Producers of the Netflix hit Drive to Survive “aren’t planning for an finish” to the sequence whereas it retains delivering for Formulation 1.
Every week earlier than the beginning of the brand new F1 marketing campaign, the eighth season of the long-running breakout hit was launched on Netflix, a shortened eight-episode sequence following the 2025 marketing campaign – as ever produced by Field to Field Movies.
The success of Netflix’s first foray into F1 is well-documented by now, with Season 7’s viewership of over 10 million leaving each different sports activities franchise within the mud.
Critiques of Season 8 have been blended, with the present persevering with to divide diehard F1 followers and the newcomers F1 and its makers are attempting to lure into the game. However so long as the present achieves the latter goal, its makers do not see any purpose to alter their method.
“You need to very early settle for the actual fact you are not going to please everyone,” mentioned Tom Rogers, Field to Field’s director of post-production.
“The fact is that the core die-hard followers, inevitably, can have some grievances with some stuff that is in there. However we’re probably not focusing on the folks which are already enthusiastic about Formulation 1.
Carlos Sainz, Williams, Alex Albon, Williams, Drive to Survive Season 8
Picture by: Netflix
“This was all the time the type of entry level for brand new followers. We wish to flip informal followers into avid followers, and non-fans into informal followers. And I believe we have achieved that. So long as we hold that contemporary tackle the paddock, I believe it should proceed to achieve success.
“It is uncommon for Netflix exhibits to get to a Season 8, and I believe it speaks volumes in regards to the reputation of the present, but in addition the game.”
That does not imply all the criticism leveraged towards the present from educated followers, starting from editorial incongruences to pulling soundbites and pictures out of context to fire up drama, is solely dismissed.
“Is the present good? No,” Rogers admitted. “Have we made errors up to now? Completely. There was one final yr with Max [Verstappen]. We had the flawed shot from the flawed cool-down room. It was a real error. As quickly because it was identified to us, we fastened it.
Max Verstappen, Pink Bull Racing, Drive to Survive Season 8
Picture by: Netflix
“It turns into an enormous information story, however there is no conspiracy. We’re not making an attempt to type of sew folks up. It’s human error and we put extra processes in place yearly to try to mitigate that. We now have [markers] throughout all of our footage which says which grand prix it got here from. So if it is from the flawed grand prix, it’s totally apparent as a result of it says it on the display after we’re enhancing. It is in all of our pursuits to do pretty much as good a job as we presumably can.”
The success of Apple’s F1 film is as one other lever to deliver new followers into the sequence in the important thing North American market. That runway for additional development implies that as lengthy F1 retains delivering for Netflix and vice versa, a sundown for Drive to Survive would not appear to be on the rapid horizon.
“We’re usually requested: ‘Do we predict it is run its course? However as a lot as we have grown the American market, I might argue there’s nonetheless an extended strategy to go within the American market,” Rogers mentioned. “It looks like Formulation 1 is continuous to go from power to power. Hopefully, Drive to Survive will proceed alongside Formulation 1 in that respect.
“We’re not planning for an finish. Issues naturally have a finite length, however there’s nothing on the horizon that we learn about. Whereas it continues to make sense for Formulation 1, for Netflix, for the groups; as I’ve mentioned, the American market, I believe we have scratched the floor. There’s huge development potential there.”
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