With just a week before the Formula One cars hit the track in anger in Melbourne, Netflix has dropped its latest  Drive to Survive series. Now in its seventh season, the fly on the wall documentary has become a staple for many F1 fans as the clock ticks down for race one of the year.

With the off track shenanigans from early last season making F1 headlines, the streaming services offering from the 2024 season has plenty of content from which to choose.

The opening episode is entitled “business as usual” and deals with the off track row over allegations made against Red Bull boss Christian Horner. Although he was completely exonerated by two external investigations, the footage made for good TV while the story was breaking.

 

 

 

Horner Netflix ‘pantomime villain’

Horner features regularly throughout the series and at times seems happy for the cameras to pitch him as the pantomime villain. This year’s offering from Netflix will not have the fans favourite Guenther Steiner featuring, given he was sacked by Haas during last year’s winter break.

The intense rivalry that was once the domain of Mercedes and Red Bull racing appears to have now shifted as outspoken CEO of McLaren, Zak Brown appears to be challenging for the role of Horner’s biggest critic.

He raised the issue of Red Bull owning two F1 teams a number of times across the season, suggesting it was unfair and should be banned come the 2030 Concorde Agreement. Unfortunately Brown does not understand his F1 history as Red Bull founder Didi Mateschitz in some way ‘saved’ F1 when he bought the failing Jaguar and Minardi teams.

Without Red Bull’s massive investment, F1 would have become a laughing stock, racing with just nine cars as the big manufacturers pulled out left right and centre following the global financial crisis.

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Norris courted twice by Red Bull

And so the new rivalry in the paddock after years of watching Wolff and Horner maul, sees Zak Brown verses the Red Bull boss. And this plays out in a number of subtle ways across the season.

Red Bull having have twice tried to sign Lando Norris as Christian Horner as repeatedly admitted. When the British driver signed a contract extension in 2022, Horner revealed: “We’ve spoken with Lando a couple of times over the years, but every time we’ve had a conversation, the next day he’s signed a contract with McLaren.”

Norris was of course involved in several on track spats with Verstappen in 2024 and after the first crash between the pair in Austria, Horner told his drover over team radio: “He [Norris] didn’t behave correctly there Max. Desperately unlucky, especially here, but you did your very best.”

An infuriated Zak Brown spoke to the paddock assembled media after the race criticising Horner for being partisan and Verstappen for his ‘dangerous’ driving.

Hamilton “surprise” data from testing

 

 

 

Brown questions Horner’s integrity

“I think it’s inappropriate to be feeding your driver information that the rest of the world saw differently, including the stewards,” Brown explained to Sky Sports. “So that’s disappointing because it’s not very sporting. But, it’s kind of what we’ve come to expect out of his behaviours.”

McLaren became the subject of FIA scrutiny following a complaint from Red Bull Racing that their wings were flexing illegally. The FIA dragged their feet in resolving the matter something which Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur suggested had cost his team two months in development time.

At the height of the Red Bull/McLaren tensions, the Drive to Survive narrator asked Christian Horner which if either of the McLaren drivers he would like to sign. “Oscar” was the swift response. Whether this is due to the double rejection from Red Bull approaches in previous year’s or down to the on track debacles with Norris is unclear.

Piastri did in his second year in F1 showed significant improvement from 2023, although he did win the sprint in Qatar and secure two podiums in his rookie season. The step forward came with Piastri’s Grand Prix win in Hungary which he followed up by also claiming the chequered flag in Azerbaijan.

Fans demand sacking of Sky F1 presenter

 

 

 

Red Bull missed out on junior Piastri

Red Bull did have the opportunity to sign the young Australian to their young driver programme, but passed at the time, something Horner admits he regrets when speaking to the Behind the Grid podcast in 2022.

“There was an opportunity for Red Bull to look at him at the time, and we didn’t take up that option, which is something that I regret,” Horner admits. “What he went on to achieve is phenomenal, in Formula Three and Formula Two.”

Yet despite Piastri’s potential it was Lando Norris who delivered the knockout blows to Red Bull and ferrari in the 2024 constructors’ title chase. He out qualified his junior team mate by 20-4 and finished some 82 points ahead of Oscar in the end of season drivers’ championship.

McLaren now head into the 2025 season as favourites to win both the F1 crowns and while Norris is joint favourite alongside Verstappen with the bookies, Piastri believes this could well be his year too.

Marko issues warning to Hamilton

 

 

 

Piastri confident of title hopes

“But definitely we are starting on a clean slate and I do think that I can become World Champion this year,” he said at the F175 launch. “I feel like 12 months ago I was going into the season still with some weaknesses that I wasn’t particularly confident with.”

The Aussie believes he has addressed those issues now and his goal for the coming year is greater consistency. “I think through last season, I addressed them; it’s now just about addressing them every weekend and making sure that I’m putting my best foot forward every weekend, and that is what is going to be the difference.

“I’m confident, I think we’ve still got some things to work on and [we’re] definitely not the finished product, but I don’t think anyone necessarily is, and I think if we can work on some of the things that we’ve set out to do in this off-season, then I’ll have a lot of tools to be able to try to make that happen,” Oscar concluded.

The Red Bull – McLaren rivalry could become even more intense during this year as Verstappen will fight tooth and nail to claim a record fifth consecutive F1 title. Norris may well be more combative this year as he was accused in 2024 of ‘not getting his elbows out’ enough.

Newey “massively” surprised by Lance Stroll

 

 

 

 

Red Bull hit back at Newey criticism

2024 was a tumultuous year for Red Bull Racing both on and off the track. The year began with reports of Christian Horner being investigated for alleged “inappropriate behaviour” which escalated into a row about transparency courtesy of straight speaking CEO of McLaren, Zak Brown.

Further, there was an internal power struggle with the Austrian directors of the parent company apparently wishing to oust Horner from his position as team principal.

The Verstappen’s became embroiled in the Horner controversy when Jos demanded he step down as the team was being “torn apart.” Further, Verstappen Snr intimated Max could leave the team were the internal difficulties not resolved…. READ MORE