Formula 1 vs Drive to Survive – Documentary or Reality Show?
In recent years, interest in Formula 1 has exploded as the sport’s bosses have sought ways to reach new audiences. Their efforts have truly paid off with global viewing figures rising steadily, including a 3% rise in 2021 alone. That reverses a long trend of decline in 2009 following two periods of domination by Red Bull and then Mercedes. As this excitement and interest in watching F1 has grown, so too has the demand for Formula 1 betting markets. The result of this is that bookie comparison sites like oddschecker have seen a spike in users looking for free bets to use on the world’s most prestigious motorsport.
Formula 1’s attempts to boost its viewership have been multifaceted with races in new countries, more fan-friendly activities at race weekends, novel formats like the F1 Sprint, and even an entirely new car design philosophy to help promote overtaking.
In addition to that, F1 teamed up with Netflix to create the documentary series Drive to Survive. There is no doubt that the show has been a big driver of new fans who have fallen in love with the sport after learning about Formula 1, its teams, and its drivers on the popular streaming service.
However, there have been criticisms from fans and others involved in the sport, arguing that the show is not a true reflection of reality and that there is too much artistic license being given to its creators. This has led some to even argue that Drive to Survive is more like a scripted reality show than a real documentary.
So which is it? Is Netflix’s Drive to Survive a true documentary or is it a high-speed adaptation of Keeping Up With the Kardashians?
“Game of Thrones in Fast Cars”
In 2022, Paul Martin, the producer of Drive to Surve, told The Guardian that he and his team used to joke that Formula 1 was “Game of Thrones in fast cars”. To some degree, he is right. The sport involves 10 clans that are fighting for control over the world titles, though only one of them can be crowned king (champion).
Therefore, his job was to cast the sport in a new light, showing the personal rivalries both within and between the teams. This is something that has not always shone through during the live TV broadcasts as, while bitter battles like the 2021 fight between Hamilton and Verstappen were clearly very fierce, the years of internal politics between the Brit and his former teammate Nico Rosberg didn’t always shine through.
Martin needed to find a way to tell the story of these hidden scraps and the combination of fly-on-the-wall documenting and interviews with key figures has proven the best way to do that.
Over Egging
But while Martin and his team are tasked with creating content that allows F1 fans to see more of what goes on behind the scenes, his show has been criticised by several key figures in the sport.
In late 2021, Verstappen told the Associated Press that he “doesn’t like being part of it” because “they faked a few rivalries” that “don’t really exist”.
While this is largely true, the content is not scripted. Drive to Survive is made entirely of interviews and race footage, none of which is predetermined in any way. Instead, the creative license comes from the editing of the footage. Therefore, it isn’t quite fair to compare it to some reality TV shows that are entirely fictional.
Necessary
While Verstappen and other drivers have been very vocal in their criticism of Drive to Survive, McLaren team boss Zak Brown has a different take. Despite the show cutting radio conversations and even mixing messages from different races together to create a conflict between his two drivers that didn’t exist, he believes that this is necessary to help the sport grow.
He likens it to the movie Top Gun (1986), pointing out that many fighter pilots were probably irritated by inaccuracies in the plot and the on-screen flying but that didn’t stop it being a great movie.
His opinion has been echoed by Red Bull’s Christian Horner who has said, despite being uncomfortable at times, that “it is very positive for F1” and that the boost in popularity Netflix has brought to the sport has been enormous.
