The fourth series of the hit Netflix series Drive To Survive premieres this week (March 11) as fans wait to see how the controversy surrounding Silverstone, Monza, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi will be dealt with. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described the level of access Netflix is getting from Formula 1 for recording the Drive To Survive TV series as “scary”, adding: “They put together scenes that didn’t happen.” The show has been a huge hit on the streaming platform and is a success for the sport by introducing F1 to a younger, smaller and more global audience. She gave a special performance in the United States, which will now host an additional Grand Prix (Miami) this season as an interest in the sport. For the show’s unintended stars, including Wolff, Drive To Survive put them in front of the camera in a way you could never have imagined. And this week, Series 4 kicks off in full (March 11) as the sport prepares to return to racing in Bahrain (March 20).
Toto Wolf
Wolf: They make up a story
“It’s scary how much we let them in,” Wolff told Bloomberg. You hate to see yourself there. The docu series has been criticized in the past for creating false drama, with world champion Max Verstappen telling the Associated Press that the film’s makers will “fake a lot of things”. Toto Wolff says he has agreed that the show has done more well than bad for Formula 1, allowing new fans to introduce themselves to the sport’s biggest stars. “They put a twist on the story. They put together scenes that didn’t happen. I think as an insider you would say, ‘Well, that’s different than it was.’ But we make entertainment, and that’s a new dimension of entertainment,” he said. Bernie Ecclestone was saying, “I’m not interested in 15-35 [-jarigen] Because they do not buy Rolex watches from the sponsor! “But that has obviously changed, because with social media, this is the demographics that drive the audience, that is the reach, and they are the decision makers of the future.”
Netflix helped hack F1 in the US
“Formula 1 has always been a global sport from our perspective. Big in Europe, big in South America, big in Asia and the Middle East,” explains Wolff. “In a way, we never really got close to or excited about the American public. My theory at the time was that it takes a long time for a sports association to establish itself in a country. Formula 1 is a niche sport,” Wolff continued. It is high tech, for high income earners with higher academic education. I thought it should be easier to get the attention of the public in big cities, like New York. But we didn’t really make it there.”
“Then Liberty took over, but the needle didn’t really move. Then Netflix came, Covid came and people started watching. And suddenly we had this huge momentum in the US that no one expected.”
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