“It’s made to be American”: Romain Grosjean defends Netflix’s ‘Drive To Survive’ after Max Verstappen’s criticism

Romain Grosjean defends Netflix’s ‘Drive To Survive’ after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen conveyed his wishes not to partake in the series.

Netflix’s ‘Drive To Survive’ has played a significant role in the recent surge in viewership and following, which F1 has gained. While the show has taken a considerable amount of creative liberty with its portrayal of the sport and drivers, plenty of people around the paddock still feel the show has more good than bad. However, Max Verstappen feels no urge to give the ‘fake’ documentary any interviews.

One more personality who has stepped in to defend DTS’s involvement in the sport is former Haas driver Romain Grosjean. Grosjean was the focus of the episode ‘Man on fire’, which focused on his fiery crash in Bahrain last year.

Romain Grosjean defends DTS

Grosjean has had his fair share of problems with the show personally, citing his portrayal in the first season, but he too is well aware of the impact it has had on the large audience F1 is pulling in nowadays.

“The series is fantastic in the sense that it opened Formula 1 to people who did not necessarily know about it,” Grosjean said to RTL. “And now we have a fan base that has increased. It’s made to be American, with special effects, sound effects. The first season was very hard for me. I didn’t watch that one.”

The French driver who’s now racing in IndyCar confessed he liked his portrayal of himself better in the following seasons. “The next two were a little nicer, especially obviously with the accident last year. But I find that for Formula 1 it has been a very good thing.”

A growth like no other

ESPN, the broadcaster for F1 in the US, has seen incredible growth in viewership ever since it reacquired the rights back in 2018. Netflix has an undeniable contribution to this upsurge.

While speaking to the Washington Post, John Suchenksi, Director of Programming and Acquisitions, said: “We’ve seen a very positive progression over the last four seasons where we’ve been able each year to grow that audience by double digits — particularly this season.”

“But to see four consecutive years of double-digit growth, I don’t know if I could single out something that compares to that. “I think there’s a variety of different contributors”, he continued. “A lot of people have asked about the Netflix series, and while there’s no way to quantify what audience Netflix brought in, it’s clearly helping.”

ESPN is seeing a 53% increase in viewership in 2021 as compared to the 2020 average. ‘Drive To Survive’ season four is still in production and is slated for an early 2022 release.

Also read: Season 4 of Netflix Drive to Survive to drop in 2022