P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our honest thoughts on Drive to Survive season 7

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

It's back, so let's talk about it....We've all had a chance to enjoy some DTS over the weekend, so join us for our honest reaction to this year's slightly different approach from the Netflix series.Join us tomorrow as we chat to Tom Rogers, co-executive producer of Drive to Survive! You can listen to an extended version of every 2025 Race Review podcast over on our Patreon! You'll also get every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans! Click here to sign up now!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 with Matt and Tommy. We are out the other end of the Drive to Survive release, aren't we? It was released on Friday to everybody and we, hopefully, if you're watching, have got through all of it. Of course, myself and Tommy have watched it. And Tommy, what's one word to summarize how you're feeling right now after watching the whole of season seven of DTS? Hyped. Just for the season. ahead. It's a great little appetiser, isn't it? It is an appetiser. I think that's what I like about it.

Absolutely. So we're going to get into our honest thoughts on Drive to Survive and where we stood on it, considering it's the seventh edition now, we're quite deep into the law of Drive to Survive. So let's see. And we're going to start things off with a question from I Might Be Chad. Is it worth watching? You know what? We have been critical occasionally of Drive to Survive. perhaps sometimes feeling quite stale or not going down the right path of storylines. But this year, you know what? I rather enjoyed it, genuinely. I thought it was kind of back to what we expect Drive to Survive to be from the first

few seasons. It felt less manufactured in ways. That's probably the way I would say it in terms of being quite fair to it. And the storylines were interesting, the behind the scenes, which is what I kind of watch for. And obviously, a lot of you listening as well, your hardcore Formula One fans, we're there for that, those extra nuggets of information that you don't get when you're just watching on the broadcast. So for me, I thought it was one of the better seasons for sure. And I enjoyed pretty much all of it. Yeah, it's funny that is it worth watching?

I feel like we've had this discussion before of Drive to Survive is almost, cool to hate now a little bit. And don't get me wrong, we're all frustrated when they do fake radio or fake things and stuff. But guaranteed that you see a lot of negative reaction to it online, but guaranteed if they announce tomorrow, we're not going to do Drive to Survive anymore. The outpour of people that would be like, no, it's part of the season of, you know, getting into that new season and it gets you hyped for the upcoming racing. Don't get me wrong. We all want the racing, but it's a cool thing to start the season. And whether it's because there were so many storylines last year, they did, you know,

it felt a much better series than kind of what we've had before, where it almost felt like they had to go in to these ridiculous narratives of Yuki Sonoda versus Ocon for 13th place. Well, when you have a season like 2023, they probably sat there going, Ah, does UK hate anybody? Do we, what do we do here? Definitely, Ockon. Clearly Ockon.

Yeah. Yeah, so it was a very good series, actually. Actually, I was very impressed by it. It's funny as well. For the people that complain about Drive to Survive and, as I say, like the fake radios, which I've learned to just kind of accept and almost be sort of like, yeah, I watch Formula One. That's wrong.

That's wrong. That's a clip of Charle of hard tires at the style. which is definitely the restart of Monaco. Things like that. I actually kind of enjoy it as a little bit of a game, to be honest with you. Because I've just kind of accepted. It's not that deep either, is it?

No, it's not that deep. It's like when I've watched Break Point, which is the tennis version, and they're serving on the wrong side of the court. But I don't watch tennis, and I would not know that. You wouldn't know that. So for me, if you're still getting upset over that,

what are you expecting from Drive to Survive at this point? I do agree that some of the team radios are misplaced. I'm sat there going, that he didn't say that in that race there's no chance yeah so there are ones that you go maybe paints a slight false narrative of how for example lando is feeling in brazil and things like i know there were people talking about that and when he was placing certain radios but the majority of it and the very small menial things that are wrong it doesn't matter it really doesn't matter there are a few big moments that we'll talk about that that maybe they did push it

too far with the kind of falseness. But I think it was way better than previous series where the ones that stand out to me where I don't think the team radio and stuff is absolutely outrageous to use in certain places because they have to essentially tell a 50 lap race in about three minutes. So they need to piece bits together. I've seen people going, oh, when a mechanic sticks their hand out the window, when rain is coming at Brazil it's clearly Silverstone

but it's literally like a one second scene and it just of course they're gonna you know they need that footage to kind of tell the story it's when they push it too far but I don't think there were any really extreme moments with the radio like the one that they got absolutely

roasted four years ago was the Sebastian Vettel kind of shouting when he hit Charlerc and they used the wrong radio from a previous year and stuff and they may Maybe because the season was so good, they didn't need to rely on that stuff as much. But it's certainly a lot better. And I don't think, you know, I'm not going to lose sleep over the fact that someone was on slightly the wrong tires during a certain lap.

I am because they were misbetraying what Charlotte Clare was doing at Monaco. So anyway, let's go to our next question. FVB2309 asks, what were your top three moments of Drive to Survive Season 7? Okay, so I've got three very clear ones in my mind. first and foremost, obviously, Charlotte-Clair winning Monaco. Just great to reflect on that. You know, just awesome to see more behind the scenes,

the emotion behind it. Just, you know, there's me being a fanboy, then there's also just the level of we love that story, and that is something that I think most, if not everybody, can enjoy. Secondly, Charle with his dog, that, you know, char so much behind the scenes of Leo. I think Leo was probably the second or third

most showed character in Drive to Survive Season 7. God, I love that. And then thirdly, Charlotte Clair playing piano. You know, it's great to see that behind the scenes as well. One a bit more of that. You know, when's the next record coming out? Can't wait to listen to it. So those are my three.

Obviously, all around Charlerclair, because why not? Why not? Fair. It was a good episode, wasn't it? My top three moments, and they're actually a lot. I found it hard to whittle down because I thought there was so many more little kind of behind the scenes bits this season which I personally watch it for and enjoy a lot more than some of the older seasons that seem to just show almost like 90% of the Grand Prix where I didn't

want to see that and particularly as how bad when they show the Grand Prix it is with fake engine engine noise. It was either Grand Prix or Gunter Steiner, nothing else. Oh yeah, no. And you're just kind of like, oh my God, do I need to see this again? One bit in the very first episode that I really enjoyed that made me go, oh, that's really cool. I hope we see more of that in the future, is when Carlos and Lewis are talking in a press conference

and they've obviously still got their microphones on and Carlos is kind of going, why did you leave? Do you think Mercedes are going on a downward curve? And he's like, no, things like that. I love to see because it's genuine. You don't get to see that normally. I thought that was really cool.

The entire Carlos Science episode with him joining Williams, rejecting Alpine, I think is generally one of the best episodes that's ever been in the series. I think it was so well told the fact that they got Carlos to be so open and saying, well, I went to go speak to Alpine and literally ditches Williams to go speak to them and find out. And it really, yeah, exactly. It really showed. Left daddy vowels in a boardroom.

I'm really upset about that. Speaking of boardroom, this is such a nerdy, random thing. But people that watch our content that only probably I would notice because I'm like that. the bit where Carlos signed the contract with Williams was in the exact room

that we did the interview with him I was looking at the room and was like I know that room and I looked back at our old video

and it's exactly the same room it's the Zadvort hotel room oh my gosh as you said that was like was that Zanvort yeah

it was yeah which is quite funny so yeah love the Carla science episode and then I also think the episode it's not really

an exact moment but just seeing them do one episode where all the drivers had a camera each, a few of them. More of that, please, because they need to refresh it a little bit and do something a little bit different. And that was a really cool idea to go, well, you know, you filmed some stuff. And it's quite clear that a lot of the drivers, even though they get roasted and stuff, by certain drivers, we all know who,

there are some drivers that are willing to get involved in DTS and kind of show things and make it fun. Yeah, so my serious moments was Charlotte Clare winning Monaco. The fact that they also, I think, told the Brazil race well and managed to sort of ingrain that into a story rather than just being a recap as such. And it was, I think, quite a good way of doing that. And then, yeah, my third one was actually the five drivers POV because that was awesome and it felt different. And whether that appeals to non-Fourable 1 fans that are watching Drive to Survive, I doubt. But because we know the characters, we love the drivers and we like to see those behind the scenes. Obviously, it ticks the box, I think, for Formula One fans.

So I'd be interested, obviously not really going to get the data, but how much that would have translated into someone just watching DTS for the first time trying to get into Formula One, they would probably more want the action on track and the recap side of things. But I really enjoyed that. It was great just to see that sort of stuff and all the drivers taken the Mickey out of each other.

And yeah, it was brilliant. So yeah, a lot of moments to reflect on that we thought were really good. Next question from P1, Patreon member Sierra H. Is there anything you guys wished Drive to Survive had covered but didn't? Look, we knew coming into this. that it was going to be a difficult thing

to tell the entire story of the 2024 season. Colapinto, you know, I think only the back of his head featured once when he was being interviewed by Chris Medland, I think it was. Yeah. Which was slightly bizarre that they didn't really say anything

about the storyline around that because I think it was quite a big talking point towards the end of the year. Sargent sort of faded into non-existence in the series as well. They didn't announce he was fired or anything. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So there's that. And then also, I think there was definitely some story. And I'm surprised they didn't really in the sense of Max's will-to-wheel combat at the end of the year. And not really much of a kind of dive into that side of things, whether they felt like they had enough behind the scenes and content to come with that.

Maybe. Yeah, yeah, maybe. I was surprised. I don't think it's like I wish they'd covered it. I think it was more surprised. that they didn't seeing as their drive to survive and they did speak lightly about the driver's championship fight this year as well. It kind of moved, it was kind of weird how, I do like how they covered Brazil and they did share that it was like Max's great race,

but then, and this is the, the Drive to Survive always do this where they do like one final episodes and it always is about Abu Dhabi to the point where even if there's absolutely nothing to play, they'll focus on a battle for 13th or something and it's like this is the most epic thing. And yeah, it did feel like it's kind of, oh, the driver's titles won, well done, Max, whatever.

But the constructors is the important thing. It's kind of like, no, it's definitely not. Yeah, the things that were missed. I heard, by the way, it's a $30 million prize. The amount of times they pushed the prize money up for grabs was, yeah, they knew what they were doing there. Yeah, and I know McLaren really wanted to win that Constructors Championship, but I'm sure Christian Horner, at the end of the day, if you had to pick one, it's the driver.

Certainly for Red Bull is the big one and where it's kind of the most prestige. So I think I am very surprised that Williams wasn't covered in a way. They obviously covered it with Carlos moving there, but I'm amazed they didn't go into that whole story about how Logan was crashing loads, particularly because DTS you'd think would love a crash because it's the kind of thing that draws people into the sport,

however much you know, you don't want. to see crashes it is that kind of spectacular thing and the safety of Formula One that draws fans in that don't watch the sport um every compilation is always crashes and things like that that do like the big numbers on youtube and stuff so i'm surprised they didn't go into the Williams kind of thing and then you can kind of say like oh Logan crashed a load we're going to get Colapinto and but i do wonder if Colapinto uh is going to be featured a lot in the next season as he's sat on the sideline waiting uh and putting the pressure on doing that's surely be an episode.

They always roll out at least two episodes of Alpine each year anyway. Exactly. But another one, amazed because it feels like the most DTS story ever, that they didn't feature the Russell versus Vastappan drama. Oh yeah, of course. But I do wonder if that didn't fit the kind of, they already had the Lando versus Max narrative throughout the season. So it would kind of, I do see why they didn't kind of focus on that

because it could get a bit busy of going like, well Max has got beef with this you kind of need to focus on one rival versus one rival or it can get a bit much so yeah DTS are probably hoping for this year Russell and Vastapp and have a little clash then they can hark back to what they said last year and

I do understand you know as much as as much as there are these key moments it has to flow that that's the the key thing to a series like Drive to Survive it has to flow in from story to story and I do understand I guess why they didn't

include that. And there's a question actually, which is linked with George Russell. At Sanis W.E. Why do you think the series completely cut out George Russell's disqualification in spa? For the story. I think it's, again, it's one of those things where, okay, they reflect on George Russell just being disqualified, but I think the thing they were trying to, and I think it's still fair, right? Even when we reviewed the Belgian Grand Prix, we went, 10 out of 10 out of 10. He drove incredibly. He was unlucky, obviously, to get disqualified because of a weight issue in the car, but he still proved what he can do. And I think that's what the episode was all about, was him, you know, going into Lewis Hamilton's shoes, being the team leader and this, that,

and the other. So saying he then got disqualified sort of takes away from what they were trying to tell, and I think was fair to tell as well. It wasn't a false narrative. It's not like he was a hundred kilograms light and was clearly two seconds a lap quicker because of this illegal car. Would you rather, yeah, you frame that and you've got to think of like the context like you're saying, would you rather of them focused on Austria as Russell's? Oh my God, he won the race. This is his big moment because actually that was a really fortunate win, whereas this was his great drive. But like you say, so I do get why people are annoyed about it because, you know, oh, they've kind of done it.

Maybe it could have flashed up at the end, but there's too much context. We know as Formula One fans that watch every single moment that that was still a great drive. And we had the chat with Toto and George as well, didn't we after that? Yeah, Toto was like, yeah, you're good.

I think you're going to be the team leader. Whether that led after SPAR, despite the disqualification, I'm not sure because it's not clear. But it just wouldn't make sense to the, because then you're like, okay, what we're trying to say here that George won, but they got disqualified? Are we happy about, you know, so it has to make sense, I guess, for a viewer. And I don't think it was misleading.

It's a difficult balance because I thought, I even wrote down in my notes that in the previous episode, and we can talk about this afterwards, if you like, because I know this is one moment that has been clipped up online and perceived quite a lot, and Max has even spoken about. but in the Miami episode I think seasons gone by maybe they talk about that Miami episode as it was a Lando kind of dominant victory

oh he's screwed for Stappanova and I know they they showed the the cool down room bit which we'll get into in a bit but at least afterwards they kind of said oh it's very fortunate and they kind of gave context to that to know that it was a fortunate win whereas maybe they wouldn't have done

but then literally in the next episode they're not kind of giving the context that George has been disqualified. But I don't think it's, I don't think that was like a big, oh my God, I can't believe you're absolutely faking this series moment that a lot of people have said it is. Yeah. And perhaps in hindsight, it would have been better to, well, yeah, it is obviously it is better to tell the full context of the story. You then have a Will Buxton talking head come in and go, yeah, he was disqualified, but what he did prove is that he's able to do something. That would make the series so rubbish though, wouldn't it?

I know we kind of won every bit of context, but it must be very difficult for drive to survive because it could get to the point where if they kind of give context for everything, they're like, yes, Landon, I just won the race, but he was very fortunate with the safety car and you don't need, it could make the story so boring. Yeah, fortune, you can take or leave, in my opinion, because that's just opinion, that's whatever, you know,

that, of course he was fortunate, But that's not hard and fast, clear-cut stuff, whereas George Russell was disqualified. He didn't win that race. So I think, yeah, it maybe needed an added bit of context, the talking head, whatever. But I don't think it was the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination. Next question, P-1, Patreon, L.R. Is Flavio the new villain of this era? Yes.

Yeah, they've gone, Lawrence. Exit. We'll have this guy who's actually been done for cheating and will have him as the talking head of Alpine. Yeah, yeah, lovely. And then, oh, my goodness, me, his chat with Jack Dewin, I control every millimeter. I was like, oh, my lord, this Jack Dewin has the pressure of the world on his shoulders already, and he's not even driven a single lap at that point of recording. Did I enjoy Flavio in the series?

I mean, look, he does add the villain arc, for sure. And if you're trying to enjoy it as a casual, yes. Am I sat there thinking, how on earth is Flavio back on my screens? Also, yes. At least they covered it, I guess, saying he's a character, like, this is why he's a character. He's a slightly more than a character. But, yeah, he is the new villain for sure. But they will.

They love it, don't they? Yeah, they will roll out for the next five seasons. Especially a team principal. I mean, it's going to make Christian Horner look like a puppy, really, isn't he, compared to? Well, he's not even a team principal, is he? Well, sorry, it's not, yeah, just a leader at all. Alpine. But yeah, he very much goes in all guns blazing of I am this hate figure, deal with it.

I don't want to be liked even more extreme than Christian Horner, who again, you know, comes across as the villain, but plays up to it, which is kind of amazing. Showed a lot of him this year, I felt like. I felt like we were even more than sometimes, you know, I know we see him with his horses and I did. I just felt like they kept bringing him back in. And sometimes for no reason, it was weird. Also, the amount that Jerry Halliwell was, sorry, Jerry Horner was shown as well.

I was like, what are we trying to paint here? Why are we seeing constant phone conversations with him and his wife? I did, it felt weird. It's very much the team principle kind of show, isn't it? Particularly now Danny Rick's gone. And they don't focus on the drivers as much. It is very much the team principles are. other story. There was a bit where

Christian Horner was in my opinion very disrespectful to Kamatsu, kind of saying he's really vanilla and boring and stuff and it's kind of like, how can you say that and then wonder why you're getting booed at the O2? Yeah, it's

and then of course, you know, another villain that has been spoken about in the series is Max again which I there's the There's the moment, of course, where in the cool-down room at Miami, Max is looking very annoyed, and it's actually footage from Zandvort because he's wearing a Zandvort cap. So that is one of the biggest fake moments that Max himself has kind of cooled out.

And I understand that side of it. It is funny how, from what I've seen online, and you can never take too much into account of what I said online, but it is funny how some fans have seen the way Max has been portrayed in that series as a you know there's the bit isn't that way it's Max is all about F you I don't care and then it cuts to Lando holding some kittens and stuff like or puppies or whatever like he's the he's the hero but equally you could you could look at that as going well Max is hard as nails and that's why he's a multiple champion, Lando's not got what it takes.

So it kind of is how your mind kind of sees those incidents, because people always want to kind of watch moments like that and paint it in the narrative that they want for to be a hate of their driver, I guess. Yeah, the way that I perceived it was absolutely Max is the dominant one. Lando hasn't got what it takes. That's what Drive to Survive in my head painted as a picture was Lando is this happy go lucky or not particularly strong mentally driver when, of course, towards the end, they showed Abu Dhabi, but that, you know, as we said, they always show Avidabi whether they would have

showed that if Lando had won the penultimate race, I don't know. But I think it painted him unfairly, Lando in the sense of, I don't know. But then at the end, I don't think it did, because it kind of almost made it seem like this redemption arc that he'd won the Constructors Championship, which in my opinion, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but if you win the Constructors Championship and not the drivers, that should be a failure on the drivers personally. Yeah, so I guess they did, for almost the entire season, it was Lando's not good enough,

and then it was almost an underdog story that came true at the end where he won the Constructors. Well, even titled it, didn't there? Can McLaren the underdogs win? And it's kind of, they missed the whole point of them basically throwing that title in the best car. for quite a lot of it. I mean, to be fair, they did have like Will Buxton saying stuff like

McLaren making too many mistakes and things like that. So they did, and they showed Hungary, for example, and the awkward situation that was there, they also showed Monza. So they did show the other side of the coin as well that McLaren weren't flawless by any stretch of the imagination. But, but yeah, I felt like, obviously, yeah, they had this, hooray, Landos won the constructors,

but I felt like he was painted reasonably unfairly up until that point where it was like, ah, he's he's the best now, woohoo! I guess they have to cover it in that way that, I thought it was interesting that they went into the whole Lando no wins and sort of talked to him about it. I couldn't believe they actually said that. I can't believe they did it, but I mean, it was a true narrative at the start of the season that he was making too many mistakes and was he going to win a race.

So they covered that quite well in my opinion to kind of go into that. But yeah, the big one is clearly, I don't know if you saw Max on stream talking about how he had the best night after Landau's win in Miami. And if you remember that moment, he was very complimentary to Lando and congratulating him and stuff. And I guess they did show moments at the end. I think it was Brazil or maybe it was Qatar when,

sorry, Vegas when Max actually won the title. Yeah, it was Vegas. Where Max goes up to him and says, look, it'll be your year one year and stuff, which is a nice moment. I think he said.

Yeah. They could have easily cut that out to carry on this kind of Max hates every driver narrative that they're trying to push. Yeah, that's actually, to be fair, was one of my favorite moments as well that I maybe should have mentioned in my top three because that was a very heartwarming moment where you saw a side of Max that you don't usually see. They don't paint it very often, yeah. No, exactly. So, okay, let's move on to the next question. FP is pain.

I feel like they miss so much good content because they focused on the business side too much. there was more than enough racing drama to use for another episode. But again, we kind of come back to a season recap. If anything, when they show the racing, that might actually be my least favorite part. Especially when you hear them. I've seen this before. Yeah. With bad audio as well. Yeah.

When you have then the bad audio and the missed the team radios from different races and them not painting the picture of the race, I don't know. I don't need to see highlights of what I've already seen. Now, this again comes back to my point of whether, you know, sit back, not watched Formula One before fans watch it. They probably want to see the exact opposite of what I'm asking for. But I've already seen all the races, all the qualifiers. I want to see the behind the scenes good, bad and the ugly. So, yeah, I think we're both on a very similar.

Yeah, I think the COVID seasons, if you like, or if you go back to, I think it was maybe between like season three and five. off the top of my head, where it felt like you were kind of getting 90% of it was footage from like the French Grand Prix and 20 minutes of the episode was them showing the French Grand Prix. I don't need to see it. I can watch the highlights on YouTube. I found it personally quite boring. And like you say, that's when I think the worst of DTS comes out because they do kind of fake those radios and a bit.

They don't need to edit the racing drama and they will always do that. There was actually one funny bit that's just come at the top of my head that I thought they must have done that on purpose for engagement bait because a car goes into A Rouge and down shifts about four times and I was going, no, they're doing this on purpose now. But yeah, I don't want to see. I don't want DTS to be 90% racing footage because again, you're going into the new season and it already feels outdated. Whereas what I liked about this season was that you're going into a new season and you're kind of going, oh, I didn't know that about Carlos or oh, I didn't know about this. Okay, next question. You be bucked.

When exactly did Toto Wolf decide to become an actor? His pretending to agonise over deciding the second driver was an Oscar winning performance. Yeah. Well, it's funny because we see that episode and yet all he's ever said is, I knew within the second of Lewis Hamilton retiring, who I'm going to put in that seat, even though they were discussing. Even though he's in a board meeting going,

oh, what do we do? Oh, no. Oh, no. What are we going to do? Oh, my goodness, gracious me. Who do I pick? Let's get Valtrey back. Let's do it.

Let's maybe go with Carlos. See, yeah, that, that I'd love to have known what the brief was, where the Drive 2 5 producers are like, okay, Teta, we know that you know, but we want you to not know for this episode. is that possible? And we know that Toto loves a little bit of acting. He's been part of a few Mercedes skits and things like that.

And yeah, that again... He said he doesn't watch it because it makes him cringe. And I can understand why. Because the forced kind of fake chats with his wife, Susie, of going... So they're definitely... You know, they're probably talking about their kids at the breakfast table, not who's he going to sign for Mercedes next year. However, you mentioned that chat with his wife, Susie Wolfe.

The one big thing that came out of that that has kind of been mentioned is the fact that Toto Wolf said that he wouldn't speak to Max Rastappen about being a replacement Mercedes because Lewis was there. Now, Lewis promised him I wouldn't. He said Lewis. I promised Lewis. I promised Lewis I wouldn't talk to Max. Now for me, what does that mean? I need to know. I need to know.

Does that mean Lewis Hamilton asked him not to speak to Max? to Max for Sapan because he's still at the team and he doesn't want Max as a teammate? Or is that Toto Wolf trying to appease Lewis Hamilton and say, look, I'm not going to speak to Max, don't worry, I promise you, I promise you I won't speak to Max because those things are completely different and it's the bit of context that we are missing, sadly. Yeah, 100%. But my argument is why would Lewis care if Max went to Mercedes to replace him? surely he didn't want him to talk to Max because he didn't want him to be his teammate.

And equally, I need to know this context. So F1 journalists, if any F1 journalist is watching that's in the press conference, I know you need to ask Lando for the 100th time if he's going to win the championship this year. But please ask this question as well because I need the context. Because equally, it could have been, this could have gone way back to, you know, 2017 when Rosberg was, it might not be, but it could equally be, I promise I will never speak to Max while you're in the team. It could be that because all he said was I promise I won't speak, I promise I wouldn't speak to Max. And then he goes, but now I'm going to have to, which to me almost suggests that now Lewis has gone, I can speak to Max because he doesn't have this kind of, you know, I can't not put them in the same team now. Yeah, logically, you think that is, that's an agreement that they've had, right, between Lewis and Toto. But I guess what's more important there, Tommy, is that, you know, if there are any F1 journalists out there,

they might well get the answer they want in the 101st time of asking Landon Royce if they're going to, if he's going to win the World Championship. That might be when he breaks and says actually no. So, look, we understand if that's what you have to go and ask again in Australia. Okay. Yeah, it's a difficult decision. Next question, people on Patreon member, Lossie Dogg. Do you think DTS will continue to be like a mainstay in F1 for much longer into the future? Or do you think it will run out of steam?

I, well, we've mentioned, haven't we, that there was that episode, maybe episode five, where the Singapore takeover of the drivers was, or seven, sorry, literally all rolls into one. Where they, you know, they took over and they did a different format. For me, it gave a breath of fresh air to the series. It still felt very drive to survive. but there was a, oh, what's this? You're doing something different. And I feel as though you will need more of that into the future. I think Formula One, especially considering what it's done for the series,

completely and utterly appreciates that Drive to Survive still has legs. Yes, the hardcores will go, Oh, man, I don't like the fact that the medium times were shown when it was softs. I can't. Don't watch it then. Don't watch it. The amount of people that will watch it, especially non-Fourable 1 fans, That's what F1 want.

Okay, the numbers might not be as big as the boom of DTS in those first couple of years. But if they have hundreds of thousands of random people that are on Netflix, tuning in to Drive to Survive, and then 10% of that are converted into casual watches, that's a win. So for me, it absolutely is going to stay. I hope that they continue to freshen the series up, freshen bits and bobs like that. It'll be cool to see.

But I don't think it's running out of Steam even after the seventh series, where, as we've said, it was a pretty good one. Indeed, yeah, I don't think it's running out of steam. Maybe seasons gone by, maybe it helped that the season was so good, which for me has made this season such a strong one. But like I said, right, the start of this episode, you see a lot of negative reaction online, but guarantee if they said tomorrow we're not going to do this anymore,

people would be very upset, and I think rightly say, because it makes a, it's an exciting way to start the season of kind of going, oh yeah, there's all these stories and I can't wait what's going to happen this year. And it is good for the sport to have new fans joining and talking about it. You hear so many more people now talking about Formula One. And that's a really good thing because I certainly didn't have anyone to talk about Formula One when I was a kid. So it's cool that people are watching it. And it's a great segue to get into it.

It certainly is. And that wraps it up. We're done, dusted. We're actually going to be speaking to a Drive to Survive producer. So this will go out first and then hopefully tomorrow we will have the next episode. The heart-hitting questions. Yeah, well, we're going to be asking a Drive to Survive producer, Tom Rogers, who is the co-exec producer of Drive to Survive, all the questions that you want to know.

So if you're interested to find out how it's made, why certain things are missed out, things like that. We're going to be asking all the questions and look forward to that one. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? Yeah, I'm really looking forward to chatting to Tom actually because I think as Formula One fans, we've got a lot of questions about DTS, why they do certain things, why we've had it in this podcast. So I'm really excited to hear more and actually be able to ask someone who literally does the show, why they make the decisions they do. So excited for that.

Hell yeah. Look forward to seeing you very soon. It's Race Week. Haven't said that yet. Crazy. You should have said it in the intro. And yes, we'll see you very soon. Lots of love, take care. So we'll do. Bye!

Bye! P1 is a Stack production and part of the Acast's Creator Network.