F1 drivers do not fancy too many outside racing interactions or behind the scenes like the Netflix Drive to Survive even though they feature on it.
With F1 opening up to the American market due to the Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, the popularity of the sport and especially the drivers is on the rise. A lot of the drivers are becoming household names in this part of the world as well.
While it is welcomed for the sport of the growth, but the F1 drivers do not fancy too much of it as well. As traditional, their focus always remains on the driving aspect. It is well known that they don’t like too many media or sponsor interactions.
But since it is part of their job, they have to do it. In fact, the likes of Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso do not even watch the Drive to Survive show, even though they feature on it and are widely talked about.
Here’s what they say about the outside racing aspect –
Max Verstappen: “No. No. I don’t know, probably I’m a bit more old school in that. I wish social media never existed. Freedom of speech, right? Do you drive to survive? I drive to have fun.”
Fernando Alonso: “Yeah. I’m very focused on the racing and not on this show. I never saw any of this Drive to Survive, even Season 1 or whatever, I never saw any episode. Did you? On Saturdays, yes. We go there, we race even sometimes the parade laps or presentations and things like that, they are not always in our dream preparation before the race. So we try to balance. We know it’s important for the sport but I think drivers, teams, even for you guys in the media it’s a very long season, a lot of travelling and we just go for racing, this is what we love but the outside package is sometimes a little bit too much but we understand it.”
Lando Norris: “I pretty much echo their thoughts to be honest, nothing much different. I watched, I think, the first episode I was ever in, which was end of Season 1 and that was it. That was all I saw. The thing is, when you know everything that goes on, it’s nice when they make you look good but then sometimes they also make you look bad. And it’s like the real truth at the end of the day. It’s still a show, it’s to entertain people. It’s not there to provide maybe the most honest things about everything. I know, it’s for the business, right? It’s a business, Formula 1, it’s an entertainment. As much as I don’t do it for entertainment, if it didn’t get televised and all of those things wouldn’t really matter.
“I just want to do the driving, and that’s why I’m here. I’m not here to do all the interviews and enjoy all of this stuff. I love Formula 1 because I love to drive and compete against these guys and race and do all of that stuff. And even since I’ve started, the media has risen a lot more, but in the business world, it probably makes sense because there’s more money and all of those things, and that’s normally how it works. But as drivers, it’s not the thing that we enjoy too much of, but some perks of it, I guess.”
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