F1 Drive to Survive: the best episodes from seasons 1-4

With five seasons of Drive to Survive now made, there's plenty to get your teeth into – we select the very best episodes

Guenther Steiner Haas F1 team boss

Guenther Steiner's Haas team have featured in several of the best Netflix episodes

Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, the docudrama which has helped elevate Formula 1 to unprecedented levels of popularity, releases its fifth season tomorrow and you can read the review now.

What better way to prepare for a binge-watch than to recap on the best moments that made it a global hit and spawned a raft of imitators?

We’ve selected the very best episodes from the first four series that made unexpected stars of those it featured prominently: Haas team boss Guenther Steiner, Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull principal Christian Horner have all become synonymous with the show.

Five seasons released means there will be 50 episodes to watch for the uninitiated, so this selection also gives new viewers a quick way to get up to speed before delving in to the latest season.

 

Season 1 Episode 4: ‘The Art of War’

Christian Horner with Cyril Abiteboul in 2019

Prickly partnership between Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul

Antonin Vincent / DPPI

There’s no love lost between Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and his opposite number at Renault Cyril Abiteboul, as they snipe away under the gaze of the Netflix cameras.

The main sticking point is the Renault engine which Red Bull is using – the Milton Keynes team feels the power units aren’t up to standard, whilst the French manufacturer believes it’s not getting the credit for helping bring home eight consecutive titles between 2010-2013.

Things get worse when Red Bull announces its Honda switch, but Renault takes sweet revenge by nabbing one of the former’s star drivers from under its nose.

 

S2 E4: ‘Boiling Point’

Haas William Storey

Haas and Storey: match made in hell

Haas

One of the early success stories for Netflix was its work around the Haas team and its numerous ups and downs.

2019 sees the American outfit with a new title sponsor in Rich Energy, headed by the unconventional William Storey, with much talking-up of the new season.

The team unfortunately produces a car which enjoys munching its tyres – it might be quick in qualifying, but soon runs out of rubber in the races.

Then Storey doesn’t come up with the finances, whilst team-mates Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen seem intent on crashing into each other.

A very watchable episode, contributing in a big way to the series’ popularity.

 

S2 E4: ‘Dark Days’

Lewis Hamilton raises his Niki Lauda tribute helmet at the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix

Hamilton pays tribute to Lauda at Monaco ’19

In spite of warranted criticism of DtS hamming up the F1 action too much sometimes, the series does approach many sensitive situations with a deft touch – the death of GP legend and non-executive Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda is one such situation.

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This episode is first time Mercedes is featured in the series, some contrast to it now appearing regularly throughout Season 5. It begins with chronicling the team’s re-entry into F1 after an absence of 50 years, and how Lauda was central to the fight back to the front when he came onboard in 2012 – both in joining forces with then-new team boss Toto Wolff and persuading Lewis Hamilton to join.

For the 2019 season, Netflix first joins Mercedes at Monaco, the first race after Lauda’s death at the age of 70.

Hamilton wins on the principality streets, but it all starts to go wrong at the next grand prix Netflix gets behind the scenes for, at Hockenheim.

The team wears retro uniforms in deference of its 125th year in motor sport, but a wet race soon puts a damper on things. Hamilton goes off whilst leading under the safety car, breaking his front wing, then gets a penalty for entering the pitlane in a dangerous fashion. He later spins and moans on the radio about wanting to retire early, as Valtteri Bottas caps it all by crashing out. The champion team looks suitably chastened afterwards in a brilliant DtS episode.

 

S3 E4: ‘We Need to Talk About Ferrari’

Ferrari drivers and Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc talk at the 2019 Mexican GP

Vettel and Leclerc are instructed not to be “too funny”

Grand Prix Photo

You may have noticed a theme appearing: things going south in F1 makes perfect DtS dramatic fodder.

Whilst the Scuderia’s first foray into the Netflix world is little more than a bland infomercial (ironically when it was actually winning things), an episode of more gritty reality sees the famous team struggle to get out of the midfield.

Four-time champ Sebastian Vettel knows he’s heading for the exit after the team plumps for Carlos Sainz for 2021, meaning the German is unwilling to play along with PR games as team members turn various shades of Scuderia scarlet.

“We can’t be too funny considering the performance,” drivers are told by their PR people. The rest of the grid is tickled pink though.

 

S3 E9: ‘Man on Fire’

Fireball of Romain Grosjean Haas at 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix

Grosjean’s harrowing crash is at the centre of Season 4

Romain Grosjean’s terrifying conclusion to his F1 tenure in a fiery shunt at Bahrain provided DtS with one of its greatest episodes.

With the Frenchman coming close to losing his life, the incident is covered with tact and sensitivity – but at no expense to the drama.

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How Romain Grosjean survived the Bahrain GP crash
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How Romain Grosjean survived the Bahrain GP crash

Romain Grosjean's escape from his burning Haas at the Bahrain Grand Prix has been described as a miracle but it's nothing of the sort. Behind his remarkable tale of survival…

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The production illustrates the illusion of time in such incidents – Grosjean was in the blazing car for just under half a minute, but the Netflix dramatic portrayal is ten times that length.

Hitting the wall at 56G before being engulfed in flames, Grosjean speaks touchingly of the emotions he went through in that harrowing moment, and its effect on his life outlook since.

DtS also examines the impact such a crash has on other drivers: Hamilton says he felt “vulnerable” whilst Sergio Perez highlights the mental strength needed to take on a race restart after seeing one of your colleagues come close to death.

 

S4 E4: ‘Mountain to Climb’

Nikita Mazepin 2022 F1

Mazepin: not massively popular

Haas F1

You guessed it – it’s Guenther again. This time the Haas crew has got itself into a pickle by utilising the sponsorship/driving services of dastardly father/son duo of Russian oligarch Dimitry Mazepin and his mischevious son Nikita.

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Young Nikky has had a career characterised by unsavoury incidents, including using physical violence against other drivers and apparently sexually assaulting a partner and filming live it on social media.

Perhaps a little unsurprisingly, things don’t go too well. The young Russian is convincingly seen off by team-mate Mick Schumacher, but Nikita takes it out on the team, telling them his car has an inherent technical issue. He does so in very unpolite terms, with dad Dmitry threatening to withdraw the sponsorship also.

“No wonder everyone ****ing hates you!” is Steiner’s response to his driver’s antics.

Drive to Survive reviews