The popularity of Netflix’s Drive to Survive has made the series indisposable to the latest generation of Formula 1 fans. Introduced via the highly dramatized documentary series, these fans have grown to love the sport after witnessing it through Netflix’s colored lens.
On top of its dramatic, fictionalized, and misleading tone, Drive to Survive has also demonstrated moments of absolute heroism and glory that are powerful enough to retain the drivers’ names in the annals of history. From Max Verstappen’s four consecutive world championship titles to McLaren’s first title win in 26 years, both history and Netflix are recording it all.
However, there’s nothing quite as fascinating as the legacy of Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc delivers peak Drive to Survive content
It is not every day that a camera crew gets to follow Charles Leclerc, the fan-crowned prince of Monaco. The Monégasque driver’s hometown win in 2024 has made him an even bigger celebrity, even within the Formula 1 world. Now, Drive to Survive attempts to find a way to cash in on that popularity by making him an integral part of the Season 7 and 8 storylines.
While Season 7 extensively documented his Monaco Grand Prix win that moved millions of fans to tears, the following season starts off strong with Leclerc’s fanbase cheering him on. However, the 2025 season had a comical start and Leclerc has already delivered peak hilarious content for Season 8.
As the race suffered under rain at the Australian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc was heard transmitting a radio message to his race engineer about a possible leakage issue in the car. When asked about it, Leclerc expressed his concerns saying, “I have the seat full of water,” to which his engineer replied, “Must be the water.” In a hilarious moment of snarky comebacks, Leclerc ironically said, “Let’s add that to the words of wisdom” (via F1).
Charles Leclerc, who is frequently known to have a meltdown in the cockpit, especially over the radio, just hand-delivered a peak moment tailor-made for Drive to Survive Season 8, as the series won’t have to go hunting for drama if Leclerc keeps delivering such comedic content throughout the 2025 season.
It’s high time Drive to Survive redeemed itself
With Season 7 already documenting the 2024 Grand Prix, Drive to Survive has borne witness to some of the best and greatest hits of the Formula 1 sport. However, when showing it to the world, Netflix just cannot seem to keep away its bad habit of overindulging in the drama to make an episode look appealing.
As a result, the fans lost out on some of the greatest moments of Formula 1 as their experience of the race day events was colored by falsehoods and misinformation. Even the fantastic race of Max Verstappen in the São Paulo Grand Prix, where under heavy rain, the Red Bull driver overtook the entire F1 grid to climb from P17 to P1 was never mentioned in Drive to Survive.
The series’s philosophy of soap-operatic content drawing in viewers like a moth to a flame has indeed paid off. Now, the show doesn’t only need to entertain the fans but convince the Formula 1 community of its worth, too. Despite the arc of the past 7 seasons, Netflix may yet have time to redeem itself with the Season 8 arc.
Drive to Survive Season 7 is now streaming on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
