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Drive to Survive - Season 3 (2021)

Where to Watch: Netflix

Drive to Survive, a fly-on-the-wall documentary series first debuted in 2019 and covered the 2018 Formula 1 Season. Since then the series has had a lot of following and is into its third season.

Truth be told, "Drive to Survive" is the reason I started watching Sports documentaries. I hadn't seen any race in 2018 before the first season came out, and I only saw the final race of 2019 before the second season. I was eagerly awaiting for the 2020 Formula 1 Season to start before "you-know-what" delayed sporting action across the globe. The season finally kicked off in July with certain races either being canceled or postponed.

The good parts about this series are its intensity, behind-the-scenes action, the interviews with the Drivers, and the "key-personnel" of the various teams. 

Now even though I saw all the races of 2020, it became a bit difficult to follow because the episodes go back and forth in time rather than in a sequential manner. 

Take the "2020 Italian Grand Prix" that "Pierre Gasly" won, the same race is shown through the perspective of different teams and I felt that this race took a considerable amount of time. As a result, I felt a lot of other memorable events were missed out.

Take for instance the unfortunate "Pit Stop Error" involving George Russell that cost him a podium at the "Sakhir Grand Prix". Although this event is shown in the series, it is not in the spotlight. Another event that they should have shown was the "Tuscan Grand Prix" that was "Red-Flagged" twice. There is also no mention of the "Turkish Grand Prix" where the battle for the second and third positions went down till the last lap. Although the "British Grand Prix" has been mentioned, it did not show how Hamilton just managed to finish the race on three-tires. Among other things, there is not a lot of screen time for "Williams Racing", no "Max Verstappen" interview, no "Nico Hulkenberg" who started the race twice (should have been 3 times if it wasn't for the power unit problem at the "British Grand Prix"). Nico came in as a replacement for "Racing Point" at different points in the seasons when its drivers were tested positive for "you-know-what" and scored 10 points in two races. The "Haas" and "Alfa Romeo" teams scored 11 points combined across 4 drivers and 17 races yet there was a considerable amount of screen time for both these teams.

On the whole, it was a decent watch and I understand that it is difficult to show all the events in a 10-episode series. However, I would recommend this latest installment of this series despite its shortcomings.

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