The Formula 1 world champion in 2021 refused to participate in the fourth season of ‘Drive to Survive’, a documentary series that was first broadcast in 2019 and that narrates the previous year’s championship in a rather peculiar way.
In the wake of the recently published fourth season, some drivers have acknowledged being very concerned for the same reason that Max Verstappen decided not to be part of the documentary: “They faked some rivalries that don’t really exist,” said the Red Bull driver.
Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were some of the drivers who supported those comments, since the British’s participation contains scenes related to his teammate at McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo, in which a rivalry is told that really was not like that.
Complaints from drivers led F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali to say in Bahrain at the opening 2022 event that he would speak to Netflix because “it is necessary that the story they tell does not stray from reality, otherwise doesn’t fit anymore.”
Ahead of the Saudi Grand Prix, Verstappen said he would “always be happy to speak” with Domenicali to discuss his vision for ‘DTS’ , before describing his specific problems as a show he called “‘Keeping up with the Formula 1 World'”, a clear reference to the TV show ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’.
“I saw some episodes of the last season and I was surprised, suddenly I saw myself speaking in them,” said Verstappen , who finally managed to win a titanic duel against Charles Leclerc in Jeddah.
“It’s probably scenes from 2018 or something they took and used again, scenes about the fights and what I like to do.”
“That of course is not correct. I could even hear that my voice was a bit different.”
“And I also realized that on several occasions I was saying things and they were around with a microphone picking up a lot of things. So I think I’ll have to be a little more careful with that as well.”
Verstappen added: “What I didn’t like, and it’s not even about me, was Lando and Daniel , who I think are two great people.”
“They’re really nice and they made Lando look like a bit of an idiot, which he’s not.”
“And again, I know Lando and I think a lot of people also know him as a fun guy, a great guy, he’s got a great character. And actually, when you watch that episode, you’re really like, ‘Who is this? What the hell is going on?'”.
“I’m someone that when you mess something up early on, you can’t fix it anymore. That’s it, they messed it up. So that’s where I stand and that’s where I’ll stay.”
Other drivers who spoke alongside Verstappen acknowledged that DTS was “initially beneficial to gain more popularity” in Formula 1, but also believe they need to be more precise in their future representations.
Haas driver Mick Schumacher said, “The first part of Drive to Survive, the first few seasons, are quite interesting and dramatic.”
“And that draws a lot of people. But I guess as they go along, I think it’s important that they get more precise with some of the things that count.”
“Don’t mix in comments or radio messages [as happened with a radio message from Norris in season four implying that Ricciardo had run him off the line in Bahrain when he really hadn’t] and stay true to how things went in reality”.
