The Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive has taken the F1 world by storm, peaking the interests of previously disinterested markets by offering an intimate and behind the scenes view of the world’s most technical and lucrative sport. But what exactly goes into making an episode of Drive to Survive?
At every F1 race, Netflix has at least 1 crew consisting of a producer, camera operator and audio operator. At many races, they have two crews and for marquee events like Austin, Silverstone and Monza they have 3 crews, 2 of which are embedded with a team and 1 floating.
When embedded, the crewmembers have to wear team colours and can only mix with that team for the weekend due to Covid regulations. The embedded crews have access to drivers, management, team meetings and the garage, meaning they have to be very discreet when shooting and can’t talk about what they’re privy to with anyone outside the team, as it could compromise the team and their strategy.
Each episode has a different director and because of the amount of footage they capture over a race weekend, the editing process takes weeks. To ensure episodes don’t repeat coverage of events, the directors meet regularly to go over content and the narrative.
The crews use an array of high tech digital gear to film each week and have access to F1’s vision. They are not allowed to use their vision until the end of the season so as not to compromise F1’s broadcast partners who pay megabucks to show the sport live.
In the paddock, the Netflix crew have right of way over us photographers; we simply work around them. I get along well with a number of the crew and we often share “intelligence”, particularly regarding drivers’ whereabouts in the paddock.
The “docufiction” has been a real game changer for the sport. A typical series is seen by 50+million people and it attracts a multitude of new fans eager to see what goes on behind the scenes.
The producers are filming a 5th series now but whether it will continue into the future revolves around what it continues to do for the sport.
