James Gay-Rees, executive producer of Drive to Survive and co-founder of the Netflix documentary’s production company, Box to Box Films, is teasing to The Hollywood Reporter what fans can expect from the incoming season.
Since its 2019 debut, Formula 1: Drive to Survive has been met with critical acclaim, many putting the hundreds of thousands of new F1 fans down to the show’s impact. The series follows the 10 teams competing for the Constructor’s Championship, as well as the 20 drivers — Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris included — competing for the driver’s prize.
In recent years, the Red Bull team has consistently dominated, handing Verstappen four back-to-back World Drivers’ Championships. But things started to shake up in the latter half of last season when Norris and the McLaren team fought back and put the pressure on, creating thrilling viewing for fans of the sport. While Verstappen still nabbed the Drivers’ Championship, McLaren won the Constructor’s, but an enormous seven different drivers stood top of the podium across the year.
“It was a really interesting season to get stuck into compared to some of the previous seasons which have been pretty procession-ish, with Max and Red Bull being so dominant,” Gays-Rees tells THR about the next installment of the show, dropping Friday, Mar. 7 on Netflix. “There was more to work with, which is a blessing.”
The seventh season will no doubt spotlight Leclerc’s win in his native Monaco, Norris fumbling his first WDC and Carlos Sainz’s search for an F1 seat after Hamilton’s shock move to Ferrari. But there was drama off the track, too. Last year, one of the more shocking stories was misconduct allegations made by a female employee against Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who was later exonerated following an internal probe. Just as things seemed to settle — with Horner withstanding weeks of pressure to resign — purported WhatsApp messages between him and the complainant were leaked to the entire paddock, including F1 journalists.
“The show has never been out to bury anybody and bury any of the team principles,” Gay-Rees says about covering the Horner scandal. “But it was a big story. So you can’t pretend it wasn’t there.”
Below, Gay-Rees gives THR a rare interview to talk about what Drive to Survive fans can expect from the season ahead, spotlighting how access to the drivers has changed over the years (“Max is his own man”) and airing a couple of “different” and “experimental” episodes: “They feel like Drive to Survive, but slightly left of center, if you like. I’ll be interested to see how audiences respond to that.”
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I suppose a good place to start would be: what can we expect from this season and what makes it so different to previous ones?
It was a crazy, crazy season last year with Lewis’ announcement and all the Christian Horner stuff, and just generally how competitive the season was with McLaren winning. So on a racing level, it was really interesting. It was a really interesting season to get stuck into compared to some of the previous seasons, which have been pretty procession-ish, with Max and Red Bull being so dominant. So there was more to work with, which is a blessing.
Then we tried to also innovate in a way that we came into some of the episodes. We didn’t throw the baby out of the bathwater, but there are definitely two or three episodes which are a departure for us in terms the way they’re constructed and the point of view and the type of narratives we tell. I feel really proud of those episodes, actually, because they’re all very different — they feel like Drive to Survive, but slightly left of center, if you like. I’ll be interesting to see how audiences respond to that, because they are a little bit different.
Does it focus on a driver in particular?
One of them is about one driver in particular, and it’s very standalone. It’s like a mini feature documentary about one driver in particular. And then another one has a very significant point of difference, which people might not even notice unless we tell them. But once you tell people what the point of difference is, it’s like… that’s never been done before. [Not] in our show, anyway. And then there’s another one which is told in a very unique way, which I can’t reveal until people see it. It’s just a different way of storytelling. It was an experiment and it really worked, and I think we’ll probably do more of it going forward.
Tell me a bit about access and how that’s changed over the years. Some of the drivers are more than happy to talk to you guys, some less so — Max, for example, who has dialled back his Drive to Survive appearances. How has your relationship changed with the drivers over the seasons?
They’re all slightly different, to be honest. The older guard, like the Lewis’ and the Fernando’s, they’re slightly less motivated to do [Drive to Survive] because they’ve seen it all, done it all. They’re all pretty set and don’t really need it, I suppose, is one way of interpreting it. You’ve other drivers who just are much more relaxed and just lean into it. By the way, Lewis and Fernando have given us stuff over the years. It’s not like they haven’t. They’ve both been great. But Fernando, he has a rep of being maybe a challenging character, but actually he’s been great for the show in many ways over the years, as has Lewis.
Max is his own man. The way he approaches the whole sport and the whole circus of Formula One is very much on his own terms. He’s been pretty consistent in that over the years. That’s part of who he is. And then you’ve got six rookies coming into the sport this year, and obviously they’re more media open, they understand social media more and they just generally are more relaxed. So it’s a real blend. But it’d almost be too much if all of the drivers gave us amazing access all the time. We wouldn’t know what to do with it! So you need a range and I think that range comes through in the show, and always has done. It’s probably what makes for its texture.
Does Max feature this season at all?
He’s in this year’s a little bit. It’s probably marginally more, but they’re all in it anyway because we’re in the paddock the whole time so they can’t really avoid it. Liam Lawson’s in it a lot this year, because obviously, he ends up with the [Red Bull] seat. And he’s a great character. So we have him and Max together. It’s not like Max isn’t in it at all, but he’s not front and center. And that was understood from day one.
You touched on controversy. There were a few F1 scandals last year, but perhaps the one that drew the most attention was Christian Horner. How did you go about approaching that fallout and balancing your coverage?
Well, balance is the key word. You’ve got to be balanced. And I think we are really balanced in the show. You’re a bit, “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” So you just got to do what you think is right. And I think we did. The show has never been out to bury anybody and bury any of the team principles. But it was a big story. So you can’t pretend it wasn’t there. Obviously, it’s all kind of calmed down now. We’re not looking to necessarily resuscitate it, but it was just at the beginning of the series, episode one, and then it kind of goes away like it did in reality. So we’re not trying to stir it up again, but we have to touch on it, just because it was everywhere for a bit and you couldn’t avoid it totally.
Does it continue to surprise you how well Drive to Survive does and just how much it resonates with audiences?
Yeah, it does, actually. I’m really hopeful that this season is going to land well as well, because I think it is really entertaining. I think it’s slightly different in places, and I think that people [will] appreciate that.
It has its own space in the culture now, Drive to Survive, unlike most of the other shows we make, which I’m equally proud of, but DTS was the first one. It’s the biggest one. It’s got its own fan base. It’s human nature. I think every time we finish the series, we think, ‘Oh, that could be it.’ But then there’s still demand for it. So it’s obviously up to our friends at Netflix and Formula One, to some extent, to dictate how long it goes on for. But it’s still this big, noisy show that people look forward to. As long as they keep on enjoying it, then the word of mouth will continue to be strong and people will turn up to watch it.
If Netflix allowed it, could Box to Box just keep making Drive to Survive seasons forever?
We’re hopefully about to embark on season eight. There are some shows that have done 20 seasons, 30 seasons. Some things go on and on and on. So who knows? But yeah, we definitely would. It’s our eldest child, you know? So it has a special place in the company’s heart. But everything is changing so quickly these days. You can’t really count on anything.
You’re at the races, but I know you’re extremely involved in the day-to-day and the edit, too. As you said, this really is your child.
Yeah, I’m probably the most hands on with it because it’s still probably our most important show in some respects. There’s an expectation it’s going to be good every year. So I feel very invested to lean into it.
We had a great meeting yesterday about storylines for this season coming up because we play this game every year, which is like, what do we think is going to happen? Because you can get your crystal ball out in Formula One and kind of read the stones or whatever it is, to see where things are going to land. And obviously, we quite often get caught off guard. But part of the fight is trying to work out which teams are going to blow up or which driver pairings are going to be problematic. Whatever it might be.
What sort of predictions have you made for this coming year, 2025?
It’ll be fascinating to see how Charles and Lewis get on. It’s gonna be fascinating to see how Sainz and Albon get on. Only McLaren stayed with the same driver pairing. So everywhere you look, there are new combinations. I mean, Liam Lawson’s a really punchy kid. He is number two, but he’s going to have a crack. All those rookies are coming in, I didn’t get a sense they’re there to make up the numbers. I think they’re all there [on merit] considering how massive the sport has grown and how much focus there is on it. There’s going to be cheesy story lines.
And it’s probably very fair to say that a lot of those fans are there because of Drive to Survive. So you must be very proud of your of your child.
[Laughs.] It’s great. I’m glad for the sport. It’s been good for us, been good for the teams. We’ll see how it goes. It’s unrecognizable from when we first started.
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Drive to Survive is now streaming new episodes on Netflix.