Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Hello and welcome to the Grand Prix Podcast Drive to Survive edition, but in honour of Drive to Survive, I'm Will Buxton. Drive to Survive is back, the show that, if it didn't exist, would not be here. Season 8 has landed on Netflix. Netflix is a streaming platform. To watch it, you need to press play. And when you press play, it will begin. We're in Season 8, which comes after Season 7 and before a potential Season 9. The cars are fast. Faster, in fact, than the cars that are slower. The stakes could not be higher. And if they were any lower, they would not be as high. as the stakes currently are. Some moments will make you emotional and emotion, as we know it, is what you feel when you're feeling something. Sorry. Sorry, Will, I had to do it. Literally live for you.

• Speaker #1

  It's so accurate, though.

• Speaker #0

  It's so accurate. That is right. Netflix has dropped... Drive to Survive Season 8, and once again, Formula 1's most talked about show has got everyone buzzing, whether you've been trackside since the days of Schumacher, or you just came for the drama and stayed for the racing. But before we dive in, how the fuck did we even get here? Well, I'll tell you. If you cast your mind back to 2017, the American company Liberty Media bought Formula 1 for 3.3 billion pounds, showed Bernie Eccleston the door after 40 years, and immediately started dragging the sport into the modern era. They set their sights on getting more digital rights, more social media promotion and getting more marketing muscles. It was a sport that had been running on fumes and fax machines and was suddenly thinking about reach. A year later, two things happened. We decided to ditch the grid girls, because that was not okay, and commissioned Netflix to make Drive to Survive, which is of course a fly on the wall documentary filled with unfiltered access to the drivers, the teams and the chaos behind the pit wall. And this was not accidental. F1 had a very deliberate target and they wanted three different audiences, which they've been chasing for years. And they are younger fans, female fans, and crucially, Americans. And it worked. US TV viewership more than doubled between 2018 and 2022. By 2020, the 16 to 35 age bracket accounted for 77% of F1's entire audience growth. Drive to Survive wasn't just a TV show. It was an injection of relevance. And then came season seven. which covered the 2024 F1 season, and it became the most watched sports documentary in Netflix history with 10.4 million views, which brings us now to season eight. We have eight brand new episodes, which feature Zac Brown getting told off for biting his nails, Jordan Russell casually revealing that his skincare batch smelled like semen, and Christian Horner conducting an interview in what looked like his horse's stables. So let's get into it, ladies. What did we think of season eight, Dry to Survive?

• Speaker #2

  Mid.

• Speaker #1

  Yes.

• Speaker #2

  cool thank you so much for listening let's tune in next week well i liked your stats that was that was very nice you know i'm a stats and numbers girly just like that now but lovely to know what a dull season there were lots of things yeah i could tell you were gonna say and i and i have i have a theory i think where over the years different races and stuff have like basically said i'm not taking part it's over-dramatised Lewis and Max namely I think that there's a lot...

• Speaker #0

  And Fernando, he was in it for a couple of seconds. I think they cut him out.

• Speaker #2

  Because he was in it for like a second. And Lance Stroll as well.

• Speaker #1

  And Ollie Bearman. Ollie Bearman pointed out his footage was going to be lost and was all gone.

• Speaker #2

  But it was like, I think it's become politicised now. So there's probably a lot more negotiation with, if you talk about this, if you talk about this, if you talk about this, we're not taking part. And I think it really, really shows because there's some really obvious things that were not in there at all. That it's just like, how the fuck would you miss that? And it's obviously a very deliberate miss.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  agreed. I have a bit of a controversial take on this, which leads us to our first talking point, which I think Christian Horner said it best in season eight in the opening episode when he claimed it's like you have to be a pantomime villain.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Which drives his vibe is obviously jam packed with the drama, the rivalry, the gossip and the rumours. But I felt there was a clear absence felt across the series as the Red Bull boss was shown the door mid-scene. And I think that we bid farewell to one of our favourite villains. Oh, God, yeah. If Snyder was one of our favourite Drive to Survive heroes, I mean, Christian Horner is the perfect fucking villain.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  And seeing him on stage... I'm sorry. I'm on stage. I'm saying it. I'm saying it. Well, it's fantastic to be in the O2 anyway. Have a great night. As he's getting booed, the fucking boot's housed down. Also,

• Speaker #1

  everyone's reactions.

• Speaker #2

  He's like, mate, what? In London? Like, London doesn't, just because he's British doesn't mean, like, everyone's going to forget the sexual harassment allegations.

• Speaker #1

  He actually wrote,

• Speaker #0

  Liam Lawson dash mate how in London. And there's a dash, Liam learns that news is international live on Netflix. What?

• Speaker #1

  What does he mean? I love seeing everyone's reactions behind the scenes. Like, Lewis's eyes go wide as he can't get food. But also, I was going to say, based on your intro, because you made fun of Will Buxton, I had a line written. Like, one of the first things I wrote down in my notes from watching the season is a quote from Will Buxton. And it is, qualifying is absolutely key because it sets the grid for the race on Sunday.

• Speaker #2

  Yep. But you already knew that, Reem, because we've taught you that.

• Speaker #1

  Exactly.

• Speaker #2

  So you didn't need Will to say it.

• Speaker #0

  I think that does kind of summarise what Netflix Drive to Survive is made for, though, in terms of like, it is pushed. And I think Will Buxton is on that show. And of course, lots of his lines do come across a bit cheesy and very obvious. But he's there to link the storylines that Netflix wants him to, you know, together. And I think with that, I think he's also been told. by netflix the netflix producers and unfortunately they're not there to vouch and be like no we told him to say that he's on his own so he has to hold it hold the weight of that he just has to accept that he's going to be memed yeah you have to accept that he's like you really want me to say when it's raining it's a wet track and they're like yeah go on will you know you're good at it and he's like okay when it's raining and they're like yeah that a boy he's oh fuck but um It is made for the new fans that aren't familiar with the sport. And so there has to be an easy entrance point, you know, and Netflix Drive to Survive has been fantastic at that. It does sometimes over-dramatise things that aren't there and push narratives that really aren't there. I thought with Christian Horner, though, like his... Oh, God, Christian Horner. OK, I think the biggest revelation we really got from the Christian Horner debacle was that he used his interview to finally, like, name the names. of who fired him. He had such a whodunit situation. For people that don't know what that means, that's from EastEnders, which is a British TV soap, and they always have a whodunit. That's a British thing, right? Yeah, a little whodunit. And I'm saying it because that's the people in the show. It doesn't fucking matter. God, back on track. Jesus. He revealed that it was Helmut Marko and CEO Oliver Mitzlaff who ultimately made the call and cleared the Verstappens from the rumours that they were the one that pushed it. We did, however. get a fantastic little insight to what George's conspiracy tinfoil hat moment was. Moments after he was randomly half-naked shaving what I could see was no fucking beard, and then talking about how he's making skin care products with his girlfriend and his first match smelt like semen.

• Speaker #1

  God, he loved the airtime this season.

• Speaker #0

  He had nothing to fill his airtime with. There was a point where he was talking about in his hotel room there was a pleasure kit for a man. He was like, I obviously know how to pleasure a woman but you know for pleasuring a man i was quite curious surely you learned that when you were 13 experimenting in your bedroom it's

• Speaker #2

  gonna be uh not horny horner but randy russell

• Speaker #0

  I like it. Well, no, I don't. His conspiracy, and I quote, and yes, I did... make Nav continually pause TV while she was trying to enjoy this series to be like, I need to write my notes. So he said, the Verstappens have a lot of power in that team. They like to manipulate situations a lot. Like for whatever reason, they don't like Horner. They want Horner out. So I think this is a bit of a stir trying to put pressure on Red Bull that Max will only continue as long as Horner is gone. Which then got completely dismissed because that wasn't true. But what we did get to see was... What did you think about the texts between Toto and Christian? Oh,

• Speaker #1

  I kind of loved it.

• Speaker #2

  Sweet. I loved it.

• Speaker #0

  As awful as this is, one of my favourite moments in the series, I think. I think it perfectly encapsulated how Christian and Toto act, which is they love to get under the ribs of one another. But they also, I think, recognise within each other that they made each other better.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, it's a love-hate sort of battle that they had.

• Speaker #0

  God, yeah. I loved that Toto opened it with...

• Speaker #2

  no i didn't know what to say because on one side you've been a real arsehole but on the other hand the sport will miss one of its main protagonists and i kind of think that line does summarize how about christian horner i really missed him i was it was like watching him like take off his mic and say like oh it's all done and then like go to his sofa and watch the coverage of the race and stuff there was part of me that had like a a proper pang in my heart where i was like oh no yeah it's really just not the same and I'd like not condoning any of his actions which were also completely oh yeah we've been going on a tangent we do not stand for that yet not cool which was completely eradicated and not included in the season i suspect i suspect because he said if i come on to do an interview which everyone fucking wants me to do i'm not talking about the allegations

• Speaker #0

  I also think because of the, he had a court appearance to do with this, didn't he? No,

• Speaker #2

  I think they settled.

• Speaker #0

  Was it settled by the time they were talking and doing the interviews?

• Speaker #2

  No, I don't think it would have been.

• Speaker #0

  So maybe that's part of it. I agree though, because it was all put into like business terms. He was sort of being pushed out and he wasn't quite sure, but it was like, well, there is a really big reason why there's all this noise that you keep talking about with the team. And it's because of all these awful sexual allegations and misconduct that he has.

• Speaker #1

  I get if he doesn't necessarily want to talk about it or he can talk. about it for the series but it doesn't mean the series itself can't talk about it they could be bringing up like i've had a lot to say exactly they could have been bringing in like news announcements they could have been bringing in like a recap of the 2024 season even using clips from last year's series where he did actually talk about it but it's a huge missed opportunity for them to just not mention anything to do with that which is probably one of the main drivers to why he got fired because it damaged the reputation of red bull for a while on top of that

• Speaker #0

  lowered their performance so they should have at least given it a small mention i agree also do you guys remember if we fast forward back to 2025 imola i remember reading out a news article saying that upcoming to the race if red bull didn't perform well at imola that christian horner could be sacked yeah and it happened that max won imola so those sorts of rumors kind of dissipated you But they didn't mention any of those hints because it was like there was a weird storm brewing around Christian Horne.

• Speaker #2

  There was a thread that was tying through the whole season that was basically like the end point of it was Horne is going to go.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. But they didn't really give us that build up. Like, you know, it didn't really it wasn't true to life. And I get that, you know, it's dramatized, but actually it was muted for that sort of talking point, which I think was really strange.

• Speaker #1

  It was 50 minutes of nothing. for the Red Bull Playgrounds winner episode, genuinely, because you'd think that would be the standout episode of the season. That was the biggest talking point of 2025.

• Speaker #2

  One I was most excited about.

• Speaker #1

  And it was like 40 minutes of it was basically just a very low-key build-up. And then it was him getting fired. And I feel like they just messed the whole episode up. I thought it was actually one of the most boring ones of the season.

• Speaker #2

  I think in, like, where in the past you

• Speaker #0

  however many seasons he's been the villain i think this was the episode where he flipped into victim mode yeah it was not nice when jerry hallowell or horner but harry well jelly jelly jelly i'm going with it when jelly hallel um and became you know saw him come back and he was like it's all done and dusted like you kind of it almost felt they pushed the narrative of almost like someone that had been in this sport for a long time and had something taken away from him before he was ready to let go of it yeah but there was also a narrative with jelly halal which was that she got paraded around almost like a human doll to be put on you know on parade whilst all of these awful allegations which implicates the fact that her husband was cheating on her and lots of people felt really awful if you remember they did show her parading around last season yeah the cameramen both went, whoa, and You could tell that it was because they saw her energy. She looked like the life was drained out of her.

• Speaker #2

  She looked like she was having like a complete out-of-body experience. Like the lights were on, but no one was home.

• Speaker #0

  She continued to get paraded around this year. Yeah. And they didn't show any of that, which fanned flames for all of these things coming out about Christian Horner. So, yeah, I thought it was a bit of a strange angle they took. And I wasn't completely comfortable with him being basically like... When you win a lot and you're basically like the Kardashians of F1, people start to boo you. And I'm like, you know why people are booing you. Yeah, exactly. People are booing Mags for fuck's sake. Like, Jesus.

• Speaker #1

  I think she did get paraded around the season a little bit in the Horny Horny episode because there was the whole bit of them being couple-y towards the end, showing that they're all on good terms. Yeah, literally showing they're all on good terms. But I was going to say as well, for the Horny episode, the last scene of it, he's like... I guess this is goodbye for now. I don't get why they then didn't do a compilation of him poaching all of the different teams in F1 to try and get a contract there. Like there was this stuff about him going to Aston Martin. There was this stuff about him potentially going to Mercedes. And none of that was talked about either. And I feel like that was also a big plot.

• Speaker #0

  I think you don't know what the word poaching means.

• Speaker #2

  Approaching.

• Speaker #1

  Approaching. Sorry, not very good.

• Speaker #2

  Just running around stealing thieves.

• Speaker #0

  Putting it in his horse stable.

• Speaker #1

  You get my book. My book. You get my book. You get my book.

• Speaker #0

  Okay, so bringing us to Ep 2, which was called Strictly Business, we saw Flavio's home. which had lots of weird artwork in it that showed him walking around barefoot and had him painted as different characters and celebrities like Batman, Henry VIII and Che Guevara.

• Speaker #2

  I loved the artwork. I thought it was fucking iconic.

• Speaker #1

  You know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of so when we went on holiday last year and we went to Nepal, we went to a what's it called, like a Buddhist temple? Was it a temple? And there was, we saw different versions of the Buddha That was like one that was like a nice Buddha, one that was like an evil Buddha. And that kind of the frames I have, the artwork kind of reminded me of that, where it's like different versions of him.

• Speaker #2

  And he said his favorite was Flavio as Che Guevara.

• Speaker #0

  But then he also was just randomly spouting out things like, yeah, I really enjoy firing people if they're not good enough. And it was like, cool story. Don't get one asked. You would never be as good of a villain as Christian Horner. It's... The episode sort of framed itself around Flavio's dictatorship of terror versus Jonathan Wheatley's philosophy of support amid rumours and death threats that was following Jack Doohan around as he tried to perform to Flavio's standards. And I mean, it was very sad, actually. It was very thought provoking on how the sport targets that visceral excitement from fans when it can go too far. poor Jack Dewan having to succumb to all this nastiness and a lot of violent, threatening... emails i think it was but he spoke about the death threats openly and he said i got serious death threats for this grand prix talking about miami saying they're gonna kill me here if i'm not out of the car i had six or seven emails saying if i'm still in the car by miami all my limbs will be cut off he said wednesday i was there with my fucking girlfriend and my trainer and i've got three armed men around me i had to call the police escort to come and get it under control and i think the most heartbreaking thing jack said on that episode was I wasn't able to enjoy being an F1 driver, something that I'd dreamt of for so long. Yeah,

• Speaker #2

  I feel really sorry for him. Yeah. I mean, he's just a kid. Yeah. Yeah, he's an adult, but he's also not. Like, he's so young, and his whole life has been spent trying to get into F1. And I thought it was so unfair. And I think there's clearly this angle of making Flavio Briatore the next big villain. I think the issue is... Horner didn't really announce himself as the villain. He kind of acted like he wasn't the villain and everyone else was putting it on him. Whereas Flavio Briatore is kind of like flaunting around with it. Like, yeah, I'm the fucking villain. I'll fire whoever I want. And it just comes across a bit cringe.

• Speaker #0

  That is actually really true. I actually agree with that. But I think that Flavio speaks to his drivers really quite rudely. Oh, God, yeah. Even Horner says quite brutal things, but he says it in interviews. It's more like... This isn't good enough for us. Whereas to Flavio, I mean, later in the episode, when the driver swap between Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto changes, they have a sit-down talk with Franco, Pierre Gasly, and also Flavio Briatore. And Franco says, oh, well, maybe we could have a look at something on my car. And he says, no, you're the problem.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, yeah. Gasly is just sat there looking so uncomfortable, like not making eye contact, kind of just looking down like, ugh.

• Speaker #0

  I just didn't get it, bro.

• Speaker #1

  I found the whole Flavio... mafia-like introduction very repetitive from last year so I found it quite cringe as well I will say like one of one of my highlights one of my only highlights of the drive to survive season is getting to see Jack Doohan's perspective on the driver's walk because when we did the Alpine episode for our podium entry I really struggled to find any clip of Jack Doohan responding to that situation and it also wasn't covered as in depth because it's a much smaller team and it was at the back of the grid. So I think all I found was like a statement from him, but there wasn't actually like any clips of him talking about it. So it was really interesting finally getting to hear his perspective on the situation that happened. And it was very heartbreaking because he was treated really awfully, as was the rest of the Alpine team, because of Flavio Biratori's leadership. And I thought the contrast between Alpine and Kik Samba was very interesting because again, it's something that we talked about before. With Kik Sauber, they're also very much at the back of the grid. They only got P9 in 2025, but it was a much more gentle parenting approach that they had with their drivers. It was much more nurturing. And that's why they ended up getting a podium. And it's why Gabriel Bortolato ended up getting points as well throughout the rest of the season, because they had that very supportive space that they could work in, as opposed to Alpine, where it was all just pressure, pressure, pressure and threats as well.

• Speaker #2

  Well, the insight that I did like was seeing Jack Doohan walking with one of his press officers or something. And he was saying something along the lines of, oh, I'm just I'm not going to mince my words now. I'm going to say what I want to say. I've been biting my tongue for so long and stuff like that. So I thought that was a really interesting insight and maybe part of the reason why you weren't able to actually find very much when we were making our documentary.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, that's true.

• Speaker #0

  The two quotes that I thought were side by side pretty. damning was Jonathan Wheatley on his expectations of Gabby Bortoletto was I'm not setting any targets because he's got a tough challenge ahead of him it's about supporting versus Flavio on his expectations of Jack Doohan was go quick and don't crash simple as that I think the main issue as well with the sort of Alpine sort of narrative is I'm looking at it and I'm thinking is the reno group not looking at how their team is coming across yeah and barely mentioned or showed any of Gasly's great drives that he did because he was really trying his best to score points for that team and carried them and by contrast all we were seeing was Flavio prancing around this really I mean he has terrible taste in in home decor oh god that gold bear I know he's nodding around as a 74 year old guy talking about his prior successes with a failing team bullying young new hot drivers after recruiting about a million reserve drivers which they even pointed to and saying how weird it was and not really getting any results i'm like is this actually like it's all it's all fun and games okay fine it's good content do you want that out in the world as that's the only thing that gets mentioned with your team i mean it's no such thing as you know bad press i mean poor has got barely a fucking look in this thing jesus they might as well not turned up so pointless but I would prefer that than having my team just being like oh what then our drivers got death threats got yanked out of a car after six races and then the next driver after that that replaces him then gets treated shit too the car isn't great no real flash points of success not a good look and also these teams need to be thinking about the fact that netflix is such a big stage with such a big audience that's

• Speaker #2

  something they can also be pitching to their sponsors is come on board sponsor us we wear our team kits when we do these interviews on Netflix and shit like that. Your logo could be on our chest as we're doing these interviews. No one's going to want to be on the chest of someone who's saying the sort of shit that Flavio Briatore says,

• Speaker #1

  literally. I mean, even in comparison to Liam Lawson, who had basically the same situation as Jack Duhan very early into the season, only two races in, and got demoted to racing bulls, I think even that was handled in a better way than the Ampine situation was, because yes, it was still awful. And obviously, like even Liam said, Max didn't agree with that happening. And Horner eventually ended up saying it was Helmut who really pushed for that decision. It wasn't even him that did it.

• Speaker #2

  And he didn't agree with it either.

• Speaker #1

  Exactly. But at the very least, when they demoted Liam, they demoted him to a sister team. They didn't just, you know, completely remove him from F1. And he got a second chance. And actually, I think he got a much better chance than Yuki ended up getting because he ended up rebuilding his reputation, getting... points later throughout the season and he's going to come into 2026 with a much stronger mindset while jack doing he raced for however many races i think it was like five or six was it six races and then it was that was it he is gone and now his f1 career is over at least for the minute it's over well it's probably over for good i mean yeah the reputational damage that comes with

• Speaker #2

  Losing your seat, not getting another seat for the rest of the season. Alpine has however many other reserve drivers that they're going to pick up on. yeah for a fucking football team yeah but you know they're all gonna get another shot before jack dewan has a go again so should we talk about kimmy antonelli yeah yeah um he's just a baby as well i did not like seeing him cry oh

• Speaker #0

  oh yeah so kimmy antonelli and lewis hamilton's 2025 seasons were sort of documented in episode six which was called the duel which we all have opinions about as a title and subject matter because it was looking at the... P2 battle in the constructors between Mercedes and Ferrari and had a side by side look as both of them adapted to a whirlwind year with Kimi in Mercedes replacing Lewis Hamilton and Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari for his first year driving a car that was not Mercedes powered. Kimi was in the spa press conference whispering to Lewis explaining the team was adding up to 42 marketing days which he was finding all rather overwhelming. He said... The dream was to come to Formula One as an F1 driver, but it hasn't been easy. My whole life has been intensified. I've been struggling to sleep because it feels like you're always going and you're never going to stop. And he was in tears after finishing P16 in the Belgian Grand Prix and said that he felt very ashamed of his performance. Which, if we look back at the first episode, one of the kind of storylines they were trying to push was that there was sort of Red Bull's ruthlessness versus Mercedes mothering sort of tactics. between how they coached Kimi Antonelli versus how they were dealing with Liam Lawson struggling in the Red Bull. And the two quotes that were again very parallel to how Red Bull and Mercedes did things was Christian said, this is not what we expect a Red Bull racing driver to do when Liam Lawson started P20 at the Australian Grand Prix versus Toto Wolff in Mercedes, who said, we need to lower expectations and help encourage Kimi, who was starting P16. So I found the episode surrounding Kimi's struggles and lack of points. I found it a poignant episode. I did think maybe it was a bit too heavy on the coverage for me. Because it felt a bit pointless. Because I was like, yeah, he's a new kid in the sport. He's also someone to watch for the future. And overall, I think everybody across the world was all very much convinced by the end of the season, this kid's got something. He's really got something. So I didn't feel like the episode was really going anywhere particularly.

• Speaker #2

  But I think they needed to pad it out because they didn't have anything from Lewis.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. well there wasn't much of a storyline to do it's silly to have lewis's you know there was a point where like george said at one point in one of the episodes like you know i love lewis is he great he's a great racing driver but he's having a bit of a stinker this season yeah something like i feel like if he's not in it it feels a bit rude to just be talking about him behind his back i mean in the world of journalism he should get a right to reply oh yeah and if we'd done that we'd never get the season.

• Speaker #1

  I mean, it was pointless as a subject matter for the whole episode, the whole like fight for P2 thing, because essentially after the summer break, Ferrari had dropped to like P4 in the constructors and it was Red Bull that was getting P3 and Mercedes basically secured P2. So that fight wasn't even in place at that point. It wasn't something like the Drivers' Championship where it went on until the end of the season. It was already resolved very early on. So I thought maybe they should have. had two separate episodes, one on Ferrari and one on Mercedes, rather than merge them into the same one, because I don't think it really made sense as a plotline.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, but they just didn't have enough content this year, which is why this year's Drive to Survive season was only eight episodes compared to ten episodes for all of the last seasons. Oh,

• Speaker #1

  I didn't even notice other seasons were ten episodes. That's it. Well, they could have done an Aston Martin one. They could have done a Hafts one. Why were they not talked about? Why were they just ignored? I just do too. Also, why wasn't there anything about, you know, Cadillac joining? Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  It's just like a small little look in at the end. Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  it was 30 seconds that they kind of like summarized all of the things that will be happening next year, which I get like, you know, a little teaser or whatever. But they normally do like those sort of like factory walkarounds and like, you know, you see people tinkering on the cars and they have the team speeches at factory bases and talking about certain races in specific and stuff. I found it strange that they, none of them, they didn't really speak about how... nearly every team on the grid was looking to 2026 yeah and i felt like it was kind of a bit of a missed thing that was actually like one of the main storylines of the season was like everybody is trying their best to maximize what they have but ultimately they are stopping development and they're going to be going into 2026 um i feel like that doors open free access that netflix had the the door is you know, only slightly ajar now. I think teams have started closing them off a little bit.

• Speaker #1

  Well, I mean, fair. If they're going to twist narratives the way that they do, it makes sense.

• Speaker #2

  What did we think about the episode that centred around Williams and Carlos Sainz in his debut season with Williams? Because we sort of saw this sort of, Alex Albon was soaring up the standings, but the new arrival of Carlos Sainz was struggling. raised questions over whether Williams were right to sign him or not. What are we thinking about that?

• Speaker #1

  I love Carlos Sainz. You know my love for Carlos Sainz. You know my crush on Carlos Sainz. You know how much I enjoyed watching him on the screen. He's a little cutie.

• Speaker #0

  Listen,

• Speaker #1

  listen, listen. As much as I enjoy his face, that episode was pointless.

• Speaker #0

  You just didn't like watching Eva Longoria flirt with him.

• Speaker #1

  I don't know what you talked about. also the funniest note i wrote down was did she realize he had a girlfriend i did actually and i raised a hot couple as well i won't lie breaking news reem fancies carlos signs and his partner but

• Speaker #0

  i think he said before that he struggles to understand her scottish accent sometimes i will say look struggle to understand my accent we do

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, what did you say?

• Speaker #1

  But yeah, I thought that episode was boring. Could not go live as a filler one.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, I mean, my first line as a note for it was James and Alex in jets doing loop-de-loops. I think it's when I wrote that, I was like, this is probably going to be a bit of a boring episode. Carlos Sainz only really likes porridge and baked beans. Everything else about British food he doesn't enjoy. There's another note I wrote. That's George Russell being stupid as usual. Him saying on the Miami parade with the Lego car race, I didn't have Lego. I had Playmobil. It was West Coast, East Coast, you know. Why the fuck was that left in this episode?

• Speaker #0

  I feel like this season, George was the comedic relief.

• Speaker #2

  A hundred million percent.

• Speaker #1

  George Russell and McLaren got way too much airtime this season.

• Speaker #2

  Why was he so much?

• Speaker #1

  Because he loves to talk. He loves to be on screen.

• Speaker #2

  I literally saw that it's like gold but it also was like what the fuck are you doing you're missing out Isaac Hajar's maiden podium for this fucking crap what's going on also in terms of things that they missed the things that I thought were crazy three things that I came to mind when I came to the end of the series and was like oh it's over one Isaac Hajar's maiden podium was a huge moment and you It was also one of the reasons that they signed him for the Red Bull team this year. Yeah. Was like, he has it. Whatever it is, he has it in space. George and Max's Barcelona beef went, potentially crashed into him. And ultimately is the reason that he didn't win the championship. Because the boy class meant that he didn't have enough at the end of the year.

• Speaker #0

  And that's not even a case of George would have said, don't include it. Otherwise, I won't participate. Because George would have loved to have had that in there. Oh, yeah. My God.

• Speaker #2

  He would out. I think all the lights would have burnt out and lost fucking power and the memory card would have been completely full and he's like, another thing

• Speaker #1

  He'd want tense music and he'd be like, I'm still a bit traumatised by the attack from Max Verstappen. What I was expecting he's a bully and he's a danger to have on track.

• Speaker #2

  I'm going to put my head on the wall West coast, east coast, you know? We know that he would have been like, okay, so maybe it should be called George the Hero, the bull is crazy. And then we'll have the whole episode. We go from 2024 Qatar, because that's when he started victimizing me. And we'll go, oh, 23. And they're like, oh, we're okay. But finally, Fernando's charge up the field in Singapore after Lewis Hamilton's brakes failed. Yeah. like Fernando Alonso also having that amazing radio call of like I'm the most unlucky fucking driver in the whole world like he was having a stinker of a year and they didn't mention it whatsoever Aston Martin deserved an episode Aston Martin 100%

• Speaker #1

  deserved an episode because there was also Lance Stroll missing a race because of his wrist which there were rumours around it where apparently some people said that he had like a tantrum and that's apparently why he also backed out he pushed a wall or something in the garage pushed an engineer after a bad qualifying that could have been like a little reveal for Darth to survive get him to talk about it yes and also if Adrian knew he could be an actual team principal or not and prepare for 2026 that could have been that could have been a whole episode and they just completely skipped over Aston Martin also Monzo

• Speaker #0

  with mclaren's oh we missed that i think is is mclaren saying if you include that we're we're out yeah because that was their biggest controversy it wasn't the it wasn't the vegas double disqualification it wasn't the the bad pit stop call the next race it was monza that was where they started getting all of the hate lando getting booed yes yes yes they they didn't cover any of their proper stinkers. They covered...

• Speaker #2

  the sort of the stinkers that are kind of just like whoopsies the dnf double dnf vegas was covered but didn't you find it interesting like you're right now about the teams being a lot more conscious of netflix being around yeah because at one point zach brown turned around in his seat and his communication officer told him like just to let you know netflix are filming you right there when they were questioning like is the dodgy plankware going to be an issue do we think should we stay seated here what are we doing are they testing it now and And then he basically, like, Zach, like, turned back around, like, looked, like, square into the camera and was like, okay. And it was smooth. But I do think that that, like, I felt that the McLaren, ugh, should I just be really honest?

• Speaker #1

  Go on.

• Speaker #2

  The McLaren battle between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, when you were watching it race weekend in and out, wasn't that fucking big of a deal. Because they weren't, because of the papaya rules that got mentioned across the whole of the fucking season, as it always does, got brought up. I think it got lost in the mix and they were trying to make it some sort of heated rivalry and battle like we had with Lewis and Max in 2021. Yeah, it just wasn't there. Yeah, those types of Herculean battles just aren't always what they are. And I just didn't think that it was there. And I feel like the narrative, by the time that we got to the latter part of the season, Oscar Piastri really wasn't in that fight. And how many fucking times is Zach... brown gonna say that max verstappen is that guy from a horror movie that keeps why because one person laughed at it once and he was just like milking it now it's that woman from fucking wicked that was like wicked witch and she just kept saying it over and over and over i found all of the mclaren coverage in general very self-indulgent oh fully they didn't need that many episodes either

• Speaker #1

  The number one driver episode should have been the most important one. They completely messed up that storyline because they completely missed the coverage that was supposed to be talked about. There was a lot of footage of Zac Brown and Oscar Piastri being on friendly terms and him letting him play with his expensive cars and taking him out to lunch and stuff. And it's like, OK, but we watched the season. We knew Oscar Piastri wasn't happy with the McLaren team. So you showing us footage of him being friendly with Zach doesn't mean he's okay with all the leadership that's going on. And then there's Lando as well, basically saying in 2024, he was the number one driver. Even though there's footage of Zach Brown saying, we don't have any number one drivers. And that wasn't the plot for 2024. So I think all of them were showing a bit of a bratty side, egotistical side. And that's how Netflix painted them. And they were covering all the issues that they actually did have.

• Speaker #2

  Well, I mean... I thought like Zach talking about the papaya rules, which I can't lie. I'm so bored of the papaya rules, seriously. But anyway, he said like, we do have some papaya rules, which aren't that complicated. Don't run each other off track and there's no challenges. Not that I've seen yet. And it was kind of like, that isn't the narrative. And also there was, I think you're right. If you're going to go into papaya rules, you need to show Monza. You need to show Hungry 2024. You need to give that context. It felt really strange that we were talking about papaya rules, talking about it in circles and circles and circles, but we weren't actually getting to the crux of the issue once again it felt like they kept showing us the same routine content but it was like we'll get to the part we actually care about this comeback from max was purely instigated because mclaren left the door wide open yeah and a red bull ran back in and they weren't really expecting it also nico rosberg is a fucking icon oh i loved it when i saw nico rosberg walk in and sit on that fucking seat i thought oh my god this has just gotten better i thought why is this your first appearance i exactly he's a shady queen he's a motherfucker the first thing he said was a shady comment about lewis the first fucking thing it was like yeah i've seen it i've seen it lewis it was the only one that couldn't say the team properly and it was like yes thank you thank you and the first thing he starts talking about is like 2016 when i won the world championship what happened with me i'm like yes yes i'm invested again yes god he's such a toss-up um anyway and He is, he's a lovable tosser. It's like Christian Orler. Maybe that's just what people are like in Formula 1. Yeah, I mean, there wasn't much input from Oscar either. I felt there was a lot more commentary coming from Lando and Zach.

• Speaker #0

  They obviously record all of these interviews after the season is already over. So I wonder if Oscar basically just wasn't playing into the suspense narrative that they were trying to produce him into.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, he did say, I'm not an overly emotional person. Emotions don't solve problems. And I was like, that on a t-shirt.

• Speaker #1

  that needs to be oscar piastri's merch just and it's like my new clothing brand it's called emotions don't sell problems but also i mean from from the first episode i remembered now what you said at the end of our mclaren parliamentary episode which is that after lenders driver's championship win considering the fact that he used to speak a lot about mental health and be a big advocate for is you hope that he wouldn't become basically a brat after he's won the championship a diva and actually from the first episode of drive to survive i was like the diva-ness is showing because the first thing that you see is him and oscar piastri being backstage and making fun of the ferrari car which was funny but i mean he said looks like someone spilled some fucking yogurt all over here and

• Speaker #2

  then there was a woman that like lent into toto wolf's ear and was like i prefer him in black I'm going to look at... We're all just bitchy queens today. Yes, literally. Then when Lewis walked out and was waving and stuff, Lando was like, he's the goat. And then Oscar was like, yeah, the goat. And they're just like, what's that? They're like two school children.

• Speaker #1

  Literally, literally. But I do think throughout the season, all of Lando's commentary and interviews, I think he just came off as a brat. To me, I didn't really like his attitude throughout Drive to Survive. Well,

• Speaker #0

  you said it in the last episode, weak champ. So I think he's not got your love and appreciation.

• Speaker #1

  He doesn't.

• Speaker #2

  Okay, girlies. I think we've covered, well, we haven't covered everything, but we've covered all the things we want to cover. Well,

• Speaker #0

  neither did Netflix.

• Speaker #2

  Exactly, yes. We're going to do a Netflix. there's multiple things we could have mentioned and we're not going to do so and if you want more details listen to the podumentary because we actually covered everything in 2025 in depth yes white lies baby yes and you know what i can see why they didn't include everything because it's fucking hard work yes it really is and we did it with no commentary no

• Speaker #0

  budget three people working full-time jobs as well so let's we're gonna go around the little Grand Prix room

• Speaker #2

  And we're going to say our peak of the Drive to Survive season, the pit of the Drive to Survive season, and a guilty pleasure moment that you had. Go for it.

• Speaker #0

  All right. My peak is a bit of a weird one. I basically loved the first 20 minutes of episode one. It was kind of all downhill after that. But what I really, really liked was that going to the F-175 event, you had McLaren in a helicopter.

• Speaker #2

  Yes.

• Speaker #0

  You had Alpine in a boat going across the Thames. So, first of all, budget discrepancy between those two teams. Yeah,

• Speaker #2

  Jim and I were looking at it down. He was like, oh, look, there's Alpine. And Nav was like, how the fuck did he see that? I'm on a telly. And I thought, see that?

• Speaker #1

  And then he's like, that's all they can afford.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. But then Mercedes were on the tube.

• Speaker #2

  And George is like swanning around with his broad shoulders like, Kimmy, I'll show you the way. And I'm like, you don't realise what other people are being flying in, do you? No,

• Speaker #0

  and also, George Russell, there's no fucking way you get the tube around London. Yes,

• Speaker #1

  literally.

• Speaker #0

  I don't really get the tube around London because it's gross.

• Speaker #2

  He definitely had to ask the producer, like, okay, so do I have to tap my card on that little thing? Okay, thanks. Just put your card on that little thing.

• Speaker #0

  And then you know that, you know, he said to Kimmy, like, oh, you need to hold on when he, like, nearly fell when the tube was moving. You know, as soon as they stepped off the train and, like, the camera stopped rolling, he was like, Andy, back me up, please.

• Speaker #2

  You're actually not wrong. You're actually not wrong.

• Speaker #1

  They probably booked out the entire tube, so it's empty as well.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, and they don't hire extras. Are the cameras with you?

• Speaker #2

  Yeah, it's actually in Mercedes HQ in Brackley. This is in their wig tunnel. They've made this set.

• Speaker #1

  Because I'll tell you what, I've never seen the O2 station that empty.

• Speaker #0

  Literally.

• Speaker #2

  That's actually really true.

• Speaker #0

  My pit. This is something that I thought was like... missing that I loved last season last season I loved the Singapore episode where they gave like a bunch of drivers vlog cameras and we got to see it from their perspective and I would have loved to have had that again this year especially with the rookie drivers do it with them there's like a million of them so just give them each a vlog camera they are of like the youtuber generation like the influencers and stuff like that they're all super close I thought it would have been really really nice If you'd given them all like a camera around like Vegas or something and just said, go out, film what your experience is. I think it would have been a wonderful insight on what it would be like to be a rookie in F1.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  So I think that should have been an episode. Yeah, I agree. And oh, my guilty pleasure. My guilty pleasure moment was low key George Russell's lines.

• Speaker #2

  Anytime George Russell was talking about something not to do with racing. Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  literally every time he's talked about something not F1 related, the semen skincare. The Lego versus Playmobil turf wars that apparently went on. I wasn't privy to that as a child. My innocent, sheltered life. And then also the male pleasuring kit. He did whatever he could do for screen time. Yes,

• Speaker #1

  he genuinely made it. Okay, my peak was getting to hear Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson's perspectives on their demotions. unfiltered because I think that was really missing from general coverage in 2025 and it was good to actually hear them talk about it because they went through the toughest things that any of the drivers did in 2025 it was big big changes so it was really good to finally get to hear it from their own voices um the piastri would disagree with you but okay um my pit is similar to the to what you said about the rookies I kind of wish there was just an episode And... on the rookies and all of their different experiences in 2025 individually including oliver behrman you know he had such an incredible performance in 2025 yes he wasn't one of the top drivers but um he scored a lot of points he was um getting did he get a podium or was he getting close to a podium before i think yeah so he came close to a podium in 2025 fantastic at qualifying yeah great qualifier Yes, he really was. And there was just no coverage for him. And he even made a joke about it in the beginning of the season saying that all of his footage is going to be trashed. And unfortunately, that is what happened. So that was a very big missed opportunity. And then my guilty pleasure is also in episode one, when we got to see behind the scenes, Lewis and Max getting along, and just, you know, having an actor and Lewis talking about... A big moment. Yes.

• Speaker #2

  oh no too bad i forgot about hell i just thought anyone these days and let us pick it up hey you talk about it my peak of the season i thought that the f1 75 live event i thought was a really great way to start the season um i think it showed as well almost how much adapting these drivers have to do because you know seeing kimmy antonelli for example like visibly really nervous to go outside that large exactly sold out stadium but also just kind of showing the the growth of the sport i thought was really cool and then seeing the more human side of the drivers that are all basically all shit talking each other being nice to each other's faces and then sort of talking shit about their car design and whatever else behind their backs but um yeah i did love seeing lewis telling max that he needed to be at the business end of the birth of his first born child i mean Thank you. randomly for whatever reason lewis being like oh i was dating a girl and she was her sister was having a baby and she was screaming i was sister what it was it was his girlfriend sister yeah and apparently and i saw i saw someone on twitter say that apparently he was there for the birth of nicole schwarzenberger don't know how to say her name her sister nicole scherzinger scherzinger i don't know how to say her name Stop with all the rules and eggers. That's what you're supposed to do.

• Speaker #1

  whatever apparently he was there for her sister's birth so some people are saying that's what he was referring to well he just like randomly said it and was like oh I wasn't even the dad and I was like whoa why am I so nervous and I was

• Speaker #2

  like what random EMT so that was one of my opinions suggest that Max go down to the business end as if he has had any experience himself he has no children by the way his partner would want him but yeah i mean i really enjoyed that because i think it set the stage for quite a lot of storylines and narratives for the season but it was also just nice to see the hopes of all the of all the drivers seeing them all together obviously seeing christian get booed i thought it was a really strong opening episode to be honest with you my pit i think it was the over-dramatisation of the McLaren title fight. I feel like there was too much added sort of noises and slow-mos and drama and, you know, like, hearing Zac Brown constantly being like, like, kind of started to get a bit boring. And, like, they also kept doing it where I felt like they would summarize what I just watched across the first two minutes of the next episode. And I would see everything about McLaren that I'd just seen. I'm like, okay, I'm getting a little bit over, like, papaya. I'm getting papaya food poisoning here. Like, I'm sort of a bit overdone with it now. um so yeah it felt a bit repetitive but i do think that they were struggling for storylines but i did feel like well every team participated it would have been nice if you use like hass for like 10 seconds yeah um there was no lack of storylines it's just you chose which ones to include and which ones not yeah literally um my random um guilty pleasure was that they came in and they were talking at one point in the second episode in miami and they were talking about how the f1 is like the piranha club and they took this comms line from christian horner but just out of context it just sounded really crazy i don't know why he said it but he was like pretty much everyone is trying to fuck each other yeah and i was like oh What the fuck? Why wouldn't you just add the word over and then suddenly it's fine? But like, he just wrapped his head with a fucking cup. Ew,

• Speaker #1

  everyone's trying to fuck it.

• Speaker #0

  George Russell comes out with his male pleasure kit.

• Speaker #1

  He has hate sex with Max Verstappen.

• Speaker #2

  We love hate sex. My other little mini, very small little guilty pleasure moment was when... a red bull mechanic like shook hands with flavia brettore tapped him on the back and then ran off and was like see you behind us this week i was like that was fucking not needed yeah and also flavia being like yeah he's so fucking intense and then someone actually slighted his face he's like haha yeah but i said it is when i saw that i was just like oh that guy's gonna have a hit on his He's not going to show up to the next race. As if Fucking FluffyBridgeRace74, we probably couldn't remember it ten minutes after it fucking happened, lad.

• Speaker #0

  Okay, we also got some thoughts on Drive to Survive Season 8 from one of our Grand Pricksters. And this is going to be a running segment that we now have going through our episodes. So each episode, we're going to share a comment or something that we've heard from one of our Grand Pricksters. And whoever we select as our Grand Prickster of the Week is not only going to get a shout-out in the episode, but we're going to reach out to you and maybe send you a little gift. So start getting involved on socials. There might be something in it for you.

• Speaker #2

  I mean, we don't get paid for this, so don't expect it to be like tickets to the Silverstone Grand Prix or something. Oh, yeah.

• Speaker #0

  If we were getting those, sorry, we're taking them for ourselves. Yeah,

• Speaker #2

  our name would be fucking P1. So, you know, which I saw more of than us in that fucking season, lad. All right?

• Speaker #1

  and it's safe to say they'll never use our commentary because we're too fucking honest so thanks for with the present and it's the thought that counts thank you with that being said with that being said if they wanted with that being said if they wanted to include us then suddenly we'll be we'll be doing our review episode where like drive to survive is amazing it's no no no one more service we're gonna be on drive to survive but there will be fucking signs let me tell you I'm sorry.

• Speaker #2

  This episode will be deleted out of fucking existence.

• Speaker #0

  Right, so the feedback on Drive to Survive that we had is from Rosa on our Instagram, on the top memes from Drive to Survive season eight tier list that Reem put out. And Rosa's thoughts were, okay, so firstly, there was too much Zac Brown.

• Speaker #2

  Agreed Rosa, we bow down to you.

• Speaker #0

  She said, I get it because McLaren were top dogs, but it felt oversaturated.

• Speaker #2

  Agreed.

• Speaker #0

  Secondly, the rookie focus was not enough.

• Speaker #2

  agreed

• Speaker #0

  Rosa we need to be friends with you and like coverage of Hadja let's explain how he got the Red Bull seat yes Rosa thank you since we only saw his Melbourne parade lap crash and I felt Ollie's P4 deserved screen time yes okay idea the grand prix of the week gets to be on our podcast because why'd you cook Oh, and they did the bit on Lando's downfall, but then suddenly in the last episode, he's leading the championship without really a mention of his comeback or Oscar's collapse.

• Speaker #2

  Agreed.

• Speaker #0

  I get it's not a season review, but it just lacked that bit of context.

• Speaker #2

  Damn. Rosa knows her fucking shit.

• Speaker #0

  And thirdly, did we really need a whole ep on Horny Horner's sacking?

• Speaker #2

  That's how we start to divulge and separate, you know.

• Speaker #0

  But lastly, and I think most importantly, how did they do a whole ep on Williams

• Speaker #2

  especially focusing on carlos's podium without mentioning sparkles i yes i will not stand for sparkles erasure i and she included a little unicorn emoji and queen thank you what we should be sending you in the post is a fucking crown but i haven't got the money instead i fucking agree what is going on at netflix hq down with them no sorry i'm not sorry no i actually want to hire It's gentlemen's lip. I completely agree. Now, I do get the point of the whole episode about Christian Horner did seem slightly self-indulgent. But given the fact that we didn't have that many episodes and they are obviously... But then they're also skipping parts that we definitely did need to see. I do get Rose's point. Rose, I get where you're coming from, girl. But I do think that missing out Sparkles is such a stupid thing because it was such a lovely moment and it involves the audience and the community of F1. Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  and they even created Sparkles merch. literally sparkles matter literally no sorry it's one singular person sparkles sparkles matters yes there we go that's quite hard to say so Rosa we'll be reaching out to you in a couple of days to get some information or even just to find out if you're after this yeah brainwave maybe you don't want this maybe

• Speaker #1

  we're her guilty pleasure and she doesn't want anyone to know yeah maybe you want sexualize Rosa like that

• Speaker #2

  So if you're listening to this episode and you're like, oh, I like listening to the podcast too. Why is Rosa getting all the attention? Then comment. Get involved and you'll be part of this chaotic but fun discussion.

• Speaker #0

  So that is the end of the Drive to Survive episode. If you also felt like you didn't learn enough watching Drive to Survive and you would like to learn more about the 2025 season, well, don't fret, lovelies, because Grand Prix released a whole 10 episodes of Red Flags and White Lies, which was our docuseries documenting how each team performed in the 2025 season. Just scroll down in your podcast player app and you'll be able to find those episodes. starting with Alpine, ending with McLaren.

• Speaker #2

  And you know what? We didn't miss out sparkles. Yes. Because I made sure it was in the script. Yes. Okay? And I'm just one woman trying my best, and I did better than Netflix. And you know how I know that? My mummy tells me.

• Speaker #1

  That was quite self-indulgent. Okay, McLaren. As if we didn't work on it.

• Speaker #0

  Okay, so that is the end of the Drive to Survive episode and also the end of, like, the winter break because, guys, it's race week Oh,

• Speaker #2

  my lord I'm so excited. The fucking lord.

• Speaker #0

  I'm so, so, so excited that I have decided that this week I am going to wear, like, a piece of F1 merch every single day.

• Speaker #1

  Ooh Yes. That also points out a bit how obsessed you are. Right. You better be a nurse. marriage that you can wear it once every day this week is crazy hey who's wearing some today she is we're just not gonna tell you which one she's wearing aston martin she's got a big lawrence stroll on her boobs and

• Speaker #2

  the lonzo in the back yes yeah we've all had lonzo in the back all right jayla swift

• Speaker #0

  If you've enjoyed this episode, then please make sure you like, subscribe, share, all of that very kind stuff. You can engage with us on socials if you want to be our Grand Prickster of the week. We are available on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X. And on X and Instagram, we all have our own individual accounts. They are Grand Pricks Nav, Grand Pricks Izzy and Grand Pricks Reem. I need to go shopping. Oh my God. What? I need to go shopping. because I have some stuff that I need to buy for a separate spin-off social series that I'm about to start for the Australian Grand Prix Iz, you also need to do some shopping Reem, you need to start doing some stuff too little missy and while we do all of that we hope you have a wonderful week it's always a pleasure and remember race week is a week where there's a race