Max Verstappen pulls no punches as he critiques Drive to Survive once again fabricating storylines in Season 7
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen claimed that his portrayal on Netflix's F1 series 'Drive to Survive' in its seventh season did not "surprise" him. The F1 series on the global streaming platform has worked wonders for the sport by introducing several new and young fans to the sport.
Drive to Survive's first season aired on Netflix in 2019 and depicted the behind-the-scenes in the F1 paddock and presented the most interesting storylines over the season. However, it has attracted some criticism for its tendency to fabricate storylines, such as driver rivalries and over-dramatize some situations to create an effect.
One of the main critics of the series has been Red Bull driver and four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver has denied appearing on the show for multiple seasons, as he did not agree with their presentation of him and the events over the course of the season in general.
During the media interactions ahead of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, the 27-year-old criticized Season 7 of Drive to Survive (which premiered on Netflix on March 7), and his negative portrayal, saying:
"That doesn't surprise me. I haven't watched the episodes myself. But unfortunately, every now and then I see clips of them appear in my timeline via people I follow on Twitter. You have to quickly click on 'Ignore' so that you don't see them in your feed anymore No, not on block, because those people will see that. Ignoring is more convenient."
Max Verstappen further reiterated that his focus lay on the 2025 season in Melbourne this weekend, given he is set to defend his driver's championship title this year.
Max Verstappen previews season opener in Australia: "We are not the quickest at the moment"
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen said that he and the team will find out more about their standing and the RB21 during the weekend at the Australian Grand Prix.
As per F1.com, the Dutchman was asked about his feelings for the upcoming season and the strategy the Austrian outfit would be proceeding with. In response, Verstappen felt that the small amount of testing did not allow them to extract enough data to gain a complete insight of the car.
“Positive shape, I guess. I don’t know! I guess we’ll find out more this weekend and after. We’ll try to do our best – there’s not really much more that we can do. Testing is not many days, so we found a few areas we can work on and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
“I know that we are not the quickest at the moment, but again it’s a very long season. If you would have asked that question here last year then at the end of the season again it looked completely different, so a lot of things can always change quite quickly in Formula 1.”
The grid for this season is expected to be tighter in comparison to previous iterations, with McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes all having closed the gap to Red Bull. Max Verstappen will start the season with Liam Lawson by his side, with the former looking to clinch his fifth championship title in a row.