’s countryman Nyck DeVries. This carousel was set off by the retirement of Vettel.
With regulations remaining steady for 2023, and no major changes scheduled until 2026, teams such as Mercedes-AMG have had some time to iron out their issues. And maybe the financial and testing penalties that Red Bull faces for cheating, particularly with overall budgets being capped, might help level the playing field between the Champions and the rest.
And that is a good reason for fans to be excited. Who knows, it might save Drive to Survive as well.
Sports shows, particularly those which shine a light at past events familiar among fans, need some drama associated with the field of play. And in this case, it’s the race tracks. The way things have shaped up in 2023 so far, the upcoming championship promises to be a humdinger. And maybe the producers of Drive to Survive will also have a better season 6.
@kushanmitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. Views are personal.