F1 confirms season three of Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ is in production

2020 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by and

A third season of the Formula 1-endorsed Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ is in production, the championship has confirmed.

As RaceFans revealed last month Netflix crews accompanied some teams to the opening races of the 2020 F1 season. These have been scaled back in size due to the restrictions being enforced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Following on the strong results of the first two seasons of the Netflix show Drive to Survive the film crews are already at work filming the third season,” Formula 1 CEO and Chase Carey confirmed in a media session today. The crews (pictured above in 2019) joined McLaren and Red Bull at the season-opening race in Austria.

Formula 1 is continuing to broaden access to coverage of the championship on different platforms. “We’ve also partnered with YouTube to live-stream the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany,” said Carey. “This is the first time fans from select European countries will be able to view the entire grand prix weekend for free on the Formula 1 YouTube channel.”

Carey said F1 is also looking at how to bring its own live race streaming service, F1 TV Pro, to more markets.

“Right now to me the most important thing for F1 TV Pro beyond quality-wise – we did have a glitch the very first race but it’s worked well since then and we feel we’re continuing to get there with the product – is to grow its access to consumers.

“So in a number of places we are pursuing it more as a partnership and trying to develop ways to have it be something to enhance the experience for a traditional television partner/customer, with a product that is geared towards a true enthusiast. So it’s that extra experience and work with our partners to have that be something that we can both grow and share in the success of. Certainly we’ve had more discussions on that front.

“There are places it operates, more countries we certainly continue to operate it more as a standalone alternative for traditional television.”

“Certainly the digital side of our world in many ways, in a positive way, continues to explode the viewership engagement we’ve got, the products we’re putting out there,” Carey added. “There seems to be no end to the appetite for it. We’re just looking to continue to find ways to enhance and expand that.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2020 F1 season

Browse all 2020 F1 season articles

15 comments on “F1 confirms season three of Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ is in production”

  1. Great that Drive To Survive is returning – the other series are brilliant.

    Had a feeling Netflix were around again, have seen their distinctive boom mic and boom pole quite a lot during the UK live coverage.

  2. God, please, No!

    Carey wants to focus on F1 TV Pro? Maybe solve crazy 45-60seconds delay?!?!

  3. (By the way, as a “signee”, I do not have to view tRump adverts! An ultra-bonus … )

  4. With the issued penalties, Vettel rumors, and Checo/Hulk situation all going on at once I hope RP got the featured team treatment these past 2 weekends. Would love to see the behind the scenes of that craziness!

  5. Great to hear that Drive to Survive Season 3 is in the works – that got me hooked onto F1. My only complaint about F1 TV is its not 100% accessible to people who are deaf/hard of hearing. I would love to watch F1 Live pre-race show, post race show, other commentaries, the tech talk with Sam Collins – but none are captioned.

    1. I watch on Roku and you they caption it there

  6. Drive to Survive is the reason I care about F1 today. Never in my life have I ever cared about sports. But I saw the show on Netflix, the behind the scenes stories and industry politics were interesting and I even finished the season with two or three favorite drivers. If not for thus show, I would never have cared about Formula One.

    1. Glad to read that. I had a similar experience with an Equinox tv show in 1988 that went behind the scenes at Williams (painful to watch now). Some of the Equinox shows are on YouTube, I think.

      Netflix need to balance the bickering with some informative features otherwise it could be rich men squabbling (or swearing).

  7. Good that they found a way to continue it, I like the series, but please dial down the Haas coverage… I know it’s the sole American team, but there’s just nothing interesting to show from their side anymore. The drivers are fairly dull and outside of contact between them have nothing interesting to show for, Gunther’s ‘exotic’ style has deflated quickly into a shouty boss and the results are no-where. So, less of that please, and more on midfielders like McLaren, RP, Renault, Ferrari, etc.

    1. @gechichan I feel like it’s McLaren and Renault who receive way too much screen time compared to others. Wouldn’t mind seeing more from Sauber, Haas and Ferrari.

      1. Sauber, yes. Haas, please no (enough as it is). Ferrari didn’t allow access during the first season and only allowed access to one race (Austin, iiirc) during the 2019 season (as did Mercedes – with Hockenheim, where everything went horribly wrong for them).

  8. The show’s title, Drive to Survive, definitely takes on new meanings this year.

  9. Jean Michel TIBI
    11th August 2020, 10:28

    On the good note,for the F1 70th race in UK,Netflix cameramen were embedded at Renault and Racing Point F1 teams!…..Impatient to watch an hear the outputs of this episode!!!!!

  10. 2 Weeks ago Netflix must have thought they weren’t going to have suitable content for a season 3.

    and then …

  11. Wake up! This is an amazing show and these Netflix guys or someone should be embedded with ALL the teams, Pirelli, the stewards, everything everywhere, we need the drama! F1 needs this badly; what are the teams afraid of, more exposure for their sponsors, more fans, more money?

Comments are closed.