Episodes 5 and 6 of Netflix’s Drive to Survive Season 7 successfully elevate emotional impact when retelling the story of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Amid a jam-packed 2024 F1 campaign, these two installments of the latest season of Drive to Survive pick up on two of the key moments from last year: Charles Leclerc’s emotional triumph at Monaco and the intra-team tensions at McLaren between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Motorsport Week, surely like many others selected Leclerc’s win at his home race after several years of bad luck as one of the greatest moments of the 2024 season, and it’s no surprise to see Netflix dedicate an entire episode to this story. Leclerc’s struggles at Monaco have been a consistent part of the Netflix narrative and ‘Le Curse of Leclerc’ brings a resounding end to this particular story.
The emotional pathos of this story is poignant given the passing of Leclerc’s father, Herve, in 2017, and that is a key facet to this episode. Leclerc didn’t have to, but he chose to tell the Netflix cameras about the time he lied to his father before his passing, saying he’d made it into F1, recounting the joy his father felt but the guilt wrapped up in the lie, which only came true after his father’s sad demise.
‘Le Curse of Leclerc’ also bears witness to how much attention Monaco puts upon its hero during the GP weekend at the Principality as the Ferrari driver is mobbed from pillar to post with cheers and adoration.
After his historic race victory and the Monaco curse being lifted, Leclerc delivers another emotional hammer blow in saying “I definitely did not only realise my dream, but my father’s dream. He’s probably celebrating it from above.”
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur even admits “I don’t often get emotional but I was a little. Honestly, I think it’s something exceptional. If there’s anyone who can be proud of him, it’s him and his dad and his family.”
You’ll need the tissues for this one.
Norris vs Piastri
‘Wheels Of Fortune,’ Episode 6 of the new Drive to Survive series pokes and probes into the inner workings of McLaren as Piastri emerges as a challenger to Norris amid the team’s fight to be Constructors’ champion and its senior driver fighting for the Drivers’ title.
There were two incredible flashpoints in the McLaren intra-team battle and those are both covered in this episode, Hungary and Monza. The Woking-based squad’s unique pit-stop strategy that surrendered Piastri’s Budapest lead to Norris, only for the team to plan for a swap on track was a source of drama as the Briton rebelled against team orders for several laps.
At the time, it prompted fire fighting by the McLaren comms team to ensure harmony was at play, but a conversation between Norris and his friend and Quadrant business partner Max Fewtrell two days later gives an interesting insight into the racing driver psyche.
“It made Oscar feel like, underwhelmed and it made me feel shit,” Norris said. “At first I wasn’t going to let him through. I don’t know. It’s tough.”
Fewtrell believes the team should have been clearer to which Norris replies “my actions were very clear” before both begrudgingly admit he did the right thing.
McLaren’s leaders heading into the Italian GP speak of their desire to have two number one drivers, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff tells Netflix that he’d back Norris before Piastri jumps into the chair to calmly state he doesn’t want to be playing second fiddle.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner is then asked “if you could have one of the McLaren drivers who would it be?”
His reply: “Oscar.”
Cue the Lap 1 moment in Italy where Piastri passes Norris for the lead with a risky manoeuvre that eventually drops his McLaren team-mate to third.
“The problem is not only did he put Lando at risk, he compromised our strategy,” Zak Brown tells Andrea Stella on the pitwall. True enough, Charles Leclerc was the benefactor as he took a second career victory at the Italian GP. The disappointment from the McLaren pit-wall is evident and Netflix is perfectly poised to drop in a shot of Norris staring menacingly at Piastri in parc ferme to heighten the tension.
“If I had expected him to do that, he would never have had the chance to do it,” Norris says in the Netflix chair.
McLaren comes out of Monza and goes into Baku telling Piastri he’s now playing a supporting role to Norris in the championship, which he takes admirably but not jubilantly, of course, given he’s a competitor in his own right. It’s poetic then that Piastri ends up winning in Azerbaijan and the end of this episode celebrates McLaren going into the lead of the Constructors’ championship.
However, the behind-the-scenes drama exhibited in this episode goes to show how McLaren possibly failed to capitalise in the Drivers’ Championship when Red Bull was at its most vulnerable.
In summary, Episodes 5 and 6 seldom feature low points for Netflix, instead delivering on emotion, drama and intrigue.
READ MORE – F1 Drive to Survive Season 7 Review: Episodes 3 & 4 offer differing results
