Netflix’s 2023 F1 retrospective won’t change opinions

Providing behind-the-scenes access to one of the world’s most restricted championships has done wonders for F1’s booming popularity and expanded demographic, so the docuseries made by Box to Box Films has stuck to its guns for season six, half of which we have had early access to.

Once again all 10 episodes are each built around one of the main narrative strands from the 2023 season. With Max Verstappen’s Red Bull winning all but one race, the makers have had to seek their thrills elsewhere and lean heavier on the off-track drama.

And maybe that’s just as well, because Drive to Survive remains somewhat jarring when it comes to on-track storytelling. It lapses into an old vice of overlaying out of context soundbites and pit wall reactions onto action footage, which had seemed less prevalent in season five.

Making it sound like race engineers get into their driver’s ear on the frantic run down to Turn 1 at the start is a little nonsensical, but it is where die-hard F1 fans just need to take a deep breath and remember who this show is aimed at first and foremost.

Instead, where DTS really shines for seasoned motorsports devotees – which you presumably are if you are reading this – is showing us fresh fly-on-the-wall footage, and season six is no different.

The third episode revolving around McLaren particularly stands out with some delicious snark, with Red Bull’s Christian Horner eager to twist the knife as Zak Brown’s team misfires, adding insult to injury by openly courting Lando Norris.

We get a neat little nugget when McLaren’s blue-chip sponsors worriedly ask Brown what is going on, followed by a well-crafted segment of the team’s mid-season resurgence as Norris takes second at home at Silverstone. While Brown does all the heavy lifting on camera there’s curiously barely a mention of Andrea Stella, the team boss who turned the ship around, but perhaps both like it better that way.

DTS has never shied away from fan service and it continues that trend in season six. Unlikely Netflix star Guenther Steiner is back to his charismatic self as Haas’ struggles are well documented. Watching young, female F1 fans fawn over meeting the foul-mouthed Italian at his book signing feels both surreal and meta. Drive to Survive has gone full circle, basking in the man’s popularity it single-handedly created.

Given Steiner has…