History Series / Formula1DriveToSurvive

The upcoming Season 5, which follows the 2022 World Championship, is scheduled for release on February 24, 2023.

The upcoming Season 4, which serves as a link from the climax of the 2021 World Championship all the way to the start of the 2023 Season, is scheduled for release on March 12, 2023.

** While many viewers were looking forward to getting to see more behind the scenes of [=McLaren=]'s 2019 rookie and internet personality Lando Norris he only gets seconds of screen-time out of his car, in which he's asked if he was on Netflix this year and his vulgar response lampshades the fact that they didn't film or interview him at all.

* CareerResurrection: Robert Kubica returns to the grid after an eight-year involuntary retirement in 2019, but leaves the team at the end of the season to focus on his career in other types of racing though he does retain a position as a reserve driver for Alfa Romeo.

!!!Tropes in the series:

* AnachronicOrder: Neither of the first two seasons follow the order of the UsefulNotes/FormulaOne season it's following with episodes following stories, teams or drivers rather than the racing season. Season Two is especially out of order as each episode focuses mostly on a single team or driver, with episode 9 showing events with the Williams team which happened before the schedule began that year.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Ricciardo might be rightly known as a very friendly guy, but he's still incredibly competitive and despite being known for smiling near constantly does indeed have an explosive temper when things fall apart.

* CareerResurrection: Kubica returns to the grid after an eight-year involuntary retirement in 2019, but leaves the team at the end of the season to focus on his career in other types of racing though he does retain a position as a reserve driver for Alfa Romeo.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: While given the documentary format this isn't actually true, the second season (which covers the 2019 season) ''frames'' Willams' dismal situation in this manner, with their chief technical director Paddy Lowe being fired before the season even starts and excluding the team's single point of the season from coverage.

* MagicCountdown: In one Season 4 episode, Lewis Hamilton is shown coming into the pits to serve a ten-second time penalty. Thanks to a constant barrage of camera cuts, this ten-second penalty is stretched out to ''32 seconds''.
* ManipulativeEditing: In order to support the narrative they've built for each F1 season covered, the "documentary" carefully selects clips and bits of interviews which support that narrative. None of the drivers are particularly happy about this, but most are willing to accept it since the show has brought new fans to UsefulNotes/FormulaOne, some of the drivers who are presented as antagonistic by the show are unwilling to forgive the editing that makes them look like jerks off the track to people who they are friends with in real life.

* BerserkButton: Steiner has the rather understandable one of being absolutely furious when the Hass team drivers ''run into each other'', which happens more often than one might expect for drivers at such a high level on the same team.

* TheRival: Regardless of how friendly any drivers are off the track anyone who makes it to Formula One is incredibly competitive, and the show repeatedly brings up and demonstrates how drivers' biggest rivals are their teammates since they're the only other person on the track with the same equipment and support staff. This is especially prevalent in teams with a history of ordering their "number 2" driver to make sacrifices for their number 1, though many teams claim not to rank their drivers this way anymore. Then, of course, the teams and companies have longstanding rivalries as well many of which have been thrown out of wack by the recent domination of Mercedes and Red Bull and Williams' trouble making their modern cars competitive.

* ScrewtheRulesIHaveMoney: There are plenty of very thinly veiled accusations of getting away with cheating with just a financial slap on the wrist.

* RightHandVersusLeftHand: Each team has two drivers, and any points the drivers score in a team's car are also added to the team's tally in the constructors' championship. Therefore, no team wants its drivers to crash into each other, but it's not unheard of.

* EpicFail: Any time teammates run into each other
** Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen take each other out in the 2019 British Grand Prix
** Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen collide in Azerbaijan in 2018.
** Racing Point/Force India drivers Ocon and Pérez have a history of collisions while trying to overtake one another, one of which is shown in episode 6 of the first season when they collide in the 2018 Singapore Grand Prix.

* RevolvingDoorBand: The fact that there are only 20 seats and drivers who fail to fulfill contracts or are at the end of their contracts can be out of a place on the grid in favor of a new driver is one of the major sources of tension and drama in the series.

** Several stars are shown in brief shots of fans at races, including Creator/WillSmith, Creator/DanielCraig, Jackie Stewart, Creator/MichaelDouglas, Geri Horner, and Creator/MatthewMcConaughey.

* AnachronicOrder: Neither season yet produced follows the order of the UsefulNotes/FormulaOne season it's following with episodes following stories, teams or drivers rather than the racing season. Season Two is especially out of order as each episode focuses mostly on a single team or driver, with episode 9 showing events with the Williams team which happened before the races even started that year.

* CareerResurrection: Kubica returns to the grid after eight years away in 2019, but leaves the team at the end of the season to focus on his career in other types of racing though he does retain a position as a reserve driver.

* ClusterFBomb: Steiner is just a fountain of foul langue when things are going wrong for the Haas team.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Each team has an associated color which helps viewers keep things straight; Red Bull is navy blue, Racing Point is pink, Ferrari is red, Mercedes is silver, [=McLaren=] is orange, Renault is yellow, Williams is blue (with primarily white livery), Haas is black, Alfa Romeo is dark red.

%%* DisqualificationInducedVictory:

** Hass drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen take each other out in the 2019 British Grand Prix

** Racing Point/Force India drivers Ocon and Pérez have a history of collisions while trying to overtake each other, one of which is shown in episode 6 when they collide in the 2018 Singapore Grand Prix.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: While given the documentary format this isn't actually true the second season (the 2019 F1 season) ''frames'' Willams' dismal situation in this manner, with their chief technical director Paddy Lowe being fired before the season even starts and excluding the team's single point of the season from coverage.

* GameBreakingInjury: The cars will often take damage that prevents them from finishing a race, or even starting one.
* IncomingHam: In season 2 Daniel Ricciardo
* InHarmsWay: Despite the sport being much safer today than it was in the past it is still quite dangerous and the fact that anyone who has worked so hard to race at such a level has different motivations and concerns than the average person is pointed out.
* JackieRobinsonStory: Lewis Hamilton is the first black man to race in F1, and faced racist criticism as he raced on his way to the sport.
* ManipulativeEditing: In order to support the narrative they've built for each F1 season covered the "documentary" carefully selects clips and bits of interviews which support that narrative. None of the drivers are particularly happy about this, but most are willing to accept it since the show has brought new fans to UsefulNotes/FormulaOne, some of the drivers who are turned into antagonists by the show are not so willing to forgive the editing that makes them look like jerks off the track to people who they are friends with in real life.
* NewTechIsNotCheap: The financial struggles of the teams at the bottom of the constructor's championship are explicitly a part of the reason they're having so much trouble making their cars competitive, and their poor performance means that it's difficult for them to acquire or keep sponsors.

* PickedLast: Drivers who find themselves without a drive for the next season as the current one draws to a close are those the show focuses on, as the tension over wether or not they will be able to remain in the sport or will lose their spot on the gird is part of the reason for the "Drive to Survive" name.
* ProductPlacement: As the show is following UsefulNotes/FormulaOne the companies which run and/or sponsor racers and teams are featured very heavily. The brands with the most prominent visibility are Creator/RedBull (with ''two'' F1 teams), Renault, [=McLaren=], Williams, Haas Automation, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, Ferrari, Petronas (National Petroleum Limited), Pirelli, Honda and Rich Energy while they were a Hass sponsor during the 2019 season. Other sponsors whose logos are seen regularly, but less prominently, on drivers and cars include Acronis, Alpinestars, Bose, BWT, Castrol, Dtex, Epson, Financial Times, Infiniti, Lavazza, Life Fitness, Mapfre, UsefulNotes/{{Microsoft|Windows}}, "Mission Winnow" (Philip Morris cigarettes), NEC, Ponos, Puma, Ray-Ban, RBC, [=ROKiT=] Drinks, Sofina, Symantec, Thales, Tommy Hilfiger, UBS and more as the show is inundated with them.

* SirSwearsALot: In a series where most people make only minor attempts to censor their language Guenther Steiner, the Team principal of the Haas F1 Team, stands out as cussing far more frequently than anyone else.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: The documentary plays up rivalries between teammates with careful editing and interviews, during the first season making Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen appear to be at near blows when their relationship off the track was never so dire (Max and Ocon on the other hand…). Ocon and Pérez's rivalry is likewise played up in their final year as teammates. Carlos Sainz Jr. has said that he doesn't mind the dramatized and exaggerated portrayals as the show continues to draw new fans to Formula 1, though it may help that rather than dramatize his friendship with teammate Lando Norris the documentary rarely mentioned his younger teammate instead.

* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: As the series is mostly aimed at viewers who are not traditional F1 (or F2) fans and events are not covered sequentially the coverage of Anthoine Hubert's death during the 2019 Spa-Francorchamps Formula 2 round can come as a shock, and the episode is understandably morose; especially as it was focused on the driver swap between Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly, who was a close personal friend of Anthoine's.

Season 3, which will follow Formula One during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic affected 2020 World Championship, is set to launch on March 16th, 2021.

* SirSwearsALot: In a series where most people make only minor attempts to censor their language Guenther Steiner, the Team principal of the Hass F1 Team, stands out as cussing far more frequently than anyone else.

Season 3, which will follow Formula One during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic affected 2020 World Championship and come out in 2021 has been confirmed to be in the works.

* CareerEndingInjury: Claire lampshades the fact that Kubica's near fatal 2011 accident was thought to have cost him his Formula 1 career years ago, and that his return to the sport is like something out of a story. Unfortunately the Williams car was not competitive in 2019 and, though Kubica managed to get the team its single point of the season, he opted to leave the team at the end of the year and become a substitute driver for Alfa Romero.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Each team has an associated color which helps viewers keep things straight; Red Bull is navy blue, Racing Point is pink, Ferrari is red, Mercedes is silver, [=McLaren=] is orange, Renault is yellow, Williams is blue (with primarily white livery), [=AlphaTauri=] is white, Haas is black, Alfa Romeo is dark red.

* ProductPlacement: As the show is following UsefulNotes/FormulaOne the companies which run and/or sponsor racers and teams are featured very heavily. The brands with the most prominent visibility are Creator/RedBull (with ''two'' F1 teams), Renault, [=McLaren=], Williams, Haas Automation, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, Ferrari, Petronas (National Petroleum Limited), Pirelli, Honda and Rich Energy while they were a Hass sponsor during the 2019 season with the Racing Point (formerly Force India) team set to be rebranded Aston Martin in 2021. Other sponsors whose logos are seen regularly, but less prominently, on drivers and cars include Acronis, Alpinestars, Bose, BWT, Castrol, Dtex, Epson, Financial Times, Infiniti, Lavazza, Life Fitness, Mapfre, UsefulNotes/{{Microsoft|Windows}}, "Mission Winnow" (Philip Morris cigarettes), NEC, Ponos, Puma, Ray-Ban, RBC, [=ROKiT=] Drinks, Sofina, Symantec, Thales, Tommy Hilfiger, UBS and more as the show is inundated with them.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: The documentary plays up rivalries between teammates with careful editing and interviews, during the first season making Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen appear to be at near blows when their relationship off the track was never so dire (Max and Ocon on the other hand…). Ocon and Pérez's rivalry is likewise played up in their final year as teammates. Carlos Sainz Jr. has said that he doesn't mind the dramatized and exaggerated portrayals as the show continues to draw new fans to Formula 1, though it may help that rather than dramatize his friendship with teammate Lando Norris the documentary rarely mentioned his younger teammate instead.

* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: As the series is mostly aimed at viewers who are not traditional F1 (or F2) fans and events are not covered sequentially the coverage of Anthoine Hubert's death during the 2019 Spa-Francorchamps Formula 2 round can come as a shock, and the episode is understandably morose.

* DisqualificationInducedVictory:

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Daniel Ricciardo is well known for near constant smiling, especially in front of the cameras. The fact that the way the show focused on his frustrations and eventual decision to leave Red Bull for

''Formula 1 Drive to Survive'' is a Creator/{{Netflix}} produced {{documentary}} style show following UsefulNotes/FormulaOne with multiple ten episode seasons.

%% * FreeWheel: At Spa in 2020 the front right wheel of Giovinazzi's Alfa Romero became detached from his car and free of the wheel tether during a crash then went bounding across the track to take out George Russel, who was doing his best to avoid hitting the Alfa Romero. This ended both of their races and resulted in a safety car that had most of the grid pitting earlier than they would have otherwise thereby turning it into a race of tire maintenance.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Each team has an associated color which helps viewers keep things straight; Red Bull is navy blue, Racing Point is pink, Ferrari is red, Mercedes is silver, [=McLaren=] is orange, Renault is yellow,

%% * FreeWheel: At Spa in 2020 the front right wheel of Giovinazzi's Alfa Romero became detached from his car and free of the wheel tether during a crash then went bounding across the track to take out George Russel, who was doing his best to avoid hitting the Alfa Romero.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: The documentary plays up rivalries between teammates with careful editing and interviews, during the first season making Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen appear to be at near blows when their relationship off the track was never so dire (Max and Ocon on the other hand…). Ocon and Pérez's rivalry is likewise played up in their final year as teammates. Carlos Sainz Jr. has said that he doesn't mind the dramatized and exaggerated portrayals as the show continues to draw new fans to Formula 1.

* BadassDriver: The main focus of the series are ''Formula 1 drivers'', who are extremely good at their job by design as they wouldn't be able to qualify for Supercar licenses without proving themselves.