Why “Drive to Survive” wouldn’t have happened under Bernie Ecclestone

Damon Hill claims that the reason Netflix’s Drive to Survive has been so successful for Formula 1 is because “every episode is a small story into someone’s life.” But the 1996 champion said that the docuseries wouldn’t have happened under Bernie Ecclestone’s leadership.

“It’s served up Formula 1 in a way that is entertaining, intriguing and stimulating. It’s exciting for people who know nothing about the sport,” the Briton explained to GQ.

“So it’s a good way for getting people into it. Every episode is a small story into someone’s life, whether they’ve had their appendix out and coming back from that, or whether their season’s gone off the rails and they’re coming back from that. These are things you can’t do on live TV; they need to be done retrospectively. The storm needs to pass before you can show what happened.

“My friends who’ve also got kids the same age as my children, we’d all go on holiday together so these kids have known me for years. Now we’ll go for dinner and they’ll say ‘hey, do you watch Drive to Survive? You used to be a racing driver, didn’t you?’ Yeah, and you never asked about it before! They have literally discovered Formula 1 through Drive to Survive.”

Drive to Survive has led to a boom in popularity in the championship in the United States. While it has succeeded in winning over a new wave of fans, Hill explained that the former F1 CEO wouldn’t have considered the approach of Liberty Media’s.

“It would never have happened under Bernie because Bernie’s approach was to restrict supply and increase demand,” Hill continued. “Liberty take the view that to get a bigger audience you need to give away a few free gifts.”

Drive to Survive won the Emmy for Outstanding Sports Documentary Series – Serialised for the sixth series of the show, which followed the 2023 F1 season.

Damon Hill

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“Obviously you’re not talking about a season where there’s a massive title rivalry, so really it’s interesting watching the fight for second, third, fourth taking place,” Executive Producer James Gay-Rees told F1.com at the time.

“We went into it slightly worried that because Red Bull were so dominant it might be a little bit skinny, but actually it’s not. We even nearly did more episodes than we normally do because we had quite a lot of stories to tell.

“I get for the casual viewer that it may get a bit repetitive with Max winning every weekend, but I do think, in hindsight, people are going to understand what an amazing driver he is.”