During this winter of discontent, if you are looking for a distraction from Biden running the table or COVID-19, or Trump being Trump, may I suggest Drive To Survive on Netflix. Actually, I thought I had pitched Drive To Survive Season One but I can’t find it on my website so I must have decided against recommending it. That’s understandable, it is sort of a behind-the-scenes look at last year’s Formula One season and I am concerned that I like it only because I am so interested in Formula One.

On the other hand, people who don’t follow or even like Formula One seem to like Drive To Survive better than people who do. One reviewer, Jean Henegan, says: I have never watched a single Formula 1 race. In truth, I’ve never watched any auto racing at all. It’s just not how I would choose to spend my time. Which makes it all the more surprising that I absolutely loved the Netflix documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Henegan says that she loved it because: the subjects of the series are professional athletes and/or high ranking businessmen and women. That lends an additional degree of difficulty to the series – aside from a couple of individuals, most everyone here is at the top of their chosen field. There’s nowhere else to go but down…the drivers and teams are shockingly open about their failures in a way I don’t think we would see from a Major League Baseball team or an NFL team. That level of transparency is strangely refreshing to see.

This is not a recap of a season, it is more a series of video portraits; video portraits of some drivers, which is to be expected, but also of their families, and, in addition, several Team Managing Directors – what we would call CEOs – all of whom are fascinating to watch. These are people at the top of their dreams, they all speak English but are a variety of, mostly, Europeans. Listening to the Managing Directors of three top teams – one is Austrian, one is Italian, and one is English – and comparing their management styles to the Managing Directors of the two bottom teams was especially interesting to me. It’s on Netflix, check it out.