F1 Abandoned Its Mystique To Become A Docuseries Generator

The current high tide for Formula 1's popularity, especially among young people and in the United States, is attributed primarily to Netflix's docuseries "Formula 1: Drive to Survive." The masses were offered unprecedented access to the drivers, the team bosses and the palace intrigue behind the globe-trotting world championship. However, like countless commercial successes before it, executives have seemingly learned the wrong lessons from the wildly popular docuseries. F1's mystique that created the initial appeal of "Drive to Survive" has been replaced with heavily commercialized, curated access, as displayed by an upcoming documentary called "The Seat" that follows Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli.

It's easy to forget how controversial the presence of Netflix production crews was among F1's teams during the 2018 season. Mercedes and Ferrari, the two teams competing for the championship, opted out of participating in the first season. In some ways, it worked to F1's advantage. Producers were forced to focus on teams further down the field, which gave fans a reason to care about the drivers who were winning races consistently. It highlighted how small struggles matter in F1 and why scoring a single point or a podium for some teams can feel like winning a race. The show's popularity enticed the front-running teams to get on board.

Six years later, the script has been flipped. "Drive to Survive" has arguably become a caricature of itself, taking artistic liberties to retell the methodical season-long title fights into the nail-biting race-by-race struggle to survive seen in the back of the field. Producers were now manufacturing moments for drama rather than offering first-hand insight into the sport's ruthless nature.

Documentaries have simply become a new form of marketing. After shunning the cameras in 2018, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team collaborated with WhatsApp, a team sponsor, to produce a 45-minute documentary. It was announced on Monday that "The Seat," a documentary about how the factory team chose Kimi Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton's successor last year, will be exclusively released on Netflix on May 5. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff said:

"Selecting Kimi as our race driver for 2025 was, as "The Seat" documents, a big decision. WhatsApp played an instrumental role in this. It was the engine that kept everything moving smoothly and privately, allowing our team to focus on Kimi's development, discuss progress, and ultimately communicate our choice. We're excited to give F1 fans around the world a unique insight into the process, showing how we arrived at this pivotal moment in the team's history."

The trailer for "The Seat" simply comes off as an ad for WhatsApp. Antonelli, an 18-year-old racing prodigy, was the favorite to fill the seat when Hamilton announced his departure to Ferrari. While it was a monumental roster move, it was far from a surprise. The young Italian was already a member of the Mercedes Junior Team and was being prepared to replace Hamilton. His most significant obstacle to securing the titular seat was getting an FIA Super License, not the move itself. With that in mind, why watch "The Seat?"

Mercedes isn't alone, as every team has drastically increased the amount of in-house content it produces. Even drivers once viewed as standoffish with the media became the subject of their own bespoke programs. Amazon Prime Video released a docuseries about Fernando Alonso, simply titled "Fernando." Viaplay, F1's official broadcaster in the Netherlands, produced a trilogy of documentaries about Max Verstappen. The drivers and teams realized the potential of promoting themselves in an entirely uncritical light while using the "documentary" label to lend an air of unbiased legitimacy. I'm not saying F1 was better before "Drive to Survive," just that it didn't understand why the docuseries was so well-received.