Why Drive to Survive would have been “a disaster” for one F1 world champion

2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg believes Netflix’s Drive to Survive would have been “horrible” and “a disaster” for him if it existed during his time in the sport.

Connor McDonagh

12 Dec 2023

Rosberg bowed out of F1 following his title triumph over Lewis Hamilton in 2016 - two years before Drive to Survive started in 2018.

Since then DTS has been released after every F1 season, detailing and sharing exclusive snippets from the previous campaign.

Rosberg thinks the documentary “would have taken concentration away” from the job at hand.

“No, no, no, that would be horrible,” he told City A.M. “That would have been horrible because it would have taken concentration away from me actually winning the championship. That would have been a disaster.

“What F1 did so well with Netflix is that it’s a reality TV show. They got lucky that select individuals like Guenther Steiner or some of the team bosses really accepted to be real, even taking the risks associated with that.

“Formula 1 has had an incredible increase in viewership thanks to social media and Netflix which has been phenomenal, but also thanks to the new generation, which is a very exciting generation.

“That’s been great to see and all of us are tagging along in that a little bit but [electric off-road racing series] Extreme E still needs to find other ways to generate audiences and grow.”