F1: Drive to Survive (Netflix)

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My Rating *** Genre – Documentary Run Time – 3 seasons Certificate – 13 Platform – Netflix Awards – 6 Nominations = = = = = = = = = = = = = With the rise of streaming TV and new players in the sports market we have seen a lot of those fly-on-the-wall documentaries about the lives of those sports and their likewise stars to fill the new schedules. Most are fairly controlled and merely vanity projects – none more so than the Ronaldo one – but we don’t get to know anything about the top sport stars and their teams so any peak behind the curtain can be interesting, always something subtle that means a lot more in context slipping through. All or Nothing has been a big success on Amazon Prime and the Tottenham Hotspur series entertaining as Jose’s ego was checked at Spurs, and clues to his eventual demise this week. But the best one so far has been F1: Drive to Survive, Netflix’s skillfully edited look at the Grand Prix season, on and off the track. Season one was by far the best and but by the current season three it was all feeling slightly scripted and more a Sunday drive than a roaring success. But you get a glimpse of the politics, backstabbing and some cool 4k action shots of the races and crashes, of course, so still entertaining and worth a watch. In fact in a rather boring 2020 season Romain Grosjean’s horrendous fireball crash and his miracle escape was the most watched Grand Prix moment of the season on YouTube. Death and carnage has always been the real appeal of motorsports to the fans although we don’t like to admit it. We don’t get much of that these days but when it happens, its news. The real appeal to this is the Machiavellian scheming and politics behind the scenes as drivers flip teams and teams flip drivers as sponsors demand they make changes and young egos deflate like worn tires. So many of the drivers are young rich kids now and only get drives as expected to bring money to the seat from their fathers. Young Schumacher came into his seat because he bought family money and Ferrari influence. The hopeless Russian Tamazapin alongside has a billionaire father and only there because of that and the new crashmeister general. Even the brilliant Verstappen needed his F1 driving dads influence to build his career. The b**tching is funny with the rivalry between Austrian team bosses Toto Wolfe and Guenther Steiner always amusing and plenty of swearing. Danny Ricciardo remains as lovable as ever with is infectious smile and Kimi Raikonnen just as miserable and enigmatic as ever. You do feel for mid grid drivers as they realize their Formula One careers could be over before they get started as their team mates try to accelerate that demise by smashing them off the track to keep their seats. The shows real appeal is it looks fantastic and glamorous if nothing else, new angles to crashes and incidents filling in some gaps from the past season. I bet there is some great stuff on the edit room floor. The main protagonist’s like Christian Horner of Red Bull do play up to the Netflix cameras sometimes and clearly the producers ‘arrange’ for important phone calls and team moments to be caught on camera but apart from that artificial veneer its interesting. Ferrari and Mercedes refused to be involved in the first series but that didn’t really take away from it but they were much more involved in season two as the ratings rose in lockdown. Lewis Hamilton hasn’t really bothered with it and only there to make BLM comments and appear even duller where as Vettell has enjoyed taking pops at Ferrari. It certainly is a unique and expensive sport and a welcome look at its exclusivity. . ===RATINGS=== Imdb.com 8.7 /10.0 (23,234votes) Rottentomatos.com –76% critic’s approval Metacritic.com – 76% critic’s approval ===Trailer=== https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3899636249?playlistId=tt8289930&ref_=tt_ov_vi