Ferrari icon blames Drive to Survive for F1 ‘pantomime vitriol’: 'You don't need all of that s***'

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Ferrari icon blames Drive to Survive for F1 ‘pantomime vitriol’: 'You don't need all of that s***'

Drive to Survive changed F1 forever, but is it for better or for worse?

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 13 May 2026 17:30

When Liberty Media took control of the commercial rights of F1 in January 2017, the American mass media company could only have dreamed of the gargantuan impact they would have on the sport.

They became the driving force for global streaming sensation, Drive to Survive, a docuseries which follows the lives of F1 drivers both on and off the track, allowing the cameras to go where many others haven't been able to in the past.

It allowed the popularity of quirky personalities to soar who may never have become household names without Netflix's help, such as ex-Haas boss Guenther Steiner.

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Offering exclusive access to the thrilling, fast-paced world of F1 brought in an overwhelming amount of new fans and gave us some of the most iconic moments between rivals such as Christian Horner and Toto Wolff.

But it is overdramatised rivalries and pantomime-like figures such as these that Ferrari icon Rob Smedley is not the biggest fan of.

The Brit previously worked as Felipe Massa's race engineer at Ferrari between 2006 and 2014 and is a well-respected figure in motorsport, but he is not happy with what the streaming giants have turned F1 into.

Smedley recently blamed the sensation that is Drive to Survive for the ‘pantomime vitriol’ that has come about as a result of Netflix's presence in the sport, but the fact remains that it's working.

In their most recent financial reports, Liberty Media revealed they have seen a 53 per cent increase in F1 revenue this year compared to this stage in 2025, up to $617million.

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Does Drive to Survive add unnecessary drama to F1?

Discussing the current state of the sport on a recent episode of the High Performance Racing Podcast, Smedley said: "People should be respectful. That should be how Formula 1 is. You don't need the pantomime vitriol that's kind of crept in from certain quarters with the Drive to Survive. You don't need all of that s***.

"Formula 1 is hyper professional, right? When you're in the teams themselves… it's always a hyper professional environment, you know, where there's a lot of respect.

"Yes, of course as the old saying goes, you'd sell your granny for half a tenth, right? But there has to be respect because there's no bad teams in Formula 1."

Though Smedley clearly feels the Netflix presence has transformed the F1 circus into a much more dramatic affair, Sky Sports F1 star Ted Kravitz suggested the latter just over a week ago at the Miami Grand Prix.

When the nosey Netflix cameras popped up in the Miami International Autodrome paddock during Ted's Notebook, Kravitz noticed their presence around the Williams building, hinting that they no longer have as much power as when the show first started.

"Drive to Survive just think they can come and listen to everybody's conversation and then all it takes is for Jimmy V [James Vowles, Williams team principal] to say, ‘no not now’ and then they instantly put it away," Kravitz revealed.

"So if you're ever wondering how it's made and this is proper behind the curtain stuff, then that's how, they assume every conversation is open season and there are many that are not in Formula 1."