Just over a month remains for the F1 2024 season to kickstart in Bahrain. However, before the new campaign officially begins, Netflix as always will release the latest season of their highly acclaimed series, Drive to Survive (DTS). While most F1 fans have often loved DTS, season 5 last year received mixed reviews. The excitement among fans was not as high as before as some believed that the producers could have added some more interesting storylines that they missed out on. However, that is not to say that season 5 was entirely dull. Here is a look at the top 5 highlights of season 5 of DTS.
The Oscar Piastri Saga
The saga involving current McLaren driver Oscar Piastri was arguably one of the biggest controversies of the 2022 season. The saga began in early August of 2022 when Alpine announced the Australian as one of their two drivers for the 2023 campaign.
The French outfit was looking for a replacement after Fernando Alonso shocked everyone by deciding that he would move to Aston Martin for the 2023 season. That created an opening at Alpine. Since Piastri was their development driver, Alpine unsurprisingly wanted to promote him.
However, the Aussie had other ideas. He took to social media and made it clear that he had never signed a contract agreement with Alpine. Soon after Piastri made this shocking revelation, McLaren announced him as their driver.
I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) August 2, 2022
This created an ugly situation between Alpine and McLaren that also involved a court battle. Eventually, the court gave the judgment in favor of McLaren and they were able to hold onto Piastri.
Netflix also addressed this contentious topic via the episode, Nice Guys Finish Last. This episode explains how embarrassed Alpine and their then-team principal Otmar Szafnauer felt because of the way the events unfolded. In the same episode, McLaren CEO Zak Brown also mocked Szafnauer to rub salt into the wounds.
Max Verstappen returns to Drive to Survive
Another interesting aspect of Drive to Survive season 5 was the return of Max Verstappen to the show. The Dutchman had initially slammed the producers for creating fake rivalries and blowing things out of proportion.
Hence, he had decided to boycott season 4 of the show since he believed that it overly dramatized events and gave an incorrect portrayal of individuals. However, the 26-year-old decided to return for season 5 after he supposedly received veto rights. This means that Verstappen could decide on whatever clips he wanted DTS to delete about him.
That is perhaps also the reason Verstappen did not have much of a role in season 5 despite winning his second championship in 2022. DTS primarily gave a glimpse of how the Dutchman fets about being a double world champion and the relationship he has with his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
Mercedes Turmoil and porpoising
Season 5 of Drive to Survive is unlikely to have received the acclaim had they not covered Mercedes’ turmoil and their porpoising issues. Ahead of the 2022 season, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff engaged in a heated altercation with Red Bull boss Christian Horner.
The two had a long heated discussion about Mercedes’ porpoising issue, one that DTS thoroughly covered. In episode 2, Bounce Back, the Netflix cameras cover the team principal meeting, where they discussed the porpoising issue.
The meeting begins with Wolff telling the rest of the team principals, “I can tell you that all of you are playing a dangerous game. If a car ends in the wall because it’s too stiff or it’s bottoming out, you are in the **** and I’m going to come after you“.
Wolff was furious that the rest of the teams were not taking any of his concerns seriously. Soon after, Horner lost patience with Wolff and told him, “Well change your car. You’ve got a problem. Change your ****ing car“.
It was indeed not a great year for Mercedes in 2022 as they managed to win just one race. Since they decided to stick to their zero sidepod concept, their only victory thanks to George Russell came at the Brazilian Grand Prix that season. 2022 was also a defining year for Lewis Hamilton as this was the first time that he failed to win a race in an entire campaign.
Driver safety
Perhaps the most shocking event that took place in the whole of the 2022 campaign was Zhou Guanyu‘s horrific crash. The Chinese driver had a multi-car collision that sent him flying into the barriers. The crash was so shocking that everyone watching the incident immediately expressed concern for the 24-year-old’s safety.
The marshalls on track rushed toward him to get him out of the car. Even George Russell, who was involved in the incident with Zhou, got out of his Mercedes and rushed towards the Alfa Romeo driver. Netflix also covered this incident by sharing Russell’s thoughts on the incident and why he decided to sacrifice his race to help Zhou.
“I was just thinking about Zhou. Ordinarily, you’re so focused on yourself. You’ve just lost this race. But I was thinking, ‘Shit. That’s a huge crash’. You watch a million videos but that was quite a shocking three seconds“, explained Russell.
Ferrari’s unreliability
F1 and Ferrari are in some ways synonymous as the Italian manufacturer is the oldest constructor in the sport. Hence, F1’s critically acclaimed series also cannot have an entire season without covering Ferrari in some way. Season 5 covered the departure of Mattia Binotto and the news that Fred Vasseur will take over from the 2023 season after the failures in 2022.
Since Ferrari saw wins slip away because of reliability concerns, the series shows how the pressure increased on Binotto. When asked to explain his concerns with Ferrari’s performances, the Italian revealed that he is feeling a “heavy air of worry“.
After several months of increased pressure, Binotto then ultimately bids farewell and the Scuderia announces that they will replace him with Vasseur. Season 5 interestingly ends with the Frenchman appearing in front of the cameras and the interviewers asking him if he thinks he looks good in red.
Bonus highlight from season 5 of Drive to Survive: Red Bull’s cost cap concerns
Another major issue that season 5 of Drive to Survive covered was Red Bull‘s cost cap concerns. McLaren CEO Zak Brown had written a public letter, per which he accused Red Bull and Christian Horner of “cheating“.
The FIA too had confirmed that the Milton Keynes-based outfit had breached the $145 million cost cap limit, and as a result, needed to face the consequences. The governing body then fined the team $7 million and reduced their wind tunnel time by 10%.
When Brown was asked about the public letter he wrote, the McLaren CEO said, “I wanted to just lay out and share what were the ramifications and say, ‘We’ve got a cap. Those are the rules. You don’t break the cap’. There was almost an arrogance, a disrespect for the cap that I didn’t like to see“.
When Christian Horner was quizzed about Brown’s letter, the 50-year-old interestingly changed the narrative of the situation. Horner revealed that he was “appalled” by Brown’s accusations and stated that the American had no proof. He then explained how Brown made such outrageous claims despite living in a world where mental health is being discussed widely.
