Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive returns for its seventh season, once again offering fans of the sport an unfiltered lens into what was a dramatic 2024 season. With unprecedented access to the paddock, garages, and some of the largest personalities in the sport, the series continues its successful coverage of what is often considered the pinnacle of motor racing.
In this article, we break down everything you need to know about Season 7, from release dates to the narratives that could shape this upcoming season.
Watch the Trailer
Release Date
Drive to Survive Season 7 premieres globally on Netflix on Friday, March 7, 2025. So far, each of the six seasons of the series has consisted of ten episodes, each of which were available to stream from the release date. The seventh season will consist of ten episodes, but while it hasn’t been confirmed, it’s likely it will follow the same pattern, meaning episodes will be available to stream immediately on the release date.
This release date precedes the season opener—the Australian Grand Prix and its supporting practice sessions starting March 14—by a week, giving fans plenty of time to wet their appetite before the 2025 campaign begins.
As usual, the series will be accessible in all regions where Netflix operates, including the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
How to Watch: Streaming on Netflix
Streaming Requirements
- A Netflix subscription is required, with plans starting at £5.99 ($7.99)/month for ad-supported access and standard and premium subscriptions starting at £12.99 ($17.99)/month and £18.99 ($24.99)/month respectively.
- The series can be streamed on smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and web browsers via the Netflix app or website.
Drive to Survive Season 7
Photo by: Netflix
Season 7 Episode Guide
Tudum, Netflix’s own blog, has published the episode guide for Season 7, and it’s no surprise to see that the biggest news of the year comes at the very beginning.
Lewis Hamilton’s final year with Mercedes will be fleshed out in the first episode, aptly named “Business as Usual”, though the explanation from the streaming service teases an overlap with the allegations that surrounded Red Bull team principal Christian Horner for most of 2024.
Episode two, “Frenemies,” explores the rivalry between McLaren’s Lando Norris and reigning champion Max Verstappen as the former hunts down his first chance at a championship win. The third instalment, “Looking Out for Number 1,” continues Hamilton’s story as Mercedes and Toto Wolff look to fill the then-vacant seat for 2025.
Episodes four and five, “Carlos Signs” and “Le Curse of Leclerc,” focus on the Ferrari drivers, as Carlos Sainz seeks to confirm his place on the grid outside of the Scuderia after being replaced by the seven-time world champion. Following this, we unsurprisingly join Charles Leclerc in Monaco as he seeks to break his infamous curse at his home race.
Episode six, “Wheels of Fortune,” explores the controversial ‘Papaya Rules’ that plagued McLaren’s season, while episode seven, “In the Heat of the Night,” looks back at the traditionally brutal Singapore Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez gets his own send-off in episode eight, “Elbows Out,” as the series turns its focus to his possible replacements. In a similar vein, the penultimate episode, “Under New Management,” brings back fan-favourite Guenther Steiner, who was replaced by Ayao Komatsu as Haas team boss.
The tenth and final episode, “End Game,” will focus on Abu Dhabi and the intense Constructors’ Championship battle.
Impact on Formula 1’s popularity
Drive to Survive revolutionised F1’s global reach when it debuted in 2019, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
The sport had been in decline since 2008, with viewership falling almost consistently season to season. Google trends paints a similar story, with the lowest interest observed in the off-seasons of 2019 and 2020. This aligns with the dip in overtaking fans saw around the 2017-2019 seasons. In fact, 2017 saw the lowest overtaking figures in over a decade.
There are lots of reasons why the sport saw this drop in popularity, but what’s clear is the sudden growth it had once Netflix’s series started gaining momentum. According to SportsPro, just 14% of F1 viewership was under the age of 25 in 2019. Following the release of Drive to Survive, this trend was reversed, with the average viewer age falling from 44 to 32.
The series did something amazing—it humanised the sport, marketing not simply the racing, but the personalities sat in the cockpits and in front of the computer screens. And with Liberty Media taking over the sport in 2017 and heavily targeting the US market, this opened F1 up to a whole new group of social media-savvy people who only amplified its reach further.
According to ESPN, via The New York Times, average viewership per race increased from 547,000 in 2018 to 928,000 in 2021.
In 2024, the sport’s annual revenue rose for the fourth year running to $3.65 billion. Global TV viewership has also now grown to 1.6 billion, and the all-important social media following grew to 97 million.
There are lots of variables to blame for this rise in popularity, but Drive to Survive has no doubt been a large factor.
A Must-Watch for F1 Enthusiasts
Drive to Survive Season 7 promises to explore one of the greatest seasons we’ve had so far in the modern ground-effect era. It has proven to be essential viewing for fans of the sport, but as usual, take everything you see with a pinch of salt.
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