The latest season of Drive to Survive was released on Friday as the popular docu-series tells the story of the 2024 season.
Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari featured prominently, as did the Christian Horner scandal and Max Verstappen’s title win. But what major stories from last year did Netflix miss in season 7?
George Russell and Max Verstappen’s beef
More so than McLaren’s constructors’ triumph, this was the story which set pulses racing at the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes driver Russell and Red Bull’s four-time F1 world champion were embroiled in a heated row, stemming from a confrontation in the stewards room at the penultimate race in Qatar.
The highlight, from on the ground, was Russell’s 14-minute media briefing in which Toto Wolff stood next to him in solidarity as he launched an anti-Verstappen tirade.
The Drive to Survive cameras were even present, with the boom mic hovering over Russell unmissable. Yet bizarrely, there was no room for this squabble in season seven.
Perhaps one to focus on for next year?
Adrian Newey joining Aston Martin
The Miami Grand Prix ended with Lando Norris’s first F1 victory – and that featured prominently – but the Floridian weekend started with the shock news of Newey’s departure from Red Bull.
The F1 design guru was the man praised for Verstappen’s dominant 2023 car and had been a key figure over 18 years under Christian Horner.
Would he team up with Hamilton at Ferrari? What about a return to Williams or McLaren? In the end, Newey opted for a stunning £20m-a-year move to Aston Martin.
Not that we’d know. There was nothing in season 7 on Newey’s Red Bull departure.
Again, perhaps one to delve into more detail for the next season, ahead of Newey’s first Aston car in 2026.
Ollie Bearman’s F1 debut in Saudi Arabia
This omission was particularly peculiar, given Bearman does feature in an episode focused on Haas and Alpine’s battle for sixth place in the constructors’ championship.
Yet the teenager’s appearance focuses more on his stand-in race in Brazil, when he crashes twice and gets something of a ticking off from Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu.
His debut, filling in for Carlos Sainz for Ferrari in Jeddah and finishing seventh ahead of Hamilton and Norris, receives no mention at all.
Russell’s disqualification in Spa
This was totally bizarre.
The episode focused predominantly on Mercedes – episode three, titled Looking Out For Number 1 – takes a look at Toto Wolff’s decision to replace Lewis Hamilton with Kimi Antonelli.
Intriguingly, a good chunk of the episode focuses on Russell, as he “stakes his claim” to be the team’s No 1 driver moving forward. The main event for this is his terrific win in Belgium, in which he holds off a challenge from his teammate Hamilton.
Yet astonishingly, DtoS fails to mention that Russell was later disqualified for his car being underweight, handing Hamilton the grand prix victory.
Incidentally, Hamilton’s win at Silverstone – breaking a 31-month winless streak – is only aired briefly in episode three.
