Drive to Survive Season 8 review: A major missed opportunity with glaring errors

The 2025 F1 season featured so many intriguing and interesting subplots that the producers of Drive to Survive must have been squeaking with joy as it unfolded.

There was Lewis Hamilton's bombshell move to Ferrari, turning into an utter nightmare, whilst his Mercedes replacement, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli, learnt about Formula 1 the hard way. 

The seismic sacking of Christian Horner by Red Bull and the resulting charge by Max Verstappen over the final rounds to leave him ultimately just two points short of stealing away the drivers' championship from McLaren, whose trials and tribulations could have probably filled an entire season of the show itself.

But there were also the stories further down the grid, such as Alpine's decision to boot Jack Doohan from a race seat for Franco Colapinto and Nico Hulkenberg finally getting a podium. 

Whilst it is all covered in the eight episodes which constitute Season 8 of the show, which releases this Friday globally, the final product left a feeling of flatness, and one of: 'Is that it?'.

For example, the intra-McLaren fight between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri is only covered really up to Norris' victory at the British Grand Prix, with a look at his struggles in the car in the early part of the season, whilst Piastri won four of the first six races.

But there is a glaring omission in terms of the papaya rules debate, which engulfed the two at points during the season. There is no mention at all of Hungary, where Norris one-stopped his way to the win, the controversial Italian GP team order swap, or Norris barging his way past an outraged Piastri at Turn 2 in Singapore. 

Surely the behind-the-scenes reaction Drive to Survive has become famous for would have been better served here by dedicating airtime to this rather than following Zak Brown and Piastri playing racing driver at Paul Ricard in Ayrton Senna's 1991 McLaren and Fernando Alonso's 2007 McLaren?

It all feels a bit too PR-happy, with the shine taken away from the show, and it is too rounded, too refined, too polished, where if the various PR departments don't want something shown, such as the responses to Hungary, Italy, or Singapore, for example, they won't be. Piastri's crumbling in the final stages of the championship fight is also completely ignored.

In a way, one protagonist has been replaced by another. Whereas it was 'The Christian Horner Show' in previous years, it is now firmly 'The Zak Brown Show' with the McLaren CEO taking up a considerably greater chunk of airtime than some drivers, with some not even appearing at all. 

The episode on the Las Vegas GP is particularly galling as the show tries to centre it around the four leading figures from the top teams - Brown, Fred Vasseur of Ferrari, Toto Wolff of Mercedes and Laurent Mekies of Red Bull. 

The fact that Andrea Stella is nominally team principal of McLaren is not addressed, and he appears as some bloke sitting next to and talking to Brown on the pit wall. 

Pre-race, the four are shown in their different approaches, with Wolff even appearing to roll the dice at the table as the Las Vegas clichés are well-used. Post-race, as the word begins to filter through of McLaren's double DSQ, it is summed up that "Zak gambled and lost," as if to imply that the McLaren CEO himself was responsible for a technical infringement. 

Again, in Qatar, after the howler of a decision not to pit under the safety car, the friendly PR gloss is layered upon the situation, with the only moment of pure behind-the-scenes content being Brown seeking out Norris and Piastri to explain McLaren's baffling decision, just as Max Verstappen looms large. 

It was perhaps a choice to hint at but largely refrain from mentioning Verstappen throughout the episodes, until the final couple, where he figures as he continues to rip chunks out of the McLarens. 

But he doesn't appear on-screen in a sit-down interview, despite Brown and others constantly reminding the audience of the Dutchman's prowess. It all feels a bit too much bark, not enough bite. 

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Christian Horner and others

The episode about Horner's dismissal from Red Bull ends with the former boss setting out some facts in a specially recorded interview at his house, detailing the build-up of tension with Helmut Marko. 

In the first episode, Toto Wolff delivers a killer line in response to Horner's booing at the F175 launch event, and that 'rivalry' is made up, as Horner reveals Wolff's message to him after being sacked in July 2025.

However, much like the paddock as a whole, the show feels quieter without Horner, a man renowned for lobbing a hand grenade or two into this or that just to cause some noise. It is a shame Horner was not kept on to effectively become a talking head after his dismissal from Red Bull.

Elsewhere, the scale of Lewis Hamilton's struggles at Ferrari is barely covered in any great detail, whilst a great deal is placed on Kimi Antonelli, who concedes he was "ashamed" at his performance in the Belgian GP weekend. 

What is interesting, however, is how team-mate George Russell is used throughout the series. Russell doesn't feature as a lead in any episode, but appears to take on a more commentary route, akin to becoming a talking head himself. He is used to help drive the plot, such as explaining how the Verstappen camp wanted Horner out of Red Bull. 

Overall, Drive to Survive season 8 does a job. It will get its views and clicks on Netflix, but it is a show which is not what it once was. It feels as if it has gone away from what made it so successful, the behind-the-scenes glimpse into the gorilla-war, back-stabbing Piranah Club. 

Instead, Season 8 feels like a glorified advert for the positives in Formula 1, which, by and large, is what the show was only ever intended to be, but that's not what made it successful. 

OVERALL RATING OUT OF 10: 4

Season 8 of Netflix's Drive to Survive launches globally on Friday, 27th February.