Formula 1: Drive to Survive - Season 7

To call Netflix's collection of sports documentaries and the team (Box to Box) behind the vast majority of them good, would be a somewhat incomprehensible understatement. In this specific area, the streaming giant behind Stranger Things and Narcos is completely superior to the competition and has taken a concept that HBO and ESPN once honed, and improved it immeasurably. Over the past few years, I've watched hours and hours of documentaries on golf and the PGA Tour, among other things, a sport I find boring at the best of times. I have also watched countless hours behind the scenes of the NFL, another sport I'm not a huge fan of. The same goes for rugby, another sport that I don't care the slightest bit about, but that I now know a lot about anyway, thanks to Netflix. Everything has also been absolutely brilliant entertainment, just like Last Dance, Court of Gold, Break Point, and Drive to Survive, which is now back in the form of a seventh season.

There's already a storm at the start of the seventh season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, as Netflix appropriately takes its cue from the shenanigans that Red Bull boss Christian Horner got up to last season and the shitstorm that blew through the sport because of it. Horner flees the cameras, won't comment, and won't answer, while McLaren boss Zac Brown answers for him, which builds up tension, irritation, and is cut at a furious pace making the start of this seventh season one of the strongest yet for the much-loved documentary series. Netflix doesn't stop there for long, either. Like other documentaries of this type, they don't get gimmicky or try to "construct" drama as they did primarily in seasons one and two, but portray the chaos within Red Bull in a sensible and truthful way.

After that, all the focus is on Lewis Hamilton and the fact that early last season he announced to the sporting world that after 12 seasons with Mercedes he was leaving the team. Their misfiring car and complications with the management (Toto Wolff has gone from strength-to-strength with his multi-billion dollar team in recent years...) led to the greatest driver of all-time signing with Ferrari and this is the subject of a couple of episodes, and is also handled really well. Unfortunately we don't get much insight into Lewis' thoughts and reasoning as he hasn't volunteered for interviews this time but Wolff talks enough for the pair of them, while talking head and commentator Will Buxton runs his mouth constantly as usual.

From there the production team jump on to covering Carlos Sainz's amazing final season with Ferrari and more or less ask the question of whether Ferrari perhaps let go of the "wrong driver" to make way for Hamilton? After that, it's time for an episode about the growing rivalry between former mates Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, about how the relationship between the two go-karting youngsters changed and eventually crumbles as Norris decides not to be as friendly and respectful on the track as he always has been, and instead starts to use the same ruthless egoism that made Verstappen a superstar. This episode is the highlight of the series I would say and a cleverly put together one in every way. The fact that Verstappen is now back, for the first time in four seasons, and allows himself to be interviewed by the documentary team obviously adds a lot to this.

The seventh season of Drive to Survive is one of the best so far in a documentary series that in every conceivable way must be considered one of the absolute greatest ever made at this point. Now I just hope Netflix gets round to doing the same with Indycar and GTE/LeMans, for real racing, for men and not for privileged youth...