Lando Norris slams Drive to Survive's 'manufactured nonsense'

A gap is growing between Netflix and the paddock of the Formula 1. After receiving strong criticism from Max Verstappen in recent years, so much so that the Dutchman boycotted some seasons of the series Drive to Survive continues to make enemies among its improvised actors. Since 2018, the streaming platform's production has been retracing the Formula 1 seasons through ten forty-minute episodes posted online a few days before the start of the following season.

In February, Drive to Survive returned for a seventh season, rewinding the highlights of F2024's 1 season. One episode notably focused on the title duel between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris and portrayed the two men as rivals ready to do anything to crush each other, when in reality they are friends off the racetrack. Which didn't really go down well with the number 4...


"They need to show the truth about people more, I'm not a fan of fake things." Norris laments to The Guardian. "I want facts, not made-up scenarios and fabricated nonsense, which is what this is. The way Max and I have been portrayed as being so adversarial. They don't need to make it up."

“There’s already drama, they can just show the facts of the drama. They don’t need to add to it. They need to get back to reality a little more, it’s gotten too far away. Portraying someone incorrectly will lead people to have the wrong opinion of that person, it’s almost lying in a way. I don’t think that’s fair. You can’t misrepresent someone when it’s not the truth. It’s not fair to anyone, especially a show that has a huge following and so many people love, because people believe what they see.”

Drive to Survive must 'come back to reality' for Norris

The Australian GP winner's rant about Drive to Survive's tendency to distort reality echoes Max Verstappen's comments after the release of Season 7. The four-time world champion had taken aim at the show's clever editing, which readily compiles scenes filmed at different times of the year. One example that got a lot of attention from the two world championship leaders was a scene of Norris enjoying a joyous moment in the cool room after his victory in Miami, while Verstappen gives a six-foot header. But in reality, the Dutchman was rather jovial at the time, happy for his friend who was ending his run of fifteen podiums without a win. The footage of his disappointment actually came from the Dutch Grand Prix three months later...

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"I'm not surprised. I didn't watch [the final season]. It's just a shame to see these things pop up on X, but you just have to quickly ignore them so they don't pop up in your feed again." explained Verstappen, visibly jaded by the series."I haven't watched it, to be honest. I feel like I have a pretty good idea of ​​what's going on in it, so I don't need to watch it again on TV." shared Oscar piastri. "There are a lot of things in Drive to Survive that you never really know how they were put together."

In a more polite way, this means the same thing as when Lando Norris assures that "To portray someone incorrectly is almost to lie in a way. "Netflix producers will have to be careful not to push the pilots' patience too far, or risk losing the last moments of naturalness in their series.

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