F1 Drive to Survive Season 7: Netflix trailer, 2025 release date, and review

Carlos Sainz has a prominent role in the new series, perhaps unsurprisingly given his wins for Ferrari, the occasional battle for supremacy against team-mate Charles Leclerc, and his imminent replacement by Hamilton. Sainz is the first driver to speak in the trailer, saying: “This sport is tough”.

Christian Horner is under the spotlight too, as we see more of the fallout from allegations over inappropriate behaviour, which were later dismissed by the team. Once again there’s friction between him and rival team bosses. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is shown saying: “We’ll see if we can get him to crack”. The trailer then cuts to Horner: “Zak is a prick”.

The role of series villain though has been handed to Alpine consultant Flavio Briatore, who’s seen sitting back in front of a tense Jack Doohan, saying slowly: “I control you every millimetre”.

The theme of pressure runs throughout the preview, including Lando Norris talking about “the eyes on you from the outside”. Former team boss Claire Williams saying: “You cannot underestimate the mental pressure”, and Franco Colapinto‘s massive crash in Brazil as he tried to secure a seat on the 2025 grid.

Ferrari and McLaren aren’t short of tales to tell either. “Any team needs total unity,” says Zak Brown in the trailer, referencing the mid-season power struggle between McLaren’s drivers as its car developed into a race-winner. Lando Norris found himself in title contention, but also had to battle with the impressive Oscar Piastri.

There’s also the return of one series favourite: Guenther Steiner is given the last word.

Read on for more on Drive to Survive Season 7. 

When is Drive to Survive Season 7 released? What time?

Drive to Survive Season 7 will be released on March 7, in the intervening week between pre-season testing in Bahrain (February 26-28) and the first race of 2025 in Australia (March 16).

Netflix tends to drop new series at 8am GMT (12am Pacific Time).

Drive to Survive Season 7 trailer

Watch the Drive to Survive Season 7 trailer at the top of this page, released one week before the episodes drop on March 7.

How is Drive to Survive made?

Embedded within the teams, Netflix crews are able to get closer to the action than anyone else, giving viewers an immersive feel of what it’s like to be at motor sport’s top echelon. Filming takes place at each race, where the focus is typically on one or two of the teams.

Teams and DtS production company Box to Box Films agree in advance where camera crews will be embedded for each race weekend, and also discuss what storylines they are likely to follow. Key figures wear radio microphones during the weekend, and the crew can also be seen with overhead boom mics, capturing footage throughout the paddock, in team garages and even in usually highly restricted debrief rooms.

The lenses are often trained on the drivers from the moment that they walk into the paddock, while race footage is supplied by F1 as part of the exclusive deal between the series and Netflix.

There’s plenty of co-operation between film-makers and the teams, with location shoots regularly featuring in the series. Who can forget team bosses Guenther Steiner and Mattia Binotto driving through Italy’s Dolomite mountains in a tiny Fiat 500 at the start of Season 5?

Teams then get first viewing on material which involves them, in case they might want to seriously oppose any of it being aired. While the approach does offer unique and otherwise unseen insights, it also leaves viewers wondering how much was not filmed or unused.

Who is filming Drive to Survive Season 7?

Box to Box Films is the company behind Drive to Survive, headed by executive producer Paul Martin and James Gay-Rees.

The series blazed a trail for this type of approved docudrama, which has been replicated across the sporting world with varying degrees of success. While MotoGP Unlimited (not made by Box to Box) failed to inspire, others have offered an entertaining and informative behind-the-scenes view of sporting events and characters, including DtS‘s tennis equivalent Break Point, Full Swing which follows golf’s PGA Tour, and cycling’s Tour de France: Unchained.

In addition to a raft of sporting documentaries, Box to Box has also produced successful films on Ayrton Senna, Diego Maradona and Amy Winehouse.

Is Christian Horner in Drive to Survive Season 7?

The explosive accusations against Christian Horner alleging “inappropriate behaviour” were levied against him in the run up to the 2024 campaign are covered in Season 7 of Drive to Survive but the series steers clear of the allegations themselves and focuses on ho the fallout affected Horner and Red Bull.

Horner’s role in Drive to Survive has grown with its popularity, as the Red Bull team boss appeared in almost every episode. His persona is made for the series, thanks to his heated interactions with the likes of Cyril Abiteboul — once the supplier of underperforming Renault engines to the team — and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. He’s also quick with a one-liner when speaking in front of the DtS cameras too.

But the alleged misconduct brings a different tone. The decision to include the controversy was a “difficult one” Gay-Rees told The Telegraph and the story will have to be told in a way “which keeps everyone happy”. “You have to have balance,” he said. “I genuinely don’t have an opinion on it, but [Horner’s] been through it and you wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”

The story marked the beginning of Red Bull’s loss of dominance. After winning seven out of the first ten races to start the 2024 season, the Milton Keynes outfit didn’t have a single victory in the following ten, falling behind both McLaren and Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.

Several key members of the Red Bull team have also left, including chief designer Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and chief strategist Will Courtenay.

What else is in Drive to Survive Season 7?

From blockbuster silly season driver switches to the numerous wheel-clashes at multiple grand prix between championship protagonists, the 2024 F1 season has certainly given producers a few options to choose from. Here are some of the other plot lines in Drive to Survive Season 7.

Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari

Only a few weeks before Season 6 of Drive to Survive was due for release last year, Lewis Hamilton made the earth-shaking announcement that he would be racing for Ferrari in 2025.

He had signed a new contract extension with Mercedes midway through the 2024 season — a subject which was covered by DtS in Season 6 — but was later lured to Maranello with a multi-year deal which will reportedly be worth at least £50m per year, and potentially more than £100m with bonuses.

The newest series of DtS reveals more of Hamilton’s reasons for leaving Mercedes, where he won six of his seven drivers’ titles, and follows his rollercoaster journey through his twelfth and final season with the team.

After a slow start to the 2024 campaign, Mercedes found form shortly before the summer break, resulting in an emotional race win for Hamilton on home turf at Silverstone as well as another victory at Spa after team-mate George Russell was disqualified from the lead. But form dipped towards the end of the season, leading Hamilton to ask if he could retire the car during an underwhelming Qatar Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo’s final farewell 

The seventh season of Drive to Survive may be Daniel Ricciardo‘s last.

The Aussie has proven popular with the series’ viewers and has played a major part in its success. But after being axed from his seat at RB shortly after the Singapore GP, Ricciardo has no place on the grid for 2025.

The decision to replace Ricciardo at RB with impressive Red Bull junior Liam Lawson came suddenly, leading to a strange situation in Marina Bay where Ricciardo and his team acted as if it were his last race, without any official announcement being made. The Aussie stayed in the paddock until 2am and was followed by Netflix camera crews as he said his goodbyes to fellow drivers and former team bosses.

McLaren’s rise and intra-team tussles

Lando Norris spent much of 2023 complaining about his McLaren and held nothing back in his interviews with Netflix during Season 6 of DtS: “This is quicker than our new car, this,” he says while driving a golf cart. Later, he adds: “I might just walk into Red Bull and steal their car”.

But a Miami GP upgrade last year gave McLaren race-winning pace, which Norris took immediate advantage of to win. Oscar Piastri also took used the improved car to claim victory in Hungary and Azerbaijan, and the pair began to bump heads.

In Hungary, Norris was forced to give up his leading position to Piastri in the final laps – but needed to be told to move aside on several occasions. In Monza, the pair came to blows again, as Piastri muscled his way past Norris on the opening lap. The move left Norris vulnerable, and he was subsequently pushed down to third by Charles Leclerc – who later went onto win.

Both races cost Norris valuable points in the race to catch Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, and later led to McLaren publicly stating that they and Piastri would back the Briton – who had the higher points total – for the remainder of the season.

Norris vs Verstappen

More Norris! It would have been easy for producers to justify a second episode based around his transformation from a driver without a single F1 race win at the start of the season, to Max Verstappen’s main challenger for the title midway through the year. It created a situation where Norris’s lack of experience at the very sharp end told, particularly during the increasingly heated battles with Verstappen.

The world champion’s uncompromising manoeuvres resulted in contact in Austria, putting Norris out of the race; controversy in Texas as Norris was forced off the track and then penalised; followed by penalties for Verstappen as he took a similarly robust approach in Mexico.

Any behind-the-scenes insight into the fallout — and the state of the pair’s friendship, which was seemingly strong before this year — would be lapped up by fans.

The downfall of Sergio Perez

An increasingly dismal season in a tricky-to-drive Red Bull ended in the inevitable for Sergio Perez.

The exit was the only option after Perez’s abysmal form cost the team victory in the constructors’ championship, amid embarrassing errors — particularly when he seemingly failed to spot that the Qatar Grand Prix had started and remained at a standstill for several seconds.

Charting the course of a season that began with three podium finishes in three races for Perez, but ended with him just over a third of the points of his team-mate Max Verstappen, makes for a compelling episode: especially if there’s any footage of what must have been a tense Qatar debrief.