For those who adopted together with the 2021-22 Components 1 season, that Netflix’s newest installment of Components 1: Drive To Survive is definite to be a doozy.
Fortunately, the wait is almost over. Drive To Survive Season 4 launches on March 11, and Netflix launched the official trailer for the present at this time.
Right here’s the factor:
There are few, if any exhibits, which have had fairly the identical impression on a sport as Drive To Survive has for Components 1.
In accordance with the Guardian, general scores for precise Components 1 in 2021 had been up greater than 40 p.c, making it the most-watched F1 season within the U.S. ever. The outlet says that the game added an estimated 73 million followers final 12 months, globally.
People, who’ve often opted for Nascar if not non-automotive sports activities altogether, are clamoring sufficient for the game so as to add a second U.S.-based race in Miami this 12 months. And sure, there’s supposedly a seashore membership within the heart of the monitor, in true Miami vogue.
You possibly can’t draw a straight line from the Netflix docuseries to the expansion of Components 1, but it surely appears clear that there’s no less than a correlation if not direct causation.
However there’s one other aspect to this coin. As a new-ish Components 1 fan myself, drawn in by the docuseries, I’ve observed an extremely frequent sentiment among the many OG F1 followers: They are saying that the Netflix present has ruined the game.
Let me catch you up briefly on this newest Components 1 season for context.
Mercedes AMG Petronas has been dominant in Components 1 for almost a decade. The workforce has are available in first place within the World Constructors Championship (how good is your automobile?) and first place within the World Drivers Championship (how good is your driver?) for seven consecutive years… till final 12 months.
With sweeping modifications to the sporting rules forthcoming, Mercedes determined to focus most of its sources and vitality on the 2022 season and automobile, leaving a gap for its rival, Purple Bull Racing, to make a play for first place. And it did.
Max Verstappen (Components 1’s resident dangerous boy and lead Purple Bull driver) and Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton (seven-time Drivers champion and a number of file holder) had been neck and neck all season lengthy, buying and selling P1 and P2 — or, first and second place — almost each single race.
Hamilton was behind going into the ultimate 4 races, and received the primary three. The ’21-’22 champion can be decided within the last race, in Abu Dhabi. A nail biter of a season is uncommon within the sport, and even moreso since Mercedes completely took over.
Hamilton led a lot of the last race, regardless of a Herculean effort by Checo Perez (Verstappen’s teammate on Purple Bull) to carry him up and provides Verstappen an opportunity to overhaul. A pair security automobiles, one digital and one actual, led Verstappen to vary to recent tires, whereas Hamilton and Mercedes selected to maintain monitor place and depart on the previous tires.
(A ‘security automobile’ comes out throughout a warning interval as a result of an obstruction on monitor or another incident. The security automobile guidelines require the racers to decelerate and they don’t seem to be allowed to overhaul.)
That is the place issues get extremely furry.
The ultimate security automobile was attributable to a crash. The foundations state that in a security automobile, all of the lapped autos ought to overtake the security automobile and take their place within the precise order of automobiles. (Vehicles can usually get blended up as a result of being lapped or going into the pits for tire modifications.) The foundations additionally state that after all of the lapped automobiles have assumed their rightful place in line, the security automobile ought to take an extra lap earlier than exiting, at which level racing resumes on the beginning line.
FIA director Michael Masi ignored these guidelines, solely permitting the automobiles between Hamilton (the chief) and Verstappen (P2) to unlap themselves. He additionally introduced the security automobile in a lap early.
In different phrases, the race ought to have completed underneath a security automobile, which might have been anticlimactic however would even have been true to the principles of the game. Nonetheless, that’s not what occurred.
With recent tires, Verstappen simply overtook Hamilton within the final lap and finally received the race, and the Drivers Championship.
Unsurprisingly, there are many Components 1 followers who really feel that the officers juiced the story line to maintain new Netflix followers entranced. To be clear, this wasn’t the primary ‘iffy’ name of the season that appeared to stage out Hamilton and Verstappen.
Something that means tampering with the equity of the game can be justifiably upsetting to long-time followers.
Others, like Purple Bull Racing workforce principal Christian Horner (who’s randomly married to Ginger Spice), appear happy to be having fun with the Netflix impact, even when his emotions are misguided at greatest and misogynist at worst.
Like I mentioned, I’m a brand new fan to Components 1 exactly as a result of of Drive To Survive, so I’m clearly biased. However I believe something that draws an viewers to what I’ve come to seek out is an enchanting, advanced, adrenaline-pumping sport might be a great factor.
Do I believe that adjusting or bending the principles as a way to produce a greater storyline is correct? Completely not. Am I saying that’s precisely what occurred? I haven’t the slightest clue.
All I do know is that I’m one hundred pc able to mainline this subsequent season of Drive To Survive on Friday and segue that vitality immediately into the ’22-’23 season of Components 1. Who’s with me?