This show has more or less reignited my interest in Formula 1. I was a big fan and watched every race from 2009 until about 2016/2017. Once Jenson Button retired, I found very little to interest me. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton kept on dominating the sport, making the results a pretty sure thing before the weekend had even begun, with only Ferrari and occasionally Red Bull ever able to challenge them.
Drive to Survive has reminded me that the real stories and battles are being fought in the midfield. This is also where most of the fun and interesting drivers are. Absolutely, this series edits things in such a way to create a narrative that is more exciting than the sport often is, but it can't be denied that drivers like Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Seinz, Charles Leclerc and Nico Hulkenberg have some magic about them, both on and off the track.
Or maybe it's just human nature to like the underdogs who get all the bad luck. At any rate, this docuseries is fantastically put together and can work as a great introduction to the sport for newcomers.
All the episodes are listed as being 40 minutes long, but only two really are. The rest ranging from 27 to 39 minutes.
Review by AddVarietyBlockedParentSpoilers2019-03-11T22:02:06Z
I'm 6 episodes into the Netflix documentary and it really showed for multiple drivers that they either put them in a bad light or explicitly did not show some a certain positive side. All because of a combination of bad editing and wrong decisions.
Spoilers below for episode 4:
Best example is in episode 4 roughly 10 minutes in when they show the Austrian GP. First of all, they state that Ricciardo needed to win to stay in championship contention, while neither Red Bull ever was of course. A little further when Hamilton pits they show Ricciardo and his engineer telling him that the gap to Lewis is only 18 seconds, edited to make it seem Ricciardo is battling Lewis for the win, while in reality he was continuously chasing Verstappen that race and it was Verstappen who then took over the lead.
Especially the part where "will he be able to get in front of Hamilton", "Hamilton's 1 second behind you" and "Red Bull suddenly smell a victory here today" was said by the engineer (first two) and Martin Brundle (last one). Again edited to make it seem Ricciardo was the primary man to be fighting for victory.
Right after that Ricciardo is retiring and they edit in Martin Brundle's commentary about Renault's sole car racing in 12th position, again completely ignoring the Renault powered car that's leading the race. I know Martin was only talking about Renault during that moment, but Netflix has made it seem as if all Renaults were very bad. To add insult to injury, not a single frame was spent on Verstappen leading the race or eventually winning it.
To me this example was totally about putting Renault in a very bad light, which they tried to emphasise by extremely focusing on the one Red Bull driver that had a PU issue that race and completely ignoring the Renault powered Red Bull that lead 2/3 of the race and went on to win it. That and the combination of ignoring a great on-track result of Verstappen/Red Bull in which they straight up beat Ferrari and Mercedes.
I also have a huge list of issues with this show, which I won't even call a documentary:
Sound editing is horrible. Sound effects are far too loud compared to speech, I've never in my life experienced such a huge difference. I've got a proper sound system with full size speakers and have never experienced that both voices are way too silent and at the same time the sound effects are too loud. In the end I opted for not getting an ear injury and lowering the volume based on the sound effects, which made the voices practically inaudible, necessitating subtitles.
This exposed the following issue: subtitles. Not even translated, just the English ones. But they are bad, very bad. Engineer to Ric: Radio Check. Ric to engineer: Rennie Check OK. Really Netflix? Really?! And this happens all the time, horrible.
Getting back to the sound effects. They've not only increased the loudness of certain sound effects, but also added a lot of fake noises at the same time: fake oohs and aahs all throughout and just listen in ep4 around 12:30 in when Ricciardo's engine fails. What's that ridiculous sound supposed to be? Jeez Netflix, thanks for ruining actual sound effects. This sounds just as convincing as when I try to imitate an engine blowing up, with my mouth.
A documentary should tell the story how it is, telling the facts. Not editing the order of certain commentary, interviews and race moments to their liking to make it come across the way they want. They also willingly let out major parts of certain stories that we all know about, for example: the fact that Perez and his management put FI into administration, ultimately helping the team to find a new investor (to which they already knew who it would be) and thereby saving the team. They completely ignore this fact and make it seem dramatic as if Ocon and Perez need to fight it out on track together in order to get the seat next year next to Stroll.
At this point I'm not even going to watch the last couple of episodes. It's not a documentary, facts are twisted, it's made completely about their own image that they want to portray and the sound is unbearable.