Drive to Survive producer insists "authenticity" is its goal amid claims of fakery · RaceFans

The new season of Netflix’s hit Formula 1 series Drive to Survive has prompted fresh accusations of inaccuracy but its producer insists they strive to be authentic.

Lando Norris described parts of one seventh-season episode as “incorrect” and “almost lying” last weekend. Other drivers previously raised concerns about the liberties they believe Drive to Survive has taken with the truth.

The programme makers use their exclusive access to teams in the paddock to offer a behind-the-scenes look at F1. The series’ executive producer James Gay-Rees insists they always strive to present viewers with a realistic version of events within the constraints of their 40-minute episodes.

“You have to get the essence of what you’re trying to get across,” he told The National. “It becomes an interpretation of what happened, but our ambition is always to tell an authentic story.”

Since its debut in 2019, Drive to Survive has made unlikely stars out of some of the paddock’s less well-known figures, particularly the team principals. Gay-Rees described it as “an extremely bitchy world.”

“That’s why it’s such a great place to make a show. There are heroes and villains. People are out to win at any price and will do whatever it takes.

“It’s a very fertile precinct in which to make a series because it’s so contained. The characters don’t change. It’s dangerous and political and scandalous and gossipy. Those are the key ingredients.”

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However the series has been dogged by allegations of inaccuracy since its first season. Max Verstappen was so unhappy with his depiction that he refused to co-operate with the series’ producers on some later seasons. He has since returned, but seldom figures prominently in it, and has his own content deal with broadcaster Viaplay. Other drivers have also objected to how Drive to Survive portrayed them.

The series has been credited for contributing to F1’s rising popularity in recent years. Gay-Rees said F1 was previously “being described, somewhat unfairly, as being a bit male, pale and stale.”

“It just wasn’t very cool,” he said. “It had been in the past, but it wasn’t going through one of its more sexy cycles, for want of a better expression.”

Female viewers are a significant part of F1’s new audience, which Gay-Rees says is no surprise to him. “You’ve got sexy young men driving sports cars and risking their lives. I mean, it’s a pretty basic sort of equation for success. My 18-year-old daughter didn’t even know how to spell ‘Formula 1’ two years ago. Now she’s obsessed. It’s brilliant.”