Formula 1: Drive to Survive season 5 trailer stars world champ Max Verstappen

The fifth season of Netflix’s acclaimed Formula 1: Survive by Driving documentary premieres on Feb. 24, and this trailer gets to the point immediately: Max Verstappen, the double-defending World Drivers’ Championship winner, is back in the interview chair, cooperating with the show’s producers.

Verstappen had quietly boycotted the Netflix series over its last three seasons, feeling the first year didn’t fairly present him or his team. His boss Christian Horner (husband of Spice Girl Geri Haliwell) handled the publicity in Verstappen’s absence. However, winning is a cure all. After his second straight world title, the 25-year-old Belgian-Dutch racing prodigy seems a little more secure in his place in F1, regardless of what Netflix’s filmmakers do or say.

Formula 1: Survive by Driving We will be reminiscing on a successful year for the sport. Its popularity in America has increased over the past five-years. A new set of regulations was introduced last year that changed the aerodynamic and look of F1 cars.

Coupled with research & development spending limits (which Red Bull violated anyway), the new rules were intended to bring parity to a sport dominated by Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari over most of the past decade. And yet, those same three teams still took every podium position except one (McLaren’s Lando Norris placed third at Imola).

Even though Verstappen won the world championship by a narrow margin, there will be lots of paddock intrigue and comments from fans like Guenther Steiner, Haas team principal, and Otmar Zzafnauer (now managing Alpine/Renault). AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda is also sure to provide a steady stream of bleeped-out race radio invective.