F1 Drive to Survive Season 4: Spoiler-free review

In terms of increased insight, finding out what Toto Wolff and Christian Horner have for breakfast before a race is only going to pique your intrigue for so long.

You could argue that the 2021 championship has fallen in just a way which lent itself brilliantly to real-time drama, but not so much a glossy documentary series. 2020 was the opposite.

DtS’s production company Box to Box has been given a number of gifts in the past, including Romain Grosjean’s huge near fatal crash in Bahrain and Pierre Gasly taking an emotional debut win after being put through the wringer at Red Bull and then demoted to its junior team.

Last season, thankfully, no-one on the F1 grid almost died, no-one lost their best friend in a junior category race and no-one had their life’s dreams shattered by a seemingly uncompassionate management team. As a result this year’s series just isn’t quite as emotional, and therefore interesting. Matters of life and death work much better for TV, unfortunately.

As well as that level of jeopardy, there just simply isn’t the level of backstairs intrigue which DtS has previously thrived on. The saga of Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo’s moves in and out of Renault has provided ripe material over the years, as has the sniping and outright aggression between the French marque and its engine customer Red Bull.

There is also no substitute for Ferrari’s or Valtteri Bottas’s respective angst from last season. All these events were DtS episode-generating machines. Series 4 has far less of this interest.

In addition, Netflix editorial decisions do sometimes leave you wondering. An equivalent to Pierre Gasly’s win at Monza in 2020, but the episode doesn’t bring the same satisfaction.

“One of the year’s most heroic drives, and barely a word mentioned”

Despite a thrilling race, the characters involved just aren’t quite as emotive as the bullying Red Bull boss Christian Horner and the team’s junior driver guru Helmut Marko against the psychologically wounded but still fiercely competitive Gasly.

Even in instances like the grand prix in question, probably its most interesting aspect is afforded no screen time whatsoever. One of the most heroic drives of the year and barely a word mentioned. Netflix somewhat missed out on the racing action here ­– apparently why it’s supposed to be there in the first place.

Again, there’s a dearth in talking heads – Will Buxton and Jennie Gow are the only featured speakers who aren’t affiliated with a team – and action scenes still manage to seem contrived i.e. cars changing down gears on mid-straight etc plus pointless radio messages inserted into absurd moments. There’s still serious room for improvement in these quite elementary areas.

The caveat must be stressed that Netflix has not given press access to the final two episodes of the season. So far, some classic races are left out. The Azerbaijan crashfest gets few mentions, and Saudi Arabia had more talking points than you could wave a Netflix subscription at. In addition to a Jeddah race which appeared to have more incident packed in than half an average F1 season many, including Hamilton, were outspoken about racing in a country which has an appalling human rights record – including only recently allowing women to drive.

Also not mentioned is the farcical Belgium GP, a three-lap procession which guaranteed F1 its fee from the promoter, despite no green flag running occurring due to the torrential conditions. Fans who had endured the sodden day out were later informed they would be given no financial compensation, instead offered a variety of paltry competition offers and retail discounts.