‘Drive To Survive’ Season 5 Review: A Poor Narrative With Glaring Blind Spots

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco leads his teammate Carlos Sainz of Spain and Red Bull driver Sergio Perez of Mexico during the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix at the Monaco race track. | Photo credit: AP

“This is not a documentary,” Toto Wolff, team principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, remarked in one of the opening sequences — I’d like to take his word for this review.

The popular documentary series is back in the paddock with a fifth episode after a modest on-track and busy off-track season. After being controversial Last lap pass in Abu Dhabi In 2021, the 2022 season started on a new note with a Revision of Regulations which promised to promote better racing. However, the series fails to take an in-depth look at the new regulations to help audiences understand the new car’s structure and the upheaval of power dynamics in the paddock with Ferrari building a championship-contending car. I am more interested. The ever so dominant Mercedes is lagging behind.

Weather history sticks out like a sore thumb. Drive to survive. Continues to follow a non-linear narrative structure that is bound to confuse anyone unfamiliar with the game and sticks to thrilling horror mishaps.

Inadequate when describing surrounding events Violation of Red Bull’s cost limit The obvious and the show’s willful ignorance of the brawl between teammates Max Verstappen and Sergio ‘Chico’ Perez at the Brazilian Grand Prix comes across as a sneaky ploy to keep Verstappen in their good books. Verstappen has previously been vocal with his criticism of the show and refused to participate in season 4 of the Netflix original.

His attempt to do away with some principles seems poor and futile. Williams, a legacy Formula One team, got no mention on the show. Paying a well-prepared series Farewell to Daniel Ricciardo Forced out of the McLaren F1 team, he completely ignored it. Sebastian Vettel’s retirement Except for one minute where he introduced “Silly Season” on the back of his retirement video. A giant of the sport, Vettel leaves the track for the last time in Abu Dhabi after 15 glorious years – four drivers’ championships, 53 race wins, 57 pole positions and 298 race starts with five teams. His inattention to his contributions is disrespectful.

However, rescuing this sinking ship has the usual fan favorites operating in a formulaic way — Ricciardo and Guenther Steiner play their part to the T and leave fans with witty one-liners. . Creator of Drive to survive. They seem to have learned from their reception of the previous four seasons and not gotten their hands dirty trying to create animosity and misrepresent references out of context. Show footage of a team principals’ meeting that saw Toto Wolff lose his cool, Oscar Piastri’s contract drama between Alpine and McLaren and the customary behind-the-scenes make-up for some of the flaws.

If you want to familiarize yourself with the world of motorsports, it’s best to go back to the first season of the show to get your basics right. The punctured narrative and blind spots in the latest season are too obvious to ignore. This begs the question – is the show relevant now?

Drive to Survive is currently streaming on Netflix.