By Jaci Hernandez
Staff Writer
Things are dramatic as ever in the new season of “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.” The fifth season hit Netflix on Feb. 24, 2023.
The Formula 1 documentary first came to Netflix in 2019 and it seems that over the seasons it has become more popular on the streaming service.
The documentary is about the Formula 1 team principals, teams, individual drivers and all of the behind-the-scenes and on track drama that goes on between them.
I didn’t even know what Formula 1 was before watching this show, much less how rich of a sport it was. The teams in Formula 1 include Red Bull Racing, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari.
When I watched the first episode of this show, I was hooked on the drama and the second-hand adrenaline.
When watching the show, the audience becomes a spectator and starts to root for the team or driver that they want to win. In the end though, there can only be one team and driver that wins the championship.
Seasons one through four have been the same in terms of drama and winning teams, but season five was completely different.
Season five covers the 2022 season of Formula 1 and the rules were different this year.
This year the teams all had a budget cap when it came to building their race car and this was definitely a big deal and a game changer.
This makes a difference, because in the past without a cap on how much they can spend the richer teams always had the money to make the best car.
This means that teams like Mercedes and Red Bull Racing have always been at the front of the races winning, while lesser rich teams like Williams and Haas F1 Team were always stuck in the back never having a chance.
These new rule changes made the season more interesting to watch. The lesser rich teams were able to race more with the richer teams and this is exactly what the people in charge of Formula 1 wanted. They wanted more racing, more action and more drama and that’s exactly what happened.
There was a learning curve to the new cars this season which meant that there were also more crashes.
One of my favorite things to watch this season was the increased rivalry between the team principal of Red Bull Racing and Mercedes. These two have been going at it since season one, but the frustrations seemed to be really boiling over this season.
If anyone is looking to get into a new show, I definitely recommend watching “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.” Even if people aren’t really a fan of racing, it’s still fun to watch.
I love to watch the relationships between the drivers and the teams. The relationships are constantly shifting because of what is happening and drivers going to different teams throughout the years.
You get to know the people from the teams and you grow to love some of them and you grow to not love some of the others.
Two of my favorite people from the show are the driver Daniel Riccardo and the team principal of the Haas F1 Team, Guenther Steiner.
This show isn’t about watching fast cars go around and around on a track; it’s about everything leading up to it and afterwards and the relationships that are formed. So, in my opinion everyone should check out this show at least once.
Rating: 5 / 5