Netflix’s extremely popular Formula 1 docu-series is back for its sixth season, chronicling the high-paced thrills of the 2023 season.
Largely credited for increasing Formula 1’s global audience, Drive to Survive returns to the small screen in 2024, just in time for the beginning of another highly anticipated F1 season.
As with previous instalments of the docu-series, motorsport fans from Cairo to Caringbah will be eagerly awaiting yet another inside glimpse at their favourite racers’ when season 6 hits screens.
For years, Formula 1 drivers operated within a veil of mystery, their lives and personalities often overshadowed by their break-neck on-track feat. Part of Drive to Survive’s appeal is its facilitation of F1 drivers’ expressing their true personality to the masses, increasing their affability with fans.
Drive to Survive’s model is incredibly successful, resulting in the production of several similarly styled shows since its debut in 2019. These include golf’s Full Swing, rugby union’s Six Nations: Full Contact, tennis’ Break Point and NASCAR’s Full Speed. Such shows look to leverage the personalities of elite athletes across various sports and provide fly-on-the-wall access into their otherwise unnoticed trials and tribulations and unheralded personal sacrifices.
When is Drive To Survive season 6 released?
23 February, 2024
Season 6 of the hit show is set to hit Netflix on 23 February, lining up with the final day of 2024 pre-season testing in Bahrain and just over a week before the season begins on the same track.
Is there a trailer?
Yes, Netflix dropped one on us and it’s as serene as it is exhilarating.
Will we get our Piastri fix?
More than likely. Oscar Piastri’s debut F1 season was one for the history books. The young Australian accrued 97 points, the second-highest tally by a rookie in F1 history. The only driver to gain more points in their first F1 season? Lewis Hamilton, also driving for McLaren back in 2007 when Piastri was just six.
In a season heavily dominated by Red Bull and Max Verstappen, Piastri’s praises were increasingly sung, alongside his teammate Lando Norris, particularly in the back half of the campaign when their machinery matched their talents. Ending the season ninth in the Drivers Championship, Piastri twice featured on the podium, in Japan (third) and Qatar (second, as well as twice collecting the fastest lap in a race in Italy and Las Vegas.
Thousands of Australian F1 fans will be crying out for a peek at Piastri’s personality in the latest season of Drive to Survive. From limited interviews and appearances on podcasts, Piastri appears an affable, if quiet, figure with an incredible racing intelligence. Here’s hoping his increased prominence on-track is enough for producers to feel he deserves a protagonistic role in the docu-series.
What other notable storylines could there be?
Well, the most obvious is the dominance of Max Verstappen. Not only will season 6 benefit from the flying Dutchman’s continued return to the small screen, after a brief absence a few years back, but it’ll also leverage his record-breaking F1 season.
Quite simply, no one, not even Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher lays claim to a season quite like Verstappen’s 2023. Finishing first in the Drivers Championship, nearly 300 points ahead of teammate Sergio Perez in second, Verstappen lost just three races all season. Remarkable.
His 19 Grand Prix wins throughout the 22-race season is just one of the records Verstappen claimed during a truly unprecedented year, including the most podiums in a season (21) and the highest single-season win percentage of any driver in history (86.36%).
Not only would it be incredible insight to pick the brains of Verstappen and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner about how such an unrivalled season came about, but also those of the other drivers. What psychological toll does competing against Verstappen take? How do they feel they can steal a few extra seconds? When do the doubts start to creep in?
Elsewhere, another year of Mercedes’s struggles will create intriguing storylines. As too will the problems at Ferrari who, after a strong opening half of 2022, faded further down the pack last season.
From an entertainment point of view, Daniel Ricciardo’s return to F1 with AlphaTauri, now known as Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team, is sure to bring fun and laughter to the series. Of all the drivers to feature in the first five seasons of the series, none have benefitted more than Daniel Ricciardo.
An eight-time Grand Prix winner with Red Bull, Ricciardo’s boisterous personality, infectious smile and easygoing nature have catapulted him to global stardom. His brief absence from the paddock +left a gaping hole in the sport and would’ve surely left Drive to Survive producers sweating.
However, Nyck De Vries’ poor performances led to the Australian’s return, invoking collective sighs of relief throughout the production team, and cheers from fans who’ve grown to savour Ricciardo’s on-screen warmth.
For the sentimental viewer, season 6 will be bittersweet given it’s the last time former Haas principal, Guenther Steiner, will feature on the show. Steiner was relieved of his duties at the American team following a disappointing 2023, meaning fans will have to go without his humour and wit from season 6 onwards.
Will this be the final season?
We sure hope not! As does executive producer James Gay-Rees. In a recent interview, Gay-Rees touched on the show’s impact on the growth of F1 around the globe, explaining that ‘bringing such a big new audience to a sport – which obviously was deserved, it just needed somebody to open it up – is massively satisfying.’
“The fact that it wasn’t a fluke, the fact that it’s grown… It’s a real honour and we love it.”
Despite discussing how difficult the show is to make, he declared the production team ‘love the process, we love the world. Long may it continue!.’
