Drive to Survive wouldn't have worked in my day, says former F1 world champion

The seventh series of hit docuseries Drive to Survive dropped this weekend, as the Netflix show retold the story of the 2024 Formula 1 season through a series of interlinked behind-the-scenes storylines to take fans under the skin of F1 in a way that had never been achieved before its arrival on Netflix back in 2019.

The show has received critical acclaim, and has been credited for the explosion in the popularity of F1 in the United States. But former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve says the show wouldn't have enjoyed the same success had they attempted it during his racing days.

Villeneuve, who captured the F1 Drivers' Championship as a Williams driver back in 1997, explained that the interactions between drivers when he used to race were much more raw, because they weren't exposed to the constant scrutiny of the television cameras, as the drivers are today.

“No, I wouldn’t have been happy to participate in Drive to Survive in my era, because we were much freer with our speech back then and it would have been very damaging," Villeneuve told YaySweepstakes.com.

"Basically, a few times some people have tried to have a series like this – it was always linked to one driver or another. They tried with me as well, and I refused. I didn't want someone on my back from morning to night."

Villeneuve also suggested that being a driver in F1 in 2025 is very different from his time back in the late 1990s, with the packed press corps filled with journalists from traditional media forming part of F1's globetrotting collective.

New season, fresh rivalries. Formula 1: Drive to Survive returns MARCH 7 🏁 pic.twitter.com/0QBdUOIBiJ
— Netflix (@netflix) February 7, 2025

These days, he explained, there are far fewer journalists, with traditional media becoming increasingly sidelined in favor of social media and influencers.

"It wasn't that I think the workload has changed. It's different," he explained.

"We used to race, test, race, test, race, test and there were many more journalists on race weekends than there are now. Much more, because you didn't have social media. You didn't have influencers.

"These influencers want to be journalists and their words are probably now viewed more than real journalists, which is wrong.

"It can be very damaging, but that's the way it is so there's not many of them. All the real journalists are almost gone."

That change in the way the sport is covered has resulted in fewer media traveling the world covering F1, and that breathing space allows the likes of Netflix and their Drive to Survive filmmakers the room to come in and produce the thrilling streaming show that has opened up the world of F1 to an even wider audience.

"There's a lot less people in the paddock and the workload on that aspect is a lot easier," said Villeneuve.

"Because (back then) there would be 200 journalists, and it was just non-stop. For each country, each paper, and radio, and so on and so on. And that's kind of died away.

"You can have Netflix in the paddock because there's more room, there's more space, and more time for it."

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