Q&A: What's the truth behind Drive To Survive?

0:02This is a Global Player original podcast.

0:05Will Buxton:Well, it's the first race week of the year and to get you all excited for the drama to come, the latest season of Drive to Survive is out. And kids, remember, whoever scores the most points will be world champion. Well, we sign in for a little bit of those lovely lines from Will, but also because we love to get a taste of the glitz and the glam and to get to see the drivers the way that we get to know them sometimes, DC, away from the cameras. Yeah, but what's the truth behind Drive to Survive? Do the drivers actually live that lavish lifestyle? Well, you're going to be answering that too. And what's completely off limits?

0:42We'll be answering all of your questions today. It's Will. It's Naomi. It's David. It's Jolie. Now let's get you up to speed.

0:56Up to speed.

1:02Well, folks, can you believe it? Season 8 of Drive to Survive. I mean, every year I think to myself, what more can they tell us? And having seen it, honestly, it keeps giving, if I'm honest. It's great to have you with us, Will, so you can give us all the behind the scenes of what actually goes on into bringing that show to the world.

1:20Will Buxton:Yeah, season 8. Who'd have thought it? Who'd have thought it? When you look back to season 1. Can I have your autograph while we're here? Oh, shush. I hear that people queue outside of hotels to get your signature. No, not at all. I think what's lovely about the series is what it's done for the sport, what it's done for the drivers. I think they kind of have a love-hate relationship with it. Hate it because it takes a lot of their time up and they have to do loads of interviews for it. Love it because what it's done for their kind of global awareness, what it's done for their bank balances, I think, really, first and foremost.

1:54Will Buxton:But what it's done for the sport and what it's done for the way in which I think sports stories, sports documentaries are told and are made, it completely changed the game. And I think, you know, speaking from a personal experience, it's brought on so many more younger fans, especially, you know, a bigger female audience, which is amazing to see. I mean, a lot of my friends that never even thought about watching F1 are now like, I can't believe you got to watch it early. Can we come round and watch it with you? You know, they love it. And I think that in itself is amazing. Can I say, as the elder statesman of this crew here, it makes me feel proud that Formula One has gained this level of popularity after 75 years, 76 season, I think we're going in in Formula One, because I've been a fan for 40 odd years and I was involved in the sport for 30 years.

2:46And it's like people didn't really get it for a long time, but now people get it because it is intriguing. Well, I'm so happy to hear you say that, DC, because I've also been a part of the wave of people, like seeing people around me all of a sudden loving the sport that I've loved as long as I can remember. And it's been great. But I've always been concerned that, you know, some of the elderly statesmen of the sport, like yourself, you know, maybe sometimes there's been a bit of backlash of the way in which the sport is changing as a result of it. But I also, as you say, I'd love to see the fact that it's opened doors to so many more people.

3:22It's made Formula One a household sport. It's made things a lot more understandable. It's the gateway. It's the new gateway into Formula One and has had an incredible impact on the Formula One world.

3:33Will Buxton:What's fascinating with Drive to Survive as well, though, is there are Drive to Survive fans who are just Drive to Survive fans. They don't watch the races. It's because of you. They just wait for each season of Drive to Survive to come out. Like they're fans of the Kardashians or whatever other reality show they love. I've met so many people around the world when you travel to the races. They're like, oh, you know, when's the next season of Drive to Survive coming out? And you're like, oh, you know, February, March, whatever. Oh, have you enjoyed this season? Oh, I'm not watching it. Don't tell me how it plays out.

4:03Will Buxton:You're like, what? That is insane. And I'm kind of jealous of those people who aren't setting their alarms for 3am to watch the Melbourne race. They're just waiting for the new season. What I'll be doing. But I think, look, it's safe to say there is room for everyone in the sport. And we have a lot to thank for Drive to Survive for that. And, you know, we've got a lot of questions from you guys. The next question, and listener, forgive me if I butcher your name, is from Huwanda on Instagram. Huwanda says, Will has some amazing lines. What do you need to win? Do you need to cross the finish line first?

4:33Will Buxton:Very funny. Does Will write his own lines and do they lean into the memes? So there is this misconception that I either write my lines or I have a script. So I told you guys on the last show, right? I do like six, seven, eight sittings through the year. each one's five hours long if I was that bad at reading a script they would have got rid of me by now and got someone else in who could do it in one sitting they just ask me questions for five hours and I fire the immediate responses and the reason it takes so long for the answers to come out is because it's just the cogs in my brain turning at a very slow rate of what do I want to say how can I get myself in the minimum amount of trouble possible but make it kind of understandable but Will what do you need to qualify first?

5:21he almost took the beat

5:23Will Buxton:the memes thing is it's really funny because my daughter's my eldest daughter's 16 now and I think last year at some point I'd said something really obvious in the car and she was just like oh god dad you're such a meme that means you're cool though I think she's saying you're cool I hope so I love leaning into that you know I first started in this sport as a print journalist Right. I wanted to be a serious writer like David Tremaine and Nigel Roebuck. And, you know, those great guys that I grew up reading their race reports. And I started as a print journalist and I was breaking stories, you know, and I was like, yes, this work is important.

6:04Will Buxton:And then I went into television where journalism goes to die. And then I went on Drive to Survive. And now I'm just a joke. I don't mind. It's fine. It's all good fun. but it's a long way away from the serious journalist. Is there a line in there this season that you're cringing? No, I'm really upset. So normally every season I have to spend like a week after it airs apologising to people and there isn't this season. There's nothing that I think I've said that's too bad. I think you should watch it the second time. Yeah, maybe. Well, talking about reputations, Bethan has a question on the drivers.

6:43Hi guys, loving the show so far, especially that really insightful interview with Max. My question for you is, does this season help or hurt certain drivers' reputations? Thank you. Reputations, you literally are as good as your last race. So if you've won your last race, everyone's going to celebrate you. Everybody loves a winner. If you've bend it, you know, let's look over last year, last season, when we got to Baku, we arrived there with Oscar Piastri looking like world champion elect. He then bends it in qualifying and then he bends it in the race. And it was like, where's Oscar? Well, not to spoil anything, but obviously when they asked a lot of the drivers and team principals who they had their money on midway through the season, Lando or Oscar, they all said Oscar.

7:27A lot of us said Oscar and it was really, it was his to lose at some point and he did lose it, unfortunately. But I have to say, we know that the Formula One drivers are the best drivers in the world and we don't expect them to come there and learn and all that good stuff. But I do think that Drive to Survive reminds people at home just how hard the job is. And it gives us real context into what the drivers are experiencing, besides what they're experiencing in the cockpit, whether there's other noise going around outside, other struggles that they seem to have. And I think for that reason, I think it does them mostly all a favor, even if the storyline isn't great.

8:04We've all seen those headlines. We all know that Oscar didn't win the championship and he lost the championship at the end or whatever the story might be or that Jack Doohan got binned after a number of races. But this gives context to what happens behind the scenes and how they handle it themselves. So I think it helps them all out, to be honest. There's no question. It's elevated the sport. The perfect storm of drive to survive coming out. Ferrari, Mercedes didn't join the party because they were like, why would we give access for nothing? But brilliant vision from Liberty. Sean Bratches was the person responsible for that.

8:35and COVID and people needing to watch things. So that was a stroke of good fortune out of horrible circumstances. We know that Max doesn't like it. I suspect some of the older guys don't really enjoy it. I suspect some of the younger guys, because a bit like you mentioned in a previous episode about Antonelli signing autographs for everybody and shaking hands with everybody, he's a puppy. He hasn't realised how energy sapping that is as he progresses in his career. And I remember it well when I was younger. people would say to you oh don't change you're lovely we evolve you have to change you know it's an inevitable part of growing into who you ultimately you know reaching your ultimate potential so I suspect the guys towards the back of the grid and the younger drivers love it because they see themselves on telly and the older guys does Lewis feature very much on one on one interviews and drive to survive not really this season and Max doesn't either well look there is a part and there's a scene in there I think it's Spa where Antonelli is actually having a chat with Lewis and saying, oh, Mercedes have put in like 42 days of like media marketing days.

9:41And you can see that he's already going, oh gosh, I can't manage this, like the demand. But regardless of whether they... I had 20 days of my contract, no more.

9:50Will Buxton:I'm amazed Lewis didn't chirp up to Antonelli at that point and be like, yeah, you want to change that in your contract. I mean, they were sitting in the press conference. They knew there were mics around and probably conversations have somewhere else. But we know that this is demanding on the drivers. We know that it's potentially extra energy that they need, regardless of which way you slice it, though. As we said from the top of the show, Formula One today is more relevant than it has ever been. And Drive to Survive plays a huge role in that. We've got sold-out locations. We've got record-breaking numbers on viewership, record-breaking numbers in terms of people coming to the track.

10:24Would you have liked to have been in Drive to Survive back in the day? look I accepted everything that I had to do so I always said to my team if it's important to the team it will be important to me because we're one unit as long as it's not day 21 yeah but you know that you're you're right but we tested a lot more in my generation we did less Grand Prix's but we were testing every single week so I got to do what I love doing which is driving Grand Prix cars these guys get like two or three days during the course of the year so it's hardly anything so I would do what I was asked to do because I think that's what being a professional is but I'm not naturally drawn to being on the red carpet

11:06Will Buxton:to answer the question from Bethan in terms of who comes out of it well and who doesn't I think Jack Doohan comes out of this season very well there's a real insight into what went on behind the scenes at Alpine and in particular the abuse that he suffered online And I don't think anybody has. And until they watch it, I don't think anyone will understand the gravity of what that was and how awful it was for somebody to achieve their dream and not enjoy a single second of it. I think that was a really impactful episode. I think Laurent Mechies comes out of this season incredibly well. I think Max comes out of this season well.

11:44Not convinced Zac Brown comes out of it brilliantly, but maybe I'm wrong on that.

11:49Will Buxton:It's all, you know, personal opinion. Yeah, actually, I've not had the opportunity like you to watch the entire season, but I have seen all of season seven. And it seemed in there when you mentioned Zach, it felt very much that his only focus was Lando. You know, I know that this was a year ahead of Oscar going toe to toe with Lando, but it was very obvious. And being sensitive to my time at McLaren when it was quite clear that Ron Dennis, who was the former owner and team principal, was very much in favour of Mika Hakkinen, my old teammate. You know, that's definitely a sore point for me. Yes I think that's a little bit more balanced in season 8 though I mean he takes Oscar out for a track day And they have a couple of dinners here and there And I think there was obviously a lot of managing That he had to do behind the scenes You know as much as we saw Papaya Rules out on track I think there was a lot of management behind the scenes Papaya Rules suck Do you know who though for me just quickly Had me giggling throughout George?

12:45No

12:45Will Buxton:George is so bitchy in this He's almost like He's not just talking about his season. He's talking about everyone's season. I know, he may as well be doing your job, to be fair. Honestly, he's like the paddock foreman, isn't he? That's why I don't have any controversial lines this season. George has got them all. George has taken them all. Okay, but no, I was not going to say George. Somebody who had me cracking up, and now you either love him or you hate him. We know a lot of people have strong thoughts about him, is Flavio. I knew you were going to say that. I mean, the scene. The house? Flavio is advisor, obviously, at Alpine.

13:20I guess he basically takes the role of team principal at this point, but that's not really his official role. And many, many years of experience in Formula One, used to be team principal at Renault, etc. You could probably list off his whole history. But, I mean, just to go into his home, it's like... It's wow. It's comical. It's comical. He absolutely loved it. It's a museum of himself, though. Yeah, literally. He absolutely loved it. And I think, look, you've nailed it on the head there. We see so much that we would never have gotten to see. Coming up, we're going to be answering the burning question.

13:53Is it made up? Well, Will, I'm looking at you. Make sure you're following us on socials at Up To Speed Show. Comment, like, subscribe, leave a review, and we'll be back in a second.

14:12Zoe on Facebook asks, how much of it is made up? Do they tell the drivers to act and do any of them refuse and not play along? There's no question that in the interest of the show, then there's a lot of the moments are recorded after the event. There's a lot of moments that are set up. You know, things like when Antonelli was told that he was going to be a driver. Netflix just happened to be in their home in Italy on that particular day. You know, there's things that are there to capture the moment. But I actually don't have an issue with that because if they didn't have that level of trust and insight from the teams, it wouldn't give us those sort of remarkable moments.

14:49And it's about an emotional journey. That's what sport does. Sport is non-essential in the world. But sport brings people together. The great Nelson Mandela said, sport has the power to change the world. It connects with the youth in a way that politicians and leaders can't. Your quotes today, I have to say, are absolutely 10 out of 10. adding that one. Yeah, let's clip that one up.

15:11Will Buxton:Clip it up. I'm not on the production team. I take no responsibility for what hits the TVs. I just sit in a chair and say dumb things. Is it made up? You can't make it up. Is it a slightly augmented version of reality in the way that so many reality shows are today, like a Kardashians or something like that? I mean, there's an element of poetic license in there, I think, in terms of telling the story. And as DC says, you know, they can't be there for everything. So sometimes, you know, You're supposed to be at Silverstone and they use a little bit of footage from Austria of people walking through the paddock to help tell that story because they can't be all places at all times.

15:47Actually, maybe just to sum that up, when we were shown the F1 movie in Monaco with all the drivers, Jerry Bruckenheimer stood up there and said, please remember, this movie isn't made for you. You're all drivers and ex-drivers. This is made for a Formula One fan base and the next generation of Formula One fans. and that actually just really resonated because then you watch the movie and you could pick out so many things that you go, that would never happen. But it's not made as a reality. In the same way, James Bond, I love James Bond, but does he really save the world every time? Okay, wait.

16:22I just want to, I know I'm stuck on Flavio Briatore, but he's honestly, it was just, you guys need to watch it. It's hilarious. I mean, for some, at least to watch it, it's hilarious. Not for Jack. Well, no, not that part, but I mean, there's a lot of different elements to Flavio's presence in the season. He seems to set up the cameras with Drive to Survive to show up every time he wants to insult his drivers. No, but that's how he is. I mean, he's like, you are the problem. You are shit, okay? You are the problem, not my car, not my people. Did you ever have an experience with a team principal calling you out quite like Flavio?

16:57Oh, Patrick Head must have called you out. Yeah, well, Patrick Head at Williams, he was the chief designer at that time. And I think I've shared with you, certainly privately, where there was ones he lent in the cockpit when I was at a Grand Prix and he said, whatever you're doing, do it better. Which is basically saying you're not doing a good enough job. It's a great quote. It's a great quote. There's some motivation for you. And again, sorry if I've repeated this before, but I once hitched a lift with Flavio back in his beautiful aircraft from Brazil, white carpets inside, which is always a high risk strategy.

17:28And they served sushi. I was just on the plane with Flavio and one of his friends and we were handing the sushi with the soy sauce back towards the galley. And his buddy spilt the soy sauce on the white carpet, but he turns and looks at me. And then Flavio looks at me because he trusts his Italian buddy. Oh, no. And he thinks I've spilt the soy sauce. They chuck you out the plate? No, we were at 36 ,000 feet halfway across the Atlantic. But I grab a glass of wine and I go, no problem, white wine will sort this. Pour it on the carpet. Oh, my goodness. And the carpet just starts morphing into brown.

17:59Oh, no. It's not red wine, mate. It's soy sauce. I know, so that was a pretty tense flight all the way back. Gosh, you're definitely not having your post-race T in this plane, are you?

18:08Will Buxton:And that Renault contract never saw the light of day. Yeah, that's it. Well, the last thing I'll say on Is It Made Up, my favourite thing that Drive to Survive do is when there's a crash and they say, are you OK? It's like, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom. And they're like, yeah, I'm OK. And in real life, it's like, are you OK? And they're like, yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about that one. But now I've got a question from Danny on Instagram. Hi, it's Danny here, and you guys are already my favourite F1 podcast. So in Drive to Survive this year, there was a whole episode on Christian Horner.

18:39Do we think we'll see him back in F1 soon? And I know he says it's not true, but why was there no mention of the allegations made by his female employee?

18:48Will Buxton:OK, so to reference what's being discussed there, a female employee at Red Bull accused him of sexual harassment and coercive and controlling behaviour, something which he has always denied and has twice been cleared of. but it is something that Drive to Survive covered in season seven and so for it not even to be mentioned in the discussion as to why he was let go or the circumstances surrounding Christian being let go this year look as I said I don't make the series I don't edit it or produce it yeah and I think there's that scene quite early on in the season where he comes onto stage at the O2 and the whole room is booing and it was really hard to watch I'm sure that it was incredibly hard to stand there.