Horner: "I watched that back with a wince"

As of last week, the third season of Drive to Survive is available on Netflix, which gives us another excellent behind-the-scenes look at Formula 1. Especially about the 2020 season, this is an interesting documentary, considering a lot of protocols have been applied because of the pandemic. Also, the calendar has been moved around quite a bit and those are enough interesting points to show. Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner sees the added value of it.

Another side of the sport

Horner is one of the team bosses who is participating in the documentary. He is featured in the third season, but also in the previous seasons, the Briton regularly made an appearance. In a column on Redbull.com he elaborates on this and writes that he will watch the series himself. He does that with some tension, he admits.

Horner: "I was recently asked if I winced whenever I watched it back, the honest answer is yes, constantly! It is a TV show but it is also showing a side of the sport that is not normally conveyed during a conventional weekend broadcast. It shows some of the characteristics and some of the personalities, which is presented in a certain way to engage the audience, but overall it is very positive for F1 and the popularity seems enormous."

That last bit is interesting though, namely the way personalities are presented. Not everyone is equally enamoured with that, for example Max Verstappen stated that the first season didn't show the real Verstappen. Nevertheless, it is a great success and for the time being Liberty Media and Netflix do not seem to be planning to stop.

New audience

Another effect of Drive to Survive is that it is bringing a new audience to the sport, which is good. For example, Horner concludes, "This series is covering the 2020 season, which had so many challenges and you think 'how did we do all of that in such a short space of time?'. It is a very positive thing for F1 and brings in a whole new audience to the sport. My 14-year-old daughter and her friends didn't have much interest in F1 before the Netflix series, and now they know who all the drivers are!"