P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our honest thoughts on Drive to Survive S6

Episode Date: February 25, 2024

Roll up, roll up - it's time for another season of DTS, so let's review it.Is it better than recent seasons? Why did they leave out a few massive stories? Have they listened to fans? Let's find out!Tickets for our live shows in April have almost sold out - get yours right here! You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast where we are getting into Drive to Survive. Sorry, a dramatic, you know, right to pause. This just makes sense, don't they, for DTS content. Perhaps we should just talk like that for the entirety of the podcast, and it will go from sort of like a 20-minute chat to an hour and hour and a half. What do you think, Tommy? Yeah, when a new series is on Netflix about Formula One, it's Drive to Survive.

Thank you Tommy. That was great. So today we are chatting about Drive to Survive season six and what we think. We've binge watched it. It came out this morning and it's still the same day and we've binge watched it because we thought, well, firstly, we hoped we'd get it early. But we couldn't find the person we spoke to last year and therefore we didn't get it early. So instead we've binge watched it, testing on one screen, DTS on the other. it's been chaos. And I think we have to start with Baldy Mark Zero-Five's question,

is it any good? Okay. My thoughts on Drive to Survive Season 6, I enjoy it because I like Formula One. I think that's probably it, right? My undying love for Formula One means I will tune in no matter what, just for even one small sort of, I don't know, Charle-Claire ice bath moment that I haven't seen before.

You know, like just anything, those little nuggets that you just don't get from a Formula One season, I think to probably add on to is it any good, I think for a general audience, yes in some ways, no in others. For me, it felt like drive to survive again. And I think this has been something that we have, have spoken about previously where you think, right, maybe they need to do things slightly

differently. And there are good episodes in Drive to Survive, but I also were sat there through some of the episodes going, God, this is quite dull. But overall, I love Formula One. So, yes, it's good, but I'm not going to go and tell everybody that they need to watch season six because it's such a game changer. No, I think naturally when there's been multiple seasons, it's always going to struggle to be as good. But my takeaway from it was actually, and particularly the first three episodes,

was that I actually really enjoyed the first three episodes in particular. I felt like it, you kind of mentioned that you thought it'd gone back to a bit more DTS like it was. And yeah, I was actually pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the first few episodes and it felt more like what I think Drive to Survive should be like where it's not just a season review

my biggest sort of annoyance of the last few seasons has been the fact that it felt like you were watching an out-of-date season review that was arriving just before the start of the season and there were always better episodes like you're like as it got later on you do feel like there are maybe the odd filler episodes but some of the earlier ones I actually thought was good and yeah I was present pleasantly surprised by it I think maybe controversially a boring season of Formula One is exactly

what Drive to Survive needed because they can then focus on actual storylines rather than trying to I feel like they had so much pressure from fans in previous years where it's like oh my God why didn't you feature this amazing race why didn't you feature this amazing race

and they kind of felt like they had to like show all this racing footage and it just felt like well why am I watching like a YouTube highlights of of the season whereas when I was watching it I was presently surprised how the episode

seems to have gone back to his like 25 minutes of behind the scenes footage and then they kind of do like 10 to five minutes of the race whereas I bet if you went a few episodes series back I wouldn't be surprised if it was like 80% race footage and no interesting nuggets of behind the scenes yeah I would say some episodes they they did it well um for me standout episodes were episode two um one of the wildest things that Netflix has ever included is Santa Claus asking Christian Horner, has dad been good this year, which, um, considering everything that is looming currently in investigations, I feel like

Netflix definitely knew what they were doing. Oh, 100%. That clip. Did you not feel like there was quite a lot of moments that they did where, I think just to like cover the elephant in the room, they, they obviously missed the insane offseason and I bet Drive to Survivor absolutely gutted about it. that they essentially wrapped up filming and then Formula One just decided to drop drama bombs everywhere.

So they like haven't covered that. But I feel like the way they edited the coming next almost made it tried to allude to the fact that they were going to get into that. One of those moments being where it's like, Will Hamilton stay at Mercedes and then they play a clip where I think one of his guys, he drove off in like a sports car and they're like, come back, Lewis. and it's basically like memeable clips that now we know the context of what's actually happened.

They were trying to do that. Oh, they know what they were doing. They 100% knew, especially with that Horner thing, which you could argue, like we don't know yet, but could end up being slightly distasteful. Yes, and for those that are wondering why we haven't spoken about it, which is purely because there's an investigation going on and just to kind of cover that. Once things are concluded and rumors are not rumors anymore and we've got an answer, that's when we'll weigh in on that because I'll.

Otherwise, we just add to the fire of unknown, and we don't really want to go down that route. Other episodes, episode six, that was the Lewis and Merck chat and that sort of stuff. I thought that was a really good episode. I'd love to see the behind the scenes with Toto's son and him carting and stuff like that. And then Lewis being quite Mardi on a shoot and stuff like that that, that, you know, I actually really like him and drive to survive. And that's the sort of stuff I really want to see.

And then I think even in that episode, you know, Lewis was basically saying he was never going leave Mercedes and it was like oh my god. Toto's like he wouldn't look good in red. He wouldn't look good in red. Yeah, that whole, I think that's the first, I can see why Drive to survive release it at the time they do. And they are very unlucky that this has happened. But that is the first episode where like, essentially they've framed a whole episode around Lewis staying with Mercedes. So it's like, it's aged it really badly. But it's still entertaining because like in my, like they've gone back to actually showing behind the scenes footage rather than it's like lights out in Bahrain and then showing like half the race.

I mean there's still a fair chunk of that and being completely honest with you. Yeah, there is still racing like. There's still a solid amount of review content in there, which you're always going to have. Like you want to see Formula One cars to a point. But I just felt like it wasn't as annoying. And maybe it's just the fact that it's not as badly ordered as the last few series, which annoyed me the most. I personally didn't find it that annoying this year.

There's a couple of repetitions, but there wasn't like Monaco Race, Monaco Qualifying, Monaco Qualifying, Monaco, Qualifying, Monaco Race, Monaco practice, Monaco. I have absolutely no problem with, and this is what they did. Like the first episode, it's about Aston Martin. Of course, they're going to cover the first race and stroll and all that stuff in Bahrain. And then there's episode two, like you mentioned. Then they go to episode three,

and I have absolutely no problem with it being about McLaren and for the sake of McLaren episode story, they have to show Bahrain and them being terrible. What they did better on this one is when they went back and showed McLaren's episode about Bahrain, they didn't then show Charlercéeh breaking down, Alonzo having a problem, all the stuff that they did, whereas the previous years, they've literally gone lights out,

and away we go and show all the same stuff again. And I'm like, that is so irritating, whereas I think they did a lot better job personally of that this year. It definitely did. There was one or two moments I definitely remember going, I've seen that already, but overall, I would say that there was a lot less frequency of that sort of stuff. Let's get the next question,

P-1 Patreon member Nicola. Is there less drama this season compared to previous seasons? Have they realised that fans were spotting audio swaps and manipulation of situations? Is there less drama? No, I think, that it's drive to survive so they will dramatize anything and everything that you can possibly wish for,

but that is drive to survive, right? And I quite like how drama they make it all because it allows for a lot of more a general audience to kind of get invested in the sport, whether you like that or not is another story. I will say that, I mean, manipulation of situations... You're going to say that George Russell thing, aren't you? This is the team radio,

but this is for hardcore Formula One fans, I think, and people that love the sport, it is going to grind on your gears, pun, the pun, like it is genuinely, like, lights out and away we go, and George Russell's on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, what do you mean? See, this is the kind of thing. I'm feeling good on these tires.

I'm like, you've literally moved 10 meters. There is no way in hell or, oh, signs is 1.7 behind and shows B-roll of signs up his ass. And you're like, right. There's things like that. Yeah, there's always that thing that will annoy. Yeah. Yeah.

Or goes around the final corner. Max first up. Is he going to take pole? And then it goes to turns two and, like turns two and three again, then comes back round the final corner. Stuff like that are just minor things that I think we've got used to in Drive to Survive. But yeah, the team radio. If I hear overtake available one more time, I am going to lose it.

Honestly, it was like, and the thing is, so many people are going to think that don't watch Formula One that much is just tune in to drive to survive. that that is the team radio person saying, or the engineer saying that the overtake is on or something. But obviously that means overtake buttons is available and they can deploy more energy or whatever. But the amount of times I heard overtake available was, like, honestly, if you're going to do that and you can do a drinking game, be careful.

That's funny you mentioned that. I didn't actually notice that as much, but it's obviously something like, it's one of those things that once you hear, I guess it's just like in your head all the time. to give them, yeah, you mentioned about like the races, there's always that thing that will annoy people. Like, we know the races so well.

They've done a lot better job, but they've done in previous seasons, but naturally, like, say there's like one moment where Max Lestappen is passing Liam Lawson or whatever, and we know that he got past him in one corner, and they will drag it out for about a minute and show multiple replace to make it look like it was a battle that lasted over. That I'm not against.

And I think what they've finally done, and this is why I don't mind it, because there will be a lot of casuals that will watch that, and it won't be annoying. What they've got rid of is the fake stuff, like the really over-the-top fake stuff, which that was the biggest gripe of like the more recent seasons, where Yuki Sonoda would finish P-11, and they will use his actual team radio or something where it's just like, yay, they don't cut to like the pit wall of Alphatari celebrating Monsa 2020 and being like, yeah, oh my God. That's the kind of stuff that annoyed people.

There's a lot less of that. I actually think they do a better job of focusing on the actual stories that matter. So, for example, you know, the battle between like the Alphatari drivers and stuff, that is dramatic and they make it dramatic because it actually happened. What annoyed me in the previous years is when they tried to make it seem like Ocon and Yuki Sonoda battling for 11th is the biggest story in the whole championship,

which is ridiculous. Like, they did actually focus on the things that were dramatic and not try and fake the drama because, you know, while Max was winning every race and whatever, there are these stories up and down the grid, did actually focus on them that were like the good things that did mean a lot to those teams. So yeah, I definitely think they've done a better job. You can tell they are actually listening to maybe some of the criticisms that they've had

in recent years, that you don't have these ridiculous over-the-top radios and stuff. Mr. Radio asks, what are they focusing on too much this season? For me, it would have been Alpine. I feel like there was a little bit too much of Alpine personally. I don't know I don't know what it is but I was just watching those episodes with Alpin in

and just as a team they just feel so unlikable like it's actually it's just sad to watch like you know you see the whole how Othma was treated and just kind of chucked out

I don't know just the whole thing I just felt a little bit like really sorry for Othma in some ways and also like oh God I don't know it was weird but you know they had an episode

and then there was more Alpine a couple of episodes later and you're like, okay, I thought maybe there would have been a different storyline other than that. But that's probably the only thing that comes to mind for me. Agree of you on Alpine,

didn't need two episodes of Alpine. I'll be controversial and say has Gunther Steiner like, I'm sick to death of Gunther Steiner episodes and drive to survive. It's so boring. You're not getting anymore. I'm actually glad because

I almost like fast forwarded it. I nearly shed it here when Gunter and Mattia Bonotto met up in a vineyard. I thought that was really quite wholesome content. No. You are dead and cold inside. It's just the fact that it's the same episode every year of like,

Haas, we're rubbish, Gunther swears, rings Jean and goes, we're rubbish, aren't we? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I've seen it a thousand times, seen it every single episode. And I watched the first few episodes and I was like, this is really good. And then literally, as soon as that episode came on, I was like, this is just, this is a repeat. Like, I'm like watching a repeat. done this storyline.

And the, I see why they've done it. To be fair, that's the only storyline that has have is God, we're terrible, please help.

And the problem is, and like you say like, Gunther's this character. So like, if they didn't feature Gunther, I appreciate that everyone would be like, where's Gunther? Oh my God.

And also, if they didn't mention him this season and he's not going to be there next season, it would be a bit bad. But I personally just, yeah, I was just like, I've seen this.

Like, it's not interesting. Like, it's literally like, There wasn't a lot, though. There wasn't a lot of HASS. They had a dedicated episode of the fourth one. Yeah, I'm glad I was relieved when that episode started, and I realised that it wasn't actually about HASS.

It was about Huss versus Williams. So it wasn't all Gunther Steiner and Hasse. That saved it to me because, yeah, the... And hearing from Daddy Vowls. Honestly, the first time I've ever seen Daddy Vowls not actually be able to speak was when he was in front of the camera, and he could not get his words out. I was like, who's James?

Where's the guy that is the most articulate man on the planet gone? Yeah, I know. It was quite interesting to watch. Next question comes in from 47 stages of Sid. Was there a 2023 storyline that you feel should have been included, but wasn't? Yes, for me, categorically, Sergio Perez's struggles was not covered at all, not one bit. Daniel Ricardo obviously wanted to get back to Red Bull.

and Liam Lawson coming and doing an amazing job was there, but there was no storyline around the fact that this was a genuine possibility with how much Perez was struggling. And I felt like that was a key ingredient to kind of, rather than it coming across that Danny Rick and Lawson are just, oh, I'm dreaming of a seat that never exists. It was a genuine possibility with how Perez was performing. So that's the thing that I think was missing for me.

Yeah, I read exactly the same thing. that it was hard to find too many things. I think this a few seasons ago, I'd have said loads of things that they're missing, but I think they did a good job of actually focusing on the storylines that matter. The Perez story was the thing that stood out to me. There'll be a lot of fans that no doubt will be like, oh my God, I can't believe you've not mentioned Max Verstappen

when he had argued. be the greatest season of all time. But again, it's not a season of view. And however, like, there's no story. It's fine. Yeah, but, yeah, but there's no... He's going to some paddle. Yeah, but, you know what I mean?

Like, there's no, like, dedicated episode about his dominance. And for me, I think that's absolutely fine, because there's no story arc there. And maybe that is something that the parrot, why the peri's story wasn't included, because, like, he didn't get fired. he didn't he already had a contract so whereas i guess with like nick de vries or something they cover that a lot more because he did actually get fired and then someone replaces him but

the perr's story yeah i i definitely thought like i can't believe they didn't feature any of that because it was such a huge story throughout the season of his struggles and maybe to cover red bull they could have like they could have done the fact that peres and max were sort of fighting at the start of the season and then Max just went into beast mode and Perez sort of dipped and struggled and they could have done something there but yeah no real mention of Red Bull at all really

yeah and I think back on the Max thing as well you have to wonder how much time DTS are actually given with Max to be able to formulate said storyline like that and you'd think that you'd need to hear more from Max and what he was thinking and that sort of stuff because he wasn't even battling anyone you know what I mean well even last year

they made this big thing about he's back in the seat and he said about five words because he's not he's not like at the end of the day and I like this that you can tell and it is sometimes a bit cheesy but the team they've gone back to what makes drive to survive drive survive where the team principles are the ones that essentially are opening their doors and that's why there's a lot more behind the scene stuff because they know that the first episodes the drive to drive survive the first episodes the drivers were always a bit more careful and quiet. And they kind of went, oh, this is this crazy whatever.

Whereas you now know, and some people find this a little bit cringe, but the team principles are inviting the cameras over because they know it's like good publicity. Like there's no way that they just happen to be on a golf course with Zach Brandon Lando and they're having this conversation about will you stay. So like that bit's a little bit scripted, but I'd much rather see that than essentially like, well, look at blah, blah, blah, finishing six and we watch like some YouTube highlights of the race.

It just doesn't make sense to me. So from that side, like, I think it is better. Next question from Glamour Diary. Your favourite moments from the series? Go on, Tommy. James Fowles. I actually love... Stop stealing my man from me.

I know, but I actually love that that... And that episode was like pitted where it was like he was the kind of awkward nerdy guy that was not sort of playing up to the camera and he just kind of just delivered on track and got the results. And I think that was a, obviously I joked about the half episode and me being like, oh, Gunther again. But what was good that you had like two very different personalities and they kind of did that quite well that James Vowles.

Yeah, you saw a side to him that was endearing, I guess, and actually quite funny. So I really enjoyed that. And yeah, just seeing a lot more behind the scene stuff. One bit that I would have loved to have seen more of, and they must have so much footage, was it was literally a three-second clip at the start in the very first episode that looked really funny

and I'd love to have seen more from it, was the paddle game that Vestappen, Albin, Lando and George had. But it's literally just used in like a tiny bit. But I think a lot of Formula One fans, because we love seeing the drivers and the behind the scenes and like Max was getting annoyed and like kicking the fence or whatever. I'd love to have seen more from that. That would have been really funny.

But yeah, they must cut out so much stuff and have so much footage. Yeah, my favourite moments are, those behind the scenes kind of things. I thought that episode one was actually quite good at the beginning with that whole sort of Laurence Stroll, Toto Wolf. Yeah, really good actually that one. Yeah. And that sort of stuff.

And you genuinely felt like you were there in that moment, sort of soaking in this very rich lifestyle that none of us will ever be able to even touch. So I found that quite interesting. I thought the Danny Rick stuff was nice but not overdone. Even though, you know, he's back in the series and Netflix could have absolutely milked the life out of him. I don't think they did. obviously they had a couple of storylines with him,

him being sort of coming back and then obviously the break of the hand as well. That's another thing, the Danny Rick thing about, you know, how I said like it's built around the team principles. Like Red Bull, called me cynical,

but definitely must have had conversations and been like, look, we're probably going to put Daniel Ricardo in the car or you might want to be here and film stuff. Like you can come over and film this test because it's our, it's our way of looking if Daniel Ricardo.

And that is exactly what I'd much rather see than, yeah, like YouTube highlights of the race. Absolutely, completely agree with that. But yes, it was, there are some very good moments in it. P1 Patreon member James BWFC22. How long will DTS carry on for? Personally, I don't get excited for it as I did when it first started. I think as long as there are views on Netflix, there will be drive to survive. in some form.

I think it's got a long shelf life. I think it can still carry on. I know that I have questioned it in the past, similar to what you have done here, James. But I think people will tune in, not everybody, but I think a large chunk will tune in no matter what. And if Drive to Survive, as we've kind of highlighted in this chat,

continue to tweak and to learn from what Formula One fans like, they actually might well continue to grow this, potentially and have a few more seasons. I think from a Formula One perspective, it makes perfect sense to continue doing this. It just needs to stay on this level of behind the scenes, not to feel too scripted, to make it feel like the doors are open to us Formula One fans

to come and find out about the sport. As long as it keeps that, I think that people will tune in. But yeah, it's all on views and people tuning in. Yeah, it's never going to be as popular as it was. simply because, you know, that's always the case with, it's new, yeah. Like, nothing will, they'll never be able to replicate that first season where this really closed sport, where you didn't really get to see a lot of behind-the-scenes things and stuff, introduced like, you know,

a Gunther Steiner to the world where everyone was like, who is this man we've never seen him before? And that's when it was fresh and exciting, not after six seasons of him saying the same thing. But the, yeah, I personally think it is a nice addition to the start of the season. And what, like, my biggest, like, takeaways from it this season is that I think it's been a lot, it's done a lot better job for me watching it of being like that nice, oh, this is, this is interesting. And it's a nice watch before the start of the season. whereas the previous episodes

almost just the season, sorry, annoyed me. And I think, yeah, it would be interesting to see how fans and also the reception is of the series that from a hardcore Formula One fan that knows there maybe been a bit more true minus the odds team radio to what actually happened in the season and shown some interesting things.

if that is exciting enough for a casual new Formula One viewer, or they did get more views on the ridiculous outrageous, you know, let's use Vettles' Team Radio from a completely different race that you're swearing at Charler-le-Clau. Because I personally am glad that they don't do that anymore. And it was, yeah, it was a very enjoyable series, I thought. There's a lot of variables, I think, to measuring a success of drive to survive, because you do wonder as well, like, I think a lot of sentiment is or questions that were being raised around this particular season, for example, is, oh, well, Max dominated, why should I tune in?

Yeah. And I think that in itself, even though it doesn't affect particularly the content that we get, I think that that might affect people's willingness to watch 10 episodes of a season that Max dominated, so why should I? But I think that for those you that are on that. He's barely in. Yes, exactly. And for those of you that are on that fence, I would suggest watching it because it is, as we've kind of been mentioning, that just extra bit of information,

there's extra behind the scenes that are quite good. I'm not saying it's perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I think there's still a way to go in order to satisfy hardcore fans, but they're not here to satisfy us. They're here to satisfy the general audience that don't have a clue about George Russell's tires, you know, and how he wouldn't be on the radio going down towards term. one on lap one.

Exactly. I mean, I think, I can't remember if I sent you this, but the people that made Drive to Survive do a tennis one, I believe. I can't remember what it's called. Breaking Point, is it? Yeah. Break point. And I saw someone on TikTok do an analysis like, oh, if you're a tennis fan, this is

ridiculous where they're like serving and then they do a backhand. Yeah, things like that. Whereas like, as someone that doesn't really watch tennis, I watch that and it didn't bother me. and there'll be so many new fans or even just casual Formula One fans that doesn't bother at all. But they're the little things that may be annoyed us.

But I would say that there is so much less of that and it is a lot better, a lot better for it, I think. Hell yeah. And I think that pretty much sums up our summary review of Drive to Survive. I think overall, decent watch. There are still some episodes that I just didn't particularly enjoy, but there are some that definitely made up for it.

for it. I think Tommy is also seemingly a bigger fan than he has been in the past. So I think overall go and watch it. If you haven't, I'm sure you probably will be like, oh my God, spoilers. And I'm like, spoilers of what? Spoilers of what? Exactly. But probably more about the behind-the-scenes stuff. But either all, thank you so much everybody for watching and listening. Hope you enjoy Drive to Survive. And yeah, Formula One is back very soon. The real stuff. We'll see you there for all of that real stuff as well. So lots of love. Bye.

Bye. If anything, next week is the beginning of the spoilers to drive to survive season seven. So if you don't want Drive to Survive Season 7, spoilers, don't tune in to next week's Bahrain Grand Prix. Take care. Make sure you follow us on all of our socials. We're Matt P1 Tommy on Twitter, TikTok, Twitch and Instagram. You can also sign up to our Patreon at the link in the episode notes for ad-free episodes, full video interviews and extra bonus episodes. little as $5 a month. Finally, make sure you're following us on Spotify. See you soon.