F1 Drive to Survive Season 8 is out now but Lewis Hamilton is missing

Lewis Hamilton at Monza — Photo: © IMAGO

Drive to Survive

Drive to Survive Season 8 is out now but Lewis Hamilton is missing

The seven-time world champion was not a major figure in the new season

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Friday 27 February 2026 08:30

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Drive to Survive Season 8 is out now (Friday February 27) and we only have one big question - where is Lewis Hamilton?

Going into our binge of the eight-episode Netflix F1 bonanza this week, there were two major topics we were hoping would be covered in depth. Hamilton’s miserable first year at Ferrari, and Christian Horner’s bombshell sacking by Red Bull.

Netflix did at least deliver to a decent level on Horner - we got the former team principal and Spice Girl wife Geri Halliwell talking about how it went down in their palatial Northamptonshire estate.

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But in terms of Hamilton’s Maranello misery, we were left looking under the pasta for the sauce…Sadly we could find none. You could almost have forgotten that Lewis went the entire year without a podium, finishing in sixth place some 267 points behind new champion Lando Norris.

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Hamilton Ferrari misery, not so much

We watched every minute of the eight episodes and we can confirm there are no sit-down interviews with the 41-year-old seven-time world champion. And no great insight into what happened/what went wrong at Ferrari in 2025.

The closest we come is Episode 6 (entitled ‘The Duel’) but even that is more of a take on the Mercedes vs Ferrari battle and the rivalry between team-mates. Hamilton’s own personal struggles get a very light touch only as part of that.

Obviously Netflix will have shot thousands of hours of footage for this latest season, and perhaps some didn’t make the final cut. But this felt like a major missed opportunity to inject depth into one of the biggest storylines of all.

Even some insightful commentary from Italian insiders would have been significantly better than what we got. But instead it was just the occasional aside from Will Buxton stating that things were not going according to plan for the Scuderia.

It should also be pointed out that Hamilton is not the only big name 'missing' from this season when it comes to big sit-down interviews with the Netflix cameras.

Fellow world champions Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso also only speak in footage which was already publicly available. Either TV or media interviews.

It’s reality TV, not a documentary

While the disappointment felt real, maybe at this stage, eight seasons in, it is time to just accept that this is reality TV and not a documentary.

Drive to Survive really is a show for the casual fan and not the hardcore, and it has been a major reason for the huge growth of F1 in recent years.

Just to back that statement up, Liberty Media announced record revenues on Thursday - it can thank the DtS era in no small way for that.

We are not generally going to come away feeling we learned something massively new any more. Instead we get some really nice camera work, a little insight into some personalities, a ton of glamour and the odd funny or NSFW moment (thanks to George Russell for 2026) nugget.

It’s still fun, but as we said, expect more pasta than sauce…

Drive to Survive Season 8 is out now globally, and all eight episodes are available to watch free of charge if you are an existing Netflix subscriber.

Binge away!

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Drive to Survive