Drive to survive
 

Ten episode, season 4 is out and great to watch while waiting for this season to begin. I'm guessing Toto and Horner will never ever be on friendly terms again. They say some real nasty things about each other, kind of sad really.

1/2 way thru. Good stuff!

I've watched a couple of episodes a night since Friday, and last night, I watched the second to last episode - my takeaway is that Toto Wolff and Christian Horner have managed to suck all the joy out of the show with their bickering and constant reminders that competition is brutal and cutthroat at this level. I think any race fan is acutely aware of that fact considering the amount of money involved and the jobs involved, but can we please shine a light on some of the fun parts of F1? Seems like each episode just takes me further down bummer road.
I'm not even sure if I care if I want to watch the final episode anymore; I know what happens and I'm not sure I want to see the result through the Netflix filter. (And I don't appreciate the notice that NF will be raising prices 24 bucks a year starting in April. I'm sick to death of annual increases in my subscription costs, and DtoS is not a reason to make me want to keep paying for their service.

This last season it felt like the animus was down to the FIA and race control being weak but also entertaining way too much input from the teams, specifically Toto and Christian.

I believe if FIA, stewards, and Race Director had been more 'neutral and detached' and not allowed all the politicking over the radio a lot of this may have been avoided. Set up a rule/requirement that your issues must be presented in writing and we will rule in due time. Obviously, that doesn't fix stuff that happens during a race. But if they set out the rules (like track limits) before a race and enforced all rules consistently there would seem to be less opportunity for during race complaints.

I didn't finish last season DTS, not sure if I will even start this one.

Their sound mixing engineer is not very good. The interviews are too quiet, the music too loud, and for some reason the audio from the track footage is sometimes both.

i didnt care to watch it, as drive to survive alway stokes up the drama even higher, and there was no need to stoke extra drama into last season. which was pathetic, had they enforced the rules, hamilton would have sewn up the title 3 races before the end, with how terrible max drives.

i watched RACE: bubba wallace instead. and i very much enjoyed it. nothing better than one of the best plate track racers in the world saying straight up, repeatedly: road racing is ****ing hard.

I'm trying to watch it, but it smells so much like a reality show, I'm having a hard time.

Exactly!

Even my wife is enjoying this season other than the audio.

You lot are hard to please ;-)
It was a great season, and it was a good DTS serving as a refresher before the season restarts.. Yeah they missed some stuff (Ham's drive in Brazil? or maybe I dozed off), but I thought they did a decent job of putting stuff out there and not picking sides, and did not exagerate drama like they may have before. The toto/Horner feud was real. So was Max/Lewis. Plus I enjoyed watching Toto throw his headphones again "Nein !!"

I laughed when Toto wailed: "MY KEY NOOOooo!" long after the decision was made, and only after his guy got passed for the lead and the title.

I started watching Season 4 last weekend, only watching the first two episodes so far. I think the production quality of the show has gone up a bit each season, as they refine what they want to present.

I have heard and read comments about the show, saying that Netflix focuses on battles and competitive situations that don’t really exist, or they magnify small issues to build drama. Even some of the drivers have said this.

But if the whole focus of the series was just the race action, I think it would be boring. I find it interesting to see things like team driver competition in more depth. And the midfield competitions, like McLaren-Renault, add a better understanding of what goes on during a season. I mean, with Mercedes’ dominance of the top Constructors finish for eight straight years, and the Drivers’ Championship for seven, the real battles have been for those “best of the rest” positions (2nd through 5th). Anything below that, and NOBODY cares.

I’m looking forward to seeing the first race, and how well the new car designs allow closer racing and more passing. I want to see if Haas’ 2021 plan for no development of the previous car pays off for 2022, and how well Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher will do. And what will Sebastian Vettel be able to do with the new Aston Martin car. And Valtteri Bottas proving his skills with a lesser team/car. And I want to see Lando Norris win at least two races this year.


-rb