"Drive to Survive" season 4 on Netflix

The new season of "Drive to Survive" dropped late last week. I'm about halfway through. Pretty decent so far, I just watched the episode on Haas and the Mazepins, which is pretty interesting, considering the events of the past few weeks.

As always, I have issues with the show. The time jumps, the way they amp up the drama by using out-of-context radio chatter and commentary, Will Buxton, and just the general reality-show-ness of the whole thing. And yet I watch. It is interesting to get to know the people behind the sport on a more personal level. And if you have a modern 4K TV with HDR, the cinematography is truly stunning. Makes me wish the actual races were broadcast in that format. Maybe some day.

Anyhow, thoughts?

I pretty much have the same feeling. Its drama-injected TV for sitting on the couch, but it does give you a little bit more "character" to follow when the season starts. 

I honestly thought watching the races live were more entertaing and drama filled, the controveries of the wing touch, tire advantage, I do realize that this is for people that are new. I am happy that alteast they do something to bring fans, wish IMSA and Indycar did this.

trigun7469 said:

I honestly thought watching the races live were more entertaing and drama filled, the controveries of the wing touch, tire advantage, I do realize that this is for people that are new. I am happy that alteast they do something to bring fans, wish IMSA and Indycar did this.

DTS has done more to drive fan interest in the US than anything since I started following the sport in the late 80s. It's mostly casual fans who are more interested in the personalities than things like tire compounds and sidepod configurations, but there's nothing wrong with that. The attendance at last year's COTA race is testament to that.

I share your wish about Indycar and IMSA. I know Indycar has looked into it, but I don't think they've found the right partner yet. But everyone sees what the show has done for F1 and wants a slice of that. 

I prefer watching the real races as well but I try to binge the series before the opening of the first race. Some of it is obviously manufactured drama, some of it is interesting behind the scenes stuff and it also makes a good season recap.

I am on episode 8, so far I thought the Mazepin drama was interesting and not well covered last year. It is cool to see Toto on the private jet, I love seeing private jets. George being told he is a Merc driver was cool although I am not sure if it was shown in time properly, they made it look like it happened because of Spa qualifying but I am not sure if that is where it happened. As a Hamilton fan I somehow doubt I will love episodes 9 & 10.

Just finished watching it.  As long as you don't pay too much attention to the timelines, it's a decent refresh of some of the major things for last year.  Like, I totally forgot there were three rookies last year.  For some reason, I thought they had already been in it a year.  My how time flies.

The last episode, covering "the incident", didn't seem as dramatic or faked as I expected.  It was covered.  Both sides were heard from and really only comprised of about 4 minutes at the end.  I think I was expecting half the episode to revolve around it with tons of different voice overs from everyone, including the other drivers.

Overall, I can't complain about DTS.  Sure, it's not 100% accurate and is cut for drama, but overall, I'd say it's 90% correct and the remaining 10% is really only noticed by hard core fans.  More importantly, I think it's done quite a bit for F1's presence, especially in the US, which is always a good thing.

-Rob

I watched the first episode. Please tell me there's less Horner in later ones, I don't enjoy listening to him at all. 

I've seen all the previous seasons, of course :)

In reply to Keith Tanner :

There is a lot less of him in 2-8 than 1. I can't speak for 9&10 yet. Maybe tomorrow...

I thought Bottas got the shaft from Mercedes.  Was also surprised they only signed him to annual contracts.  Given everything he did for them, they treated him very poorly.

docwyte said:

I thought Bottas got the shaft from Mercedes.  Was also surprised they only signed him to annual contracts.  Given everything he did for them, they treated him very poorly.

He got paid millions to drive the best car in the field for 5 years. He performed well, but not spectacularly. And the team has to start thinking of the future, Lewis is 37. George looks like the real deal, they are intimately familiar with him, already have a connection, and his contract with Williams was up. They'd be fools not to lock him down, he could lead that team for the next decade-plus. 

Valterri seems like a good dude and an excellent teammate, but I don't see anything unfair about how Merc treated him.

Bottas impressed me when he was at Williams, but he just couldn't convert that to the big show. He did his part to ensure the manufacturer championship year after year while pushing Lewis to a higher level during quali. But then Max/RB leveled up last year and Bottas couldn't. 

I don't think he got the shaft but it was a tough ending. I thought the meeting they showed with him was classy. Again I was struggling for time frame, I would really have liked to known when that meeting was. I guess 5 years in the best car on the grid is a blessing. In that time he scored 10 wins and 67 podiums. That is a heck of a career. That puts only 4 active drivers above him in wins. 

I think on season 4 he showed a ton of class, maybe more than any other driver. 

I'm trying not to binge it, an episode or two a night.  Last night was Haas and the two rookies.  Oof, yeah it's interesting knowing the events of the last month or so.

Call me a fan.

I kinda feel bad for Bottas.  One, he's going against the best driver of his generation, possibly of all time. That's hard to overcome.  Two, the mental toll on having just one year contracts really did mess with his head.  He said in the F1 podcast last year that each year he felt like he had to overperform at the start of every season to keep his seat.  As opposed to having the comfort of a multi-year contract where he had some time to figure things out.

Still, driving for the best team for 5 years, getting paid well and scoring multiple podiums and wins is impressive.  Just sad that he'll always be labeled as "not good enough" when compared to everyone but Hamilton, he was better during that time frame. 

Hopefully, he'll find a good home at Alfa Romeo for a few years and come away with a good ending to a good career.

-Rob