The sixth season of Formula One: Drive to Survive dropped this past Friday and the question heading in was how they were going to spin Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s dominant 2023 campaign into 10 dramatic episodes.
Simple answer: they didn’t. It is Drive to Survive, after all, so the focus isn’t on who’s hot but who’s on the hot seat and feeling the pressure. Oh, and lots of brekkie (for those who have watched previous seasons, one guess who orders the cappuccino pumpernickel). No really, don’t watch this on an empty stomach.
Red Bull won all but one grand prix and Verstappen earned a record 19 victories, but that’s all brushed aside. Instead, you get not one but two episodes on their junior team AlphaTauri plus another pair on middle-of-the-pack Alpine.
Unfortunately, there’s no Season 6.5, so you’ll have to wait until next year for the Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari saga to play out — although that means there are enough “hilarious/harsher in hindsight” moments here to fill out a TvTropes.org entry.
In case you haven’t binged through it (yet) or just want to see if your favourites made the list, here are the best moments and quotes from Season 6.
Fair warning: spoilers galore.
EPISODE 1: MONEY TALKS
Let’s get this one out of the way first as yes, he went there. Hamilton drops the mic with three simple words referencing 2021’s controversial finish in Abu Dhabi that saw him lose to Verstappen on the final lap and miss out on a record-breaking eighth world championship.
Hamilton doubles down a little bit later in the episode: “I need to take back the championship that was taken from me. I need to own it.” As F1 journalist Will Buxton alludes to Mercedes losing personnel from their design and engine departments as their dynasty era ends, one has to wonder if any of their drivers are next.
That’s just one small part of the season premiere, which focuses on Aston Martin executive chairman (and potential James Bond villain) Lawrence Stroll’s ambition to turn the team into a championship contender. During their car launch three weeks before the start of the season, driver Lance Stroll (Lawrence’s son) talks about upcoming plans to go mountain biking in Spain. Cue the dramatic sting and “one week later” title card. The younger Stroll sustains two broken wrists and toes in an accident during his aforementioned trip.
Still in pain, he remarkably recovers in time for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Try not to facepalm when former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick says: “As a racecar driver, your tools are your hands and your feet.” Yeah, we’re not giving that one the block quote treatment here.
Amazingly, Stroll finishes sixth in Bahrain while new teammate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, ends up on the podium in third to usher in a new era for Aston Martin. (At least through the first half of the season. The team’s lull later in the year isn’t addressed until the final episode while Stroll practically reaching rock bottom in Qatar isn’t touched upon at all.)
Also, if you’re a Sauber fan you might as well stop watching here. Valtteri Bottas showing off his glorious mullet is the only time the team gets any notable screentime during the entire season.
EPISODE 2: FALL FROM GRACE
Yeah, about that. The annual scene with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner at home with the family and his horses was clearly edited before the team’s investigation into allegations of misconduct toward a team employee.
Horner has his fingerprints all over this episode even though the main Red Bull team takes a backseat here to the return of Daniel Ricciardo as a reserve driver plus their junior squad AlphaTauri, who have high hopes for rookie Nyck de Vries. The 28-year-old is looking to make the most of his opportunity to finally crack the big leagues … and he’s gone.
De Vries’ AlphaTauri tenure lasts just 10 races, not even making it to the summer break, and we see why. Even with more experience and maturity than teammate Yuki Tsunoda (de Vries’ own words), the former Formula 2 and Formula E champion struggles with adjusting to life in an F1 car. Try not to cringe when de Vries wonders where the tire switch button on his steering wheel is.
The episode also explores Ricciardo’s mysterious and impressive test session at Silverstone even though the camera lingers on his spin-out just a bit longer than necessary. Nevertheless, it’s enough to convince the Red Bull brass to put Ricciardo in the AlphaTauri seat.
Remember that line when we get to Episode 9.
EPISODE 3: UNDER PRESSURE
McLaren’s misfortunes starting the season at the bottom are documented here as the former championship winners languish among the backmarkers. Norris laments how uncompetitive the car is while CEO Zak Brown feels the heat from executive chairman Paul Walsh and sponsors about their performance and the future of their star driver amid rumours of interest from Red Bull.
OK, scratch that as Horner outright expresses interest in Norris — a stark contrast to other sports like the NBA where a GM even so much as looking at a player on another team nets a $50,000 tampering fine. (I’m exaggerating but you get the picture.)
As Brown pleads for patience, even his golf game with Norris feels tense at times.
Have no fear, the upgrades are here and McLaren flips the switch on their disastrous start with Norris finishing second and rookie teammate Oscar Piastri fourth at Silverstone.
In reality, Norris started receiving upgrades during the previous week in Austria where he came in fourth, but why let that little detail get in the way of a good story, right?
Also, hands up if you’ve also arrived early for work and couldn’t get into the building.
EPISODE 4: THE LAST CHAPTER
You knew the inevitable Guenther Steiner episode would have more profanity than The Wolf of Wall Street. Haas’ team principal has emerged as one of the breakout stars of the show. The fact he even has a book out and it’s called Surviving to Drive (a Sunday Times best-seller) is a testament to that as well.
Being a colourful character doesn’t lead to success though as Haas and rival team Williams are in a race to avoid last place in the constructors’ standings. It’s a contrast of styles as Haas features the filterless Steiner with veteran drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg (who have mellowed out since their infamous dust-up in 2017) while Williams has a new team principal in Toto Wolff’s protege James Vowles plus the youthful driving pair of Alex Albon and rookie Logan Sargeant.
Thanks to design changes, Williams begins gaining ground while things continue to spiral for Haas with Steiner at his breaking point.
The episode concludes with Steiner visiting former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto at his idyllic Italian vineyard nestled among the scenic Dolomites. Seemingly at peace with life after F1, Binotto tells his friend that you can feel when it’s time. Finito.
EPISODE 5: CIVIL WAR
You’ll probably never see “Liked by Pierre Gasly” on any of Esteban Ocon’s Instagram posts. Gasly is no Este bestie, but that doesn’t stop Alpine from believing the frenemies can work together.
While Ocon remains somewhat coy, Gasly has no hesitation and openly dishes the dirt. Gasly explains that things soured between the childhood friends during their karting days when he finally passed Ocon on the last lap of a prominent race. “I kicked his ass and he didn’t like it,” Gasly says with a laugh. Ocon hints it wasn’t clean though, and Gasly admits he was disqualified.
Alpine decides to kick things off by bringing the pair back to the karting track in Normandy to show they can put the past behind them. Wait, why is tense music playing? Gasly appears to take the competition a little too seriously but pleads innocence after Ocon spins out. Hopefully, it isn’t a harbinger for the season ahead, right?
Jump to the Australian Grand Prix where they crash into each other with only two laps remaining. The tension remains in Monaco where you can taste the bitterness from Gasly as a botched tire strategy costs him a potential podium spot while Ocon finishes third. To be continued …
EPISODE 6: LEAP OF FAITH
Yikes, that hasn’t aged well. This is a very telling episode where you can see the cracks in the foundation between Mercedes and Hamilton. It’s not just an uncompetitive car for Hamilton as he explains how he outlined to the team what’s wrong and how they could improve things but had all his ideas shot down. “That was definitely an interesting moment,” Hamilton says. It’s a small vindication when they later admit he was right.
As the Hamilton-to-Ferrari chatter grows — although let’s not forget Red Bull was rumoured to be in the mix as well — Wolff sits down with his superstar driver to iron out the future. Hamilton re-signs with Mercedes, for one year plus an option, but knowing what we know now, it’s a bittersweet ending.
It’s all the more heartbreaking when Hamilton says Mercedes is home and family. Speaking of family …
Toto is one of the stars of the show, but his young son Jack is the future. Is it too soon to pencil him in as Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes for 2025?
EPISODE 7: C’EST LA VIE
Welcome to Wrexham Alpine, Ryan Reynolds. Yes, for the second time in three episodes it’s all about Alpine. Reynolds and fellow actor Rob McElhenney have purchased shares of the team but unlike with Wrexham FC, there isn’t a Hollywood ending here.
Picking up where we left off, Alpine now sustain back-to-back double DNFs including another collision between Ocon and Gasly during the opening lap in Hungary. (To be fair, it was a chain reaction that knocked them into each other this time.)
Nevertheless, cue the sombre music as team principal Otmar Szafnauer gets sacked not before or after but during the weekend of the Belgian Grand Prix. Gee, now we get why Alonso and would-be-successor Piastri jumped ship before the 2023 season. Although morale doesn’t exactly improve under new boss Bruno Famin, Gasly gets his long-awaited podium after the summer break in the Netherlands.
EPISODE 8: FORZA FERRARI
As the title suggests, Ferrari are under the microscope here as unconventional new team principal Frederic Vasseur is tasked with ending the proud and prestigious Prancing Horse’s decade-and-a-half title drought. We’ve already gotten hints that Vasseur is the opposite of his predecessor Binotto and here he’s blowing raspberries at the camera. Buxton says “half the grid owe their careers” to him as the camera lingers on an old photo of Vasseur and Hamilton (file that under “things that make you go hmmm”).
Ferrari fans, the Tifosi, are growing restless although the “candid” scenes of everyday people like mechanics and barbers griping about the hiring of Vasseur feel a tad over the top.
It all builds to Ferrari’s home race at Monza where Carlos Sainz snipes pole position and sends the Ferrari fans into a frenzy. “They are quick over one lap,” quips Verstappen, who plays spoiler and wins the Italian Grand Prix ahead of teammate Sergio Perez to make it a 1-2 Red Bull finish on rival turf.
Sainz and Charles Leclerc have to settle for third and fourth, respectively, as the Ferrari drivers appear more interested in battling each other than anything else. Vasseur appears to simmer things between his drivers over lunch heading into a hot and humid Singapore Grand Prix.
Good thing Magnussen wasn’t wearing MLB’s new Fanatics pants.
The sweet sounds of Sainz singing Sade returns in Singapore as Red Bull fumble their setup and Ferrari capitalize to score their lone victory of the season.
Although it’s explained Leclerc, who finished fourth, provided support, it isn’t shown that Sainz also relied on Norris to help keep Mercedes at bay. Sainz wasn’t under threat from Norris and was comfortable keeping his friend and former teammate at McLaren within a one-second range. That allowed Norris to deploy DRS and use the extra speed boost to fend off the charging Mercedes cars to remain in second place.
It would have been interesting to hear from Norris about being used as a patsy but considering how excited he was seeing Sainz win, he probably didn’t mind.
EPISODE 9: THREE’S A CROWD
Williams driver Alex Albon practically predicts how Episode 2 turned out. What came next though was something nobody could have imagined.
During practice for his third grand prix since returning, Ricciardo fractures his left hand and is out of action for two months. Enter Liam Lawson, the 21-year-old rising star in the Red Bull junior program. As Red Bull stumble during qualifying for Singapore, Lawson puts his car into the top 10 on the starting grid ahead of Verstappen. Lawson finishes ninth at the Singapore GP and proves he belongs during his five-race stint filling in for Ricciardo.
AlphaTauri face a conundrum for their 2024 lineup, but they decide to stick with Tsunoda and Ricciardo as Lawson must continue to bide his time for a full-time ride.
“This is outrageous! It’s unfair!” Wait, no that was Anakin Skywalker. Here’s what Lawson had to say.
It seems like a missed opportunity here to not explore Perez’s struggles, particularly as Ricciardo outright says he’s targeting a Red Bull seat. Despite finishing second in the championship and picking up two wins, Perez underperformed during qualifying multiple times and also carelessly crashed out during the first turn at his home Mexico City Grand Prix.
EPISODE 10: RED OR BLACK
Is there any wonder why what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?
Formula One makes its much-anticipated return to Las Vegas with Elvis impersonators everywhere plus the first-ever F1 wedding chapel — although you’d think they would mention on screen it’s former world champion Jacques Villeneuve getting married. Talk about no respect.
Things don’t go without a hitch on track though as Sainz runs over a drain cover during practice that does extensive damage to the underside of his car. Ferrari are forced to take a grid penalty for exceeding their allotment of parts, which seems unfair considering it was an unforced error caused by the track itself.
Since Red Bull has both titles locked up, the focus here is on the chase for second in the constructors’ championship as Ferrari loses ground to Mercedes heading into the finale in Abu Dhabi. Although Leclerc ends the season with a second straight runner-up result, it’s not enough to close the gap as Mercedes finish three points ahead of Ferrari. As Verstappen wins and performs some burnouts, an already glum Leclerc asks if he can do some as well but is promptly denied.
Meanwhile, McLaren finish fourth to edge Aston Martin (despite Alonso performing a pre-race hex on Norris and Piastri) followed by Alpine (because what this season was missing was more Alpine) while Williams take seventh.
Red Bull and Verstappen’s record-breaking winning season gets relegated to a quick recap as the episode ends with the show’s real star Steiner dwelling over Haas finishing last followed by a title card saying his contract hasn’t been renewed for next season.
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