5 Drive To Survive Episodes A New F1 Fan Needs To Watch

If you are looking to get into F1, these are the Drive To Survive episodes you need to watch.

Netflix's Drive To Survive series reached a whole new audience for the sport and was one of the driving forces behind gaining a much larger fan base in America. 

The show gave fans the opportunity to have a behind-the-scenes look-in to the teams, the politics that goes on in the background, and also gave viewers the chance to see more of the drivers and feel as though they were getting to know them. 

The F1 world has been quite dramatic lately with the Red Bull cost cap saga, drivers agreeing new contracts to move teams next year, and also the news of Sebastian Vettel retiring from the sport. With this, some of you may be thinking it is time to get into F1, so here are the Drive To Survive episodes you need to watch. 

Season One, Episode One: "All To Play For"

The very first episode covers the first race of the 2018 season in Australia. As the introduction to the series, it goes over the basics, presents some of the drivers who feature across all of the four seasons, such as Daniel Ricciardo, and also shows some of the team principals such as Haas' Guenther Steiner and Red Bull's Christian Horner. 

Red Bull Content Pool - Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull

Season One, Episode Four: "The Art Of War"

Red Bull and their engine supplier Renault come to blows in the fourth episode of the first season where their working relationship comes to an end. Team principal, Christian Horner, accuses Cyril Abiteboul, Renault managing director, of providing faulty engines, which doesn't go down very well at all. 

On top of this, Daniel Ricciardo, makes the decision to leave the Red Bull team. Ricciardo later revealed why he made this decision in an interview with the Herald Sun, he said:

“Internally you have to be comfortable with everything that is going on inside the team.

"In 2019, my engineer Simon [Rennie], who I really built a very good relationship with, he wasn’t going to be there in 2019 so I knew I was going to lose him if I stayed.

“And they [Red Bull] were going to Honda. There were a lot of things that gave me a little bit of discomfort or lack of stability."

Season Two, Episode Six: "Raging Bulls"

This episode goes into the background of how difficult it is for drivers to keep their seat for teams in the cut-throat business. "Raging Bulls" shows Red Bull making the decision to demote one of their drivers, Pierre Gasly, to their sister team AlphaTauri. Alex Albon was promoted to take Gasly's place. The harsh reality is shown by them peeling Gasly's stickers off the team garage and replacing them with Albon's. 

As well as showing this, it also goes into the background of Albon, giving viewers an in-depth introduction into the Thai-British driver. 

Season Three, Episode Ten: "Down To The Wire"

This is the last episode of season three and runs through what fans see towards the end of every season. The team line-ups are changing as drivers' contracts are ending or being re-negotiated and it also shows the winners of the Drivers' and Constructors' championships.

"Down To The Wire" also touches on the diversity within the sport, Lewis Hamilton talks about his experiences of racism and classism throughout his career as the only Black F1 driver in history. 

Season Four, Episode Ten: "Hard Racing"

Many F1 fans will not forget the controversial end to the 2021 season at Abu Dhabi, which led to Race Director, Michael Masi, losing his job. 

With Lewis Hamilton leading the race and while under safety car conditions, there were a number of lapped cars between him and 2021 rival, Max Verstappen. Race Director, Michael Masi, decided to un-lap those cars, and only those cars. With Hamilton on worn tyres compared to Red Bull's Verstappen, it wasn't a surprise when Verstappen ended up taking the win and thus taking the 2021 Drivers' Championship.

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Conclusion

These episodes should set you off nicely. However, take this as a warning, you are likely to get sucked in just as we did and end up binging the whole four series in a weekend. 

As the 2022 season is coming to an end, fans are eagerly waiting the release of the next Drive To Survive series to re-watch it from the other angle. After rumours of Max Verstappen not returning to the show, fans of the Belgian-Dutch driver, will be pleased to know that he has confirmed he will feature in the upcoming series.