Biggest Revelations We Learned From ‘F1: Drive to Survive’ Season 7

After dominating the competition over the past few seasons, there hasn’t been as much drama to look forward to on Drive to Survive. However, the 2024 season delivered an incredible chase for the driver’s championship as Lando Norris looked to unseat reigning champion Max Verstappen, and a resurgent McLaren and Ferrari looked to take advantage of Red Bull’s woes on and off the track. This year’s Drive to Survive isn’t to be missed, and here’s everything we learned from the exhilarating 7th season.

Formula 1: Drive to Survive is a sports documentary series produced by Box to Box Films. It is a collaboration between Netflix and Formula One, with James Gay-Rees and Paul Martin of Box to Box as the executive producers.

Released annually since 2019, the series has been paramount in getting fans excited for the return of the F1 season by showcasing all of the drama on and off the track during the previous racing season. It has often been credited with adding drama to an exhilarating sport that had begun to lose its edge and excitement. 

The success of Drive to Survive is thanks to the documentary team’s incredible access to the behind-the-scenes drama on and off the track during the Formula One season and unprecedented access to the F1 Drivers and the team’s Principals. 

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Very little of Max and Lewis

Since winning his first world championship in 2021, he has won all four world championships back to back (2021-2024). But despite the period of dominance, Verstappen has barely featured in Drive to Survive. This trend continues in Drive to Survive Season 7. While the Red Bull racer is the subject and topic of many conversations throughout the season, he hadn’t sat down with the Netflix team to conduct interviews like his fellow racers or team principal, Horner.

The same is true for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, whose move to Ferrari is a big topic in the first episode but doesn’t take part in any interviews.

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The Horner Controversy

One of the most significant talking points from the 2024 F1 season came off the track when allegations were brought against Red Bull’s Principal of Racing, Christian Horner. Already one of the most outspoken and controversial figures in F1, the allegations threatened to derail Red Bull’s season just as it was getting started.

Given the severity of what Horner was accused of and his status in F1, the team behind Drive to Survive could not ignore the issue. So, the team tackled it head-on, catching the reactions of other teams’ principals and drivers, the call for him to resign from Max Verstappen’s father, and even attempted to discuss the subject with Horner. However, Horner maintained a very muted stance surrounding his innocence despite the overwhelming number of WhatsApp messages made public during the practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Naturally, given the content of the WhatsApp messages and the allegations, the Box to Box team did an excellent job showcasing just how surprising it was that Horner was able to ride the backlash maelstrom and keep his job at Red Bull.

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Bromance to Rivals

One of the most significant developments early in the 2024  season was Lando Norris emerging as long-time friend Max Verstappen’s rival for the season. They do an excellent job of presenting Lando as a young man with a big heart and big dreams of winning his first race and potentially one day being a world champion. However, his kind demeanor also showed some endearing naivety from the McLaren driver, who perhaps valued his friendship with reigning world champion Max Verstappen more than the world champion himself. Once the pair started going toe-to-toe on the track, the gloves were off, and Lando discovered what it meant to go up against the Dutch juggernaut of F1, Verstappen.

We also see a significant difference in attitude between the two racers during the Hungarian Grand Prix when Lando listened to team orders to give teammate Oscar Piastri the win. Horner is seen joking that Max would never have allowed them to let him give up a win. With the pair fighting to be McLaren’s number one driver at the Monza Grand Prix, Oscar decided to compromise his team’s strategy to overtake his teammate, which ultimately led to further mistakes from the team, leading Leclerc and Ferrari to win the race and McLaren to fall short to finish 2nd and 3rd.

The race for the driver’s championship came to a head at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Verstappen pulled off a career-defining drive after starting 17th on the grid and, through the torrential downpour, found a way to come first. Meanwhile, Lando, who had started the race in pole position, could only manage a sixth-place finish. After winning the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Verstappen’s fourth world championship title was confirmed.

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Hamilton Jumping Ship to Ferrari

Throughout the 2024 season, a prominent topic of discussion was Lewis Hamilton’s planned move to rival Ferrari for the 2025 season. This announcement came just weeks before the start of the 2024 season, which meant Hamilton would have one final year to race with Mercedes, concluding his 12-year relationship with the team and Toto Wolff.

Naturally, Hamilton was the butt of a few jokes regarding his defection, but this also presented a conundrum for Mercedes principal of racing Toto Wolff, who not only had to try and deliver a car worthy of winning races and world championship but also finding a replacement for his best driver.

This led to what could have been an even more significant defection than Hamilton going to Ferrari, as Max Verstappen seemingly came very close to leaving Red Bull to join longtime rivals Mercedes. However, his decision seemed to come down to the wire before he opted to stay with the Red Bull team. Much to the annoyance of Toto, as this meant he was still to find a new driver. However, this would lead to even more exciting developments.

Instead of poaching a driver from another team, Mercedes has decided to stick with George Russell and promote the exhilarating and promising new driver, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. When he learned he would be an F1 driver for Mercedes starting in 2025, Antonelli was not even 18 years old. The young Italian has the potential to be a future world champion.

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The race to sign Carlos Sainz

Lewis Hamilton is set to join Ferrari for the 2025 season, which means that Ferrari will need to let one of its current drivers go. They ultimately decided to drop Carlos Sainz rather than Charles Leclerc, leaving a highly experienced and talented driver available for other teams.

In the fourth episode of the season, we see the towards the back of the grid: Williams and Stake. Williams has a rich history in Formula 1, with seven world champions. On the other hand, Stake looks to have a bright future in the sport, especially from 2026 when they officially become the Audi team. 

Sainz came very close to signing with Williams. Still, at the last moment, he changed his mind when Flavio Briatore, the Executive Advisor to the Chairman of Alpine Formula One, contacted him. Briatore previously led Benetton to success in the 1990s and achieved further victories with Renault in the 2000s, resulting in World Championships for Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso. However, this only postponed a decision. After carefully considering his options among the three teams, Sainz ultimately signed with Williams, starting in the 2025 season.

The series effectively heightens the drama surrounding Sainz’s decision.

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The weight of expectation

An entire episode focuses on Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and his determination to win his home Grand Prix in Monaco. In the past, Charles has struggled to secure a victory in this iconic race, and as each year passes, the pressure on him to succeed increases. The Monaco Grand Prix is one of the most challenging races on the calendar, with cars becoming larger each year while the track itself remains unchanged. This makes the challenge of winning the Monaco Grand Prix even tougher.

It’s made clear that Leclerc is haunted by mistakes from previous Monaco races, and other team principals can be overheard criticizing his tendency to make mistakes. However, despite the supposed curse of the race and the heavy expectation resting on him, Leclerc manages to win pole position in qualifying and goes on to achieve his first victory in the Monaco Grand Prix.

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How to win a constructor’s championship like McLaren?

As mentioned earlier, McLaren’s failure to secure a one-two finish at Monza was a setback in their quest for the constructors’ championship. However, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix proved to be an exciting racing weekend. Lando was starting from 14th place at the back of the grid, while Oscar Piastri was in 2nd. Both McLaren drivers showcased excellent racing skills, particularly Lando, who successfully held up Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, allowing Piastri to emerge from the pits ahead of him. The race concluded with Piastri winning, Lando finishing in 4th, and Verstappen crossing the line in 5th. A collision between Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz resulted in both drivers retiring from the race. As a result, McLaren left the weekend with a 20-point lead in the constructors’ standings.

By the end of the season, thanks to mistakes from Perez leading to dropped points for Red Bull, McLaren would take the Constructors Championship in the final race of the year at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Ferrari coming in 2nd and Red Bull in 3rd.

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Longtime Friends (and Rivals)

In the background of the Singapore Grand Prix, the series spends a lot more time with five drivers who all came up through the go-karting scene together: Lando Norris, George Russell, Alexander Albon, Charles Leclerc, and Pierre Gasly. The episode does a great job of sharing the relationships between some of the drivers and, on a personal level, how fame and fortune and being in the eyes of the public impact them, particularly Lando.

The Singapore Grand Prix is a gruelling race for the drivers with high temperatures and high humidity, where maintaining concentration is at its toughest. Unfortunately for Alexander Albon, he was forced to retire from the race. Meanwhile, Lando would have a brief scare after a small collision with the wall but would ultimately go on to win the race for his third victory of the season and his F1 career.

The toll the race takes on drivers was even more evident with George Russell, who revealed the soaring temperatures inside the cockpit which resulted in him losing 4kg.

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The race for Red Bull’s 2nd seat

Due to Sergio Perez’s underperformance throughout the season, his position as a Red Bull driver was questioned. Once again, thanks to the candid nature of the footage captured behind the scenes, we even see Horner discussing with his team the possibility of dropping Perez before the season ends.

This opened the door for the possibility of Daniel Riccardio rejoining the team or a promotion for fellow Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda. The series does a great job of showcasing Riccardio’s willingness to fight for his place for Red Bull’s second seat, but the rain at Silverstone had other plans, resulting in a bad race for Riccardio. Meanwhile, the season went from bad to worse for Perez, who was lapped twice by teammate Verstappen. It’s followed up by Riccardio showing some vulnerability by questioning if putting it all on the line for a place on Red Bull is worth it.

Step up, Liam Lawson. The young Aussie had been waiting in the wings as one of Red Bull’s reserve drivers. After leading some test drives for Red Bull, Daniel Riccardio was dropped from Racing Bulls and replaced by Lawson in an unexpected turn of events. In his first race at the Mexican Grand Prix, Lawson and Perez would clash on the track, resulting in Lawson giving the Red Bull driver the finger upon overtaking him. Instead of receiving a punishment for the clash, Lawson was soon announced as Sergio Perez’s replacement for the 2025 season.

Arguably, Perez underperforming resulted in Red Bull losing the constructor’s championship to McLaren.

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Are you looking forward to watching season 7 of Drive to Survive? Let us know in the comments below!