EXCLUSIVE: ‘There’s something for everyone’ – Drive to Survive’s producers share how Season 8 came together

A new F1 season means another helping of Drive to Survive, with the popular Netflix series returning to screens and retelling the story of a spectacular 2025 campaign – headlined by the three-way fight for the World Championship between McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Before you get stuck into Season 8 (well done if you already have!), F1.com caught up with Executive Producer James Gay-Rees and Co-Executive Producer Tom Rogers from production company Box To Box for some first-hand insight on what to expect from the latest instalment, what’s new, and how it all came together…

An epic F1 title race

“There’s a joke in an episode towards the end of the season, ‘Was this scripted by Netflix?’” Rogers smiles, neatly summing up a remarkable 2025 title race that went down to the wire at the Abu Dhabi finale.

Just a few months later, Drive to Survive’s account of the showdown, and the many twists and turns leading to that point, has arrived for viewers around the world to enjoy before it all starts again in Australia next week.

“It really didn’t matter to us which way the chips fell last year,” adds Rogers, opening up on the key plotline. “If Max had done it, you’d have had the greatest comeback of all time, and that’s an incredible story. Then, with Lando or Oscar, either way it was going to be somebody’s first title, and that’s an amazing end to the story as well.

“Lando’s been a big supporter of the series, always taking part in it from the start, but I honestly think, however that last race of the season had manifested, it would have been good for us and good for the sport.”

Giving his take, Gay-Rees adds: “It was a great season, and great to be on the inside of it, as always. Obviously so much of it came down to the McLaren narrative, and they were really good to work with. Zak Brown, the two drivers, the support staff, the communications people, the driver managers, they were really, really fantastic.

“Seeing Max and Red Bull reel them in as the season went on was pretty special – pretty terrifying for McLaren, but pretty entertaining for the rest of us! And you have to give even more respect to Max for the way he dealt with it; he seemed to do it with a bit of a smile on his face and a sense of humour, which was nice to see.

“I think every potential title outcome was equally intriguing. Like a lot of people, I thought Oscar was going to do it, and the reasons why his challenge fell away are pretty complicated.

"Max came back the way that he did, and then you were thinking, ‘Is Lando going to hold his nerve and get it done?’ But it was a win, win, win for us.”

Norris’ rise through DTS’ eyes

Gay-Rees is, however, keen to point out what makes Norris’ journey to championship glory that little bit more special from Drive to Survive’s perspective, with their cameras and mics – which entered the paddock gates in 2018 – present from the very start of his F1 career.
“The Lando story is mega, because I remember sitting down with McLaren an awfully long time ago now,” says Gay-Rees. “They said, ‘We’ve got some big news, it’s coming out shortly’, and it was promoting Lando for 2019. So, to have tracked him over the seven or eight years that he’s been in the sport, and to see it finally come home…

“He’s a special character, Lando, because he does wear his heart on his sleeve, even for us. I think he’s so authentic. In the age of modern, elite sport, he’s a rare character in that respect. That’s not to dismiss any of the other drivers, or even any other sportspeople, it’s just that he’s particularly open about stuff, even now, which is so refreshing.

“I think that’s why he’s got such a huge following. It makes sense, because he’s so relatable in some ways, even though he’s an incredible athlete. It’s been good to see what’s happened, and he’s probably one of our biggest characters.”

Making a wider observation, Gay-Rees continues: “I know in modern sport these guys are so used to having cameras in their faces, but it must get so trying at times to be constantly under the microscope. It’s one camera or another, isn’t it? Whether it’s us or some other news channel, or their own in-house people. It’s a lot of pressure on these kids.

“It feels like Lando has been around for a long time, but he’s still in his mid-20s, so living under that microscope and having to balance it out with a performance is just extraordinary. Maybe it’s because I’m getting so old! But I really appreciate what these drivers are doing with their relatively young lives, and how grateful we all are.”

A host of sub-plots

Beyond the championship fight and Norris’ success, there were plenty of storylines for Drive to Survive to track throughout the 2025 season – take Lewis Hamilton’s blockbuster move to Ferrari, the knock-on Mercedes promotion for teenager Kimi Antonelli, and the Williams switch for Carlos Sainz as a trio of examples.

However, two other topics stand out for Gay-Rees and Rogers: Jack Doohan’s turbulent experience at Alpine, which involved him being replaced after half a dozen Grands Prix, and Christian Horner’s dramatic mid-season exit from Red Bull.

“There’s a lot of focus on the rookies in this season for obvious reasons – six in total, two of them being fired by the sixth round,” says Gay-Rees, also pointing to Liam Lawson’s rapid-fire Red Bull promotion and demotion. “We got amazing access to Jack’s story, and Alpine in general, which is pretty extraordinary, as well as following Christian before and after what happened.”

Sharing a few more details, and highlighting the approach required in these situations, Rogers explains: “You’ve got to be very careful, because there’s always two sides to every story, and I think what we’re really keen to avoid is coming down on one side over the other – we try and show as many aspects of it as we possibly can.

“I think Jack’s emotion in his interview to us after losing the Alpine seat is a really human moment, when you’ve aspired to do something, or you’ve been aiming at something for your whole life, and then for whatever reason it doesn’t work out. It’s an incredibly challenging thing for anybody to go through, and I think we can all identify with him.”

Trying something new

While the overall feel and flow of Season 8 is similar to recent editions, Netflix and Box to Box are always thinking of ways to enhance the Drive to Survive experience and weave in new features.

In Season 7, a group of drivers were given cameras to document their weekends from start to finish at the Singapore Grand Prix, complementing at-the-track duties with a look behind-the-scenes during car journeys, time relaxing at hotels and more.

This time around, fans will get to learn more about the life of an F1 Team Principal, with aforementioned McLaren boss Brown, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur and Red Bull’s Laurent Mekies all agreeing to give extra access in Las Vegas.

“It’s a really good episode with a slightly different perspective,” says Gay-Rees, while Rogers argues that “a Team Principal’s role within a race weekend, and what that looks like, is something that maybe we haven’t seen much of before”, thus providing “an interesting insight”.

He adds: “We had a little bit of controversy with the McLaren double disqualification, so there’s a lot of stuff going on. It also turned out to be quite an important race for the championship, as a defining moment in Max’s resurgence. It helps that the race delivered!”

Closing in on 100 episodes

With so many topics to weave in, Drive to Survive’s production team and editors have certainly been busy over the winter, so how do Gay-Rees and Rogers feel about the finished Season 8 product, and the latest addition to an ever-growing series?

“Such a great F1 season doesn’t necessarily mean the show’s any easier to make, sadly!” Gay-Rees chuckles, given the brutal edits and tight deadlines involved. “But we still managed to grind through it, and it’s gone pretty well. I think there’s something for everyone this year – lots of different storylines, really good variety. It’s quite gnarly.

“When you’re in the nitty gritty of it, trying to make these episodes work, it’s very hard to have any perspective on it. Like a lot of creative people, you tend to think it’s terrible until somebody else tells you it’s not! But I do think this season is very watchable, and I’m really keen to see what the reaction is to it.

“I think we’re on the inside of some big stories, and in a lot of instances the access does feel very good. Could we get better access? Always. We always want better access! That’s just a dynamic that evolves in its own way. But I do think it stands up.”

Rogers comments: “With Drive to Survive, you have to think of it from the point of view of the audience we’re aiming at. It’s not necessarily conceived for a die-hard F1 fan, because they already love the sport. We’re about bringing new people into the sport, as F1 The Movie has in many ways.

“We also see whenever we launch a new season that Season 1 comes back up the charts. It’s almost like Christmas, when the singles get into the charts again. I think people re-watch it, or new fans maybe watch Season 8 as their first season and think, ‘How have I missed seven years of this show?’. Then they’ll go back and watch it, so that’s great.

“When you pause to think about it, we’re launching Season 8, and we’ve now produced 78 episodes of Drive to Survive! It’s amazing, and it’s been a real privilege to work on.”

The new season of Drive to Survive is available to watch on Netflix from February 27, one week ahead of the 2026 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 6-8. Click here to view every episode today.