Toto Wolff: what did the Mercedes boss say about Netflix F1 docuseries Drive to Survive?

The fourth season of Drive to Survive is set to be released on Friday 11 March 2022 and will show never-before-seen footage from the explosive 2021 Formula 1 season which saw Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton battling it out for the Championship until the very last lap of the very last race.

A championship fight that caused more controversy than has been seen in recent years will be just one of the many narratives set to be documented as Netflix’s hit series returns this week.

The release of the successful show’s fourth season also ties in with the sport’s second pre-season testing event currently being held in Bahrain, two weeks ahead of the first race of the 2022 season.

Every aspect of the past season’s twist, turns and turmoils will be shown to the fans and despite Toto Wolff’s former praise of the show, the Mercedes Team Principal has now stated his fear of letting cameras within such close proximity of the team, claiming that the show’s producers have created fake scenes.

Drive to Survive was an immediate success when it first came to the streaming platform in 2019.

The nature of the documentary series has brought a younger generation to the sport, as well as giving fans an insight into the stresses, strains and hardships in what is often known to be a very elitist sport.

Wolff has previously praised the show for reaching out to the next generation of fans, but with the fourth season looming and set to reveal the key details of his team’s fight for yet another constructor’s Championship, the Austrian has now expressed his concerns about how the final cut will be seen.

What has Toto Wolff said?

Speaking to the press ahead of the fourth season’s release, Wolff said: “It’s scary how much we let them in. You hate to see yourself in there.

“They create a spin to the narrative - they put scenes together that didn’t happen. I guess you’d say as an insider, ‘well that’s different than how it was.’ But we’re creating entertainment, and that is a new dimension of entertainment.”

The Austrian Team Principal also went on to suggest that such access would never have been allowed while Bernie Ecclestone was still in charge of the multi-billion pound industry:

“Bernie Ecclestone would say ‘I’m not interested in the 15-35 (year-olds) because they are not buying rolexes from my sponsor.

“But obviously that has changed because, with social media, this is the demographic that’s driving the audiences, that’s driving the reach - and they are the future decision-makers.

“Formula 1, from our perspective, is always a global sport - big in Europe, big in South America, big in Asia and in the Middle East.

“In a way, we never accessed or excited the American audiences. Formula 1 is a niche sport - it’s a high-tech, high-income demographic, high-academic education.

“I thought it must be easier to tap the audiences in the big cities, like New York, but we never really got there. Then Liberty took over, didn’t move the needle really. And then Netflix came, covid came and people started to binge-watch.

“And then suddenly we have this huge momentum now in the US that nobody had expected.”

Will the 2021 Driver’s Champion Max Verstappen feature in this season’s Drive to Survive?

While his battle to the top will feature heavily in the series, the Dutch driver will not be part of the interviews.

When making the announcement public, the 24-year-old claimed: “They faked a few rivalries which don’t really exist. So I decided to not be a part of it and did not give any more interviews after that because then there is nothing you can show.

“I am not really a dramatic show kind of person. I just want facts and real things to happen.

“The problem is they will always position you in a way they want, so whatever you say, they will try to make you look reckless or try to make you…whatever fits the story of the series.

“So I never really liked that. I prefer to just have a one-on-one interview with the person who would like to know me.”

How to watch Drive to Survive

Drive to Survive will come onto Netflix on Friday 11 March 2022. Netflix subscriptions start at around £7/month.

When is the first Grand Prix of 2022?

Bahrain will host the first of 23 races in the 2022 Grand Prix calendar on Sunday 20 March 2022.

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