Criticism of Netflix series from F1 paddock: 'Teams are paid out unfairly'

Last Friday, the third season of the Netflix series Drive To Survive came online. Last season Netflix started working with all the teams to create a series that showed the highs and lows of the 2020 season and gave the F1 fan a look behind the scenes. Yet there is dissatisfaction about the way the series came about.

With the arrival of Liberty Media, the arrival of Netflix on the F1 paddock was also quickly announced. In order to engage new fans with the sport, a series about the season seemed like the best option and so in 2019, the first season came online. It became a huge success and each season seems to be an improvement on the season before each time.

Small teams disadvantaged

Still, some teams in the paddock are not happy with the way the series is laid out. For example, not all teams have the same amount of screen time and there is also unfair payout for different teams. Formel1.de reports that Netflix pays a license to Formula 1 and therefore not to the individual teams. A portion of this amount is then paid back to the teams, but that's where some things go wrong.

The top teams, Mercedes, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari are paid much more than the smaller teams, a difference that is almost a million dollar. This while Mercedes and Ferrari are very reluctant to film with Netflix. Teams from the midfield, on the other hand, open their doors to Netflix and there the filmmakers have a lot of access.

One team that has been in the spotlight a lot this season, for example, is Haas. They have a lot of screen time in the last few episodes of the season and Guenther Steiner also sees the big difference in payout between his team and Mercedes. "I think they should just pay us out on how much we get in the media," explains Steiner jokingly. "Without jokes, I do think this is how it is and we just have to live with it," the Italian concludes.