Thanks to the Netflix docuseries “Drive to Survive,” Formula 1 has experienced a surge of popularity that has finally enabled it to crack previously challenging markets, like the United States — but for a few years, the show has been in a slump as it at attempts to reengineer the things that made it so appealing in the first place. Season six, which debuted this past Friday is exactly the return to form that fans have craved. It’s too bad, then, that the most compelling storylines have been undercut by F1’s own news cycle.
Let’s start with the positives: For the past few seasons, “Drive to Survive” has suffered in quality. The storylines felt like unfocused propaganda directed more by The Powers That Be in Formula 1 than by producers or show writers, and designed to project the carefully curated image that Formula 1 wants you to see. And while no one is tuning into DTS hoping for an unbiased journalistic challenge to the sport, viewers also don’t want to feel like they’re being spoon-fed the opinions they’re supposed to have.
That spoon-feeding is inevitably at play in certain episodes in Season 6. Episode 2, titled “Fall From Grace,” focuses on Nyck de Vries’ deeply disappointing performance behind the wheel of an AlphaTauri and his subsequent mid-season replacement by Daniel Ricciardo. Of course, DTS was never going to cast de Vries in a very sympathetic light, but there were several moments that really drove home just how much the docuseries didn’t want you to like him.
De Vries shows up to a Red Bull charity shoot late, for example, and doesn’t even know how to shoot a gun. He isn’t afforded much of a personality outside of keeping his Monte Carlo apartment spotless. In the right light, those could come across as endearing personality quirks, but DTS doesn’t want you to get attached to the guy who’s getting canned halfway through the season. Instead, those moments serve to paint De Vries as a fish out of water, an imperfect fit for the Red Bull atmosphere. As I watched, I could definitely feel an editorial hand leading me in a particular direction — but compared to previous seasons, that didn’t feel like outright manipulation.
Those previous seasons of DTS felt a little disingenuous. F1 fans tuning in could easily pinpoint moments where producers had overlaid a radio message from one race on a clip that showed a different race track. F1’s regular commentators are asked to record purpose-written commentary scripts that can feel almost absurd. Every docuseries will inevitably feature an element of engineering to prescribe neat parameters around our messy reality, but the sheer number of inaccuracies and forced narratives have been so obvious in the past that the show could be difficult for a regular fan to watch.
For Season 6, DTS showrunners have finally come close to perfecting the formula. The storylines are still curated, but they feel like genuine reflections of the 2023 F1 season. Now, the only problem is that, by the time the series aired, many of its stories were entirely out of date.
Episode 4, titled “The Last Chapter,” focuses on the back-of-the-field battle between the Williams and Haas teams. Naturally, the team’s then-boss Guenther Steiner — who has also become a DTS darling — plays a significant role. But much of the episode centers around a will-he-won’t-he plot line about whether or not he’s ready to retire. It’s compelling stuff; it’s just too bad that Steiner was canned as team boss in January, a month before DTS S6 was released.
Or there’s Episode 6, titled “Leap of Faith,” which strongly focuses on Lewis Hamilton’s relationship with the Mercedes F1 team. It’s the team that has given Hamilton countless World Driver Championships, but recent form has been extremely poor, and Hamilton isn’t getting any younger; he wants to become the first driver to ever score eight titles, and Merc simply isn’t in a place to do that. Hamilton and team boss Toto Wolff spend the entire episode locked in contract negotiations, with the conclusion coming when Hamilton re-signs with Mercedes and commits to the team for the future. Except we just learned that in 2025, Hamilton will be leaving Mercedes to race at Ferrari.
And, as has been the case in many past seasons, Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner serves as a focal point for almost every storyline and not just the ones that involve his teams. Except, Horner is currently being investigated for inappropriate behavior toward a woman working for the Red Bull brand, and many people are calling for him to resign. That results in a particularly uncomfortable moment where the Horner family hires Father Christmas to entertain their children, and Mr. Claus asks the kids “has Daddy been good this year?” Not this year, he hasn’t.
There’s not really anything that can be done about F1’s never-ending news cycle killing off the intrigue of entire episodes of its docuseries. The popularity of F1 has increased its stakes, and big news stories will break when they break. There are far greater priorities than making sure fans can enjoy a recap of the previous season’s drama without it being tainted by the drama of upcoming seasons. But it is still unfortunate that DTS’s impressive return has been undercut by Formula 1’s own upcoming storylines.