The F1 Drive to Survive Season 8 sparks mixed reactions as it dives into the chronicles of the 2025 season featuring Horner’s exit, Hamilton’s Ferrari struggle, and McLaren’s title drama. But does it reveal the full truth behind F1’s biggest 2025 moments?
F1 Drive to Survive Season 8 Review: Christian Horner Scandal And Lewis Hamilton’s Struggles Take Center Stage | X
The 2026 Formula 1 season is just days away, but right now the paddock isn’t the only thing buzzing. Drive to Survive Season 8 dropped on Friday, and the fandom has plenty to say, the reactions are mixed ranging from praise to pure frustration.
Some fans have applauded Netflix’s docu-drama for its slick storytelling and its ability to bring new audiences into the sport. But many hardcore followers feel the series has leaned too far into being “PR-friendly,” sacrificing raw authenticity for polished narratives.
When Drive to Survive first launched in 2018, it felt something revolutionary about the sport. It gave fans an unfiltered access to F1's politics, pressure, the tension inside team garages. It threw light on the teams in the shadows like Haas and Renault, who rarely got airtime. Season 2 was arguably a masterclass, with episodes like The Darkest Day setting a gold standard. But over time, critics argued the show drifted toward more of a soap-opera territory.
Season 7 had restored some faith, especially with the emotional episode The Curse of Leclerc, which many consider one of the best in the series. Season 8, however, doesn’t quite hit those same heights. Some major 2025 storylines are either glossed over or ignored entirely. That said, two stories explored in the series truly deliver the behind-the-scenes grit fans have been craving for: Christian Horner’s exit and Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari chapter.
Spoiler alert!!!
One of the biggest stories of the 2025 Formula 1 season, Red Bull boss Christian Horner’s shock sacking, is given full dramatic weight, in Episode 4: A Bull With No Horns.
This episode is where the cameras go behind closed doors to capture the fallout of Horner's 20-year career coming to an end in Red Bull Racing. The raw scene of Horner returning home to Geri Halliwell to share the news was epic. Rather than portraying him as a villain, the episode frames him as a man losing something personal, that meant everything.
Christian uses his interview time to finally name names. He reveals that it was Helmut Marko and CEO Oliver Mintzlaff who ultimately made the call, clearing the Verstappen family of the rumors that they were the ones who pushed him out.
Perhaps most surprising is a respectful, emotional text from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. He told Horner that while he had been a “real a**hole,” the sport would miss one of its “main protagonists.”
The Drive to Survive Season 8 opens with Episode 1: New Kids On The Track, focused primarily on rookies, but Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari switch revolves around in the background.
However, it did not have a single word from Hamilton, as he along with Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, refused to sit down for interviews this season. Thus, his blockbuster move to Ferrari is told largely through archive footage and commentary from teammate George Russell.
The series captures Hamilton’s nightmare 2025 campaign, his first season without a podium finish. It shows Ferrari’s struggles who got the job of providing the seven-time world champion a car capable of winning the eighth title.
Toto Wolff also drops a revelation: he had promised Hamilton he wouldn’t sign Max Verstappen while Lewis was still at Mercedes. That promise, he suggests, expired the moment Hamilton made his Ferrari move official.
Yet, despite all this, Hamilton’s deeper emotional journey in the 2025 year, the weight of leaving a 14-year partnership with Mercedes, feels underexplored. That missing vulnerability could be one of the season’s biggest gaps.
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The series does give proper attention to McLaren, the 2025 champions as they deserved it.
Episode 3, The Number 1 Problem, dives into the growing tension between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri as both fought for the title.
On the other hand, Episode 7, What Happens in Vegas, covers the dramatic Las Vegas disqualifications of both McLarens for technical infringements. It was a moment that nearly derailed Norris’s title hopes.
Max Verstappen, often cast as the sport’s antagonist, receives a more layered portrayal this time.
The series documents his late-season comeback, erasing a 104-point deficit and taking the championship battle down to the final lap in Abu Dhabi. He won the final race but ultimately missed the title by just two points.
This season also shows a softer side of Verstappen this time, that included the birth of his daughter, Lily, and his mentoring role with rookies on the grid.
Season 8 has its powerful moments, Horner’s emotional exit, Verstappen’s redemption arc, rookies rising, Hamilton struggling. But compared to earlier seasons, it feels slightly restrained, almost cautious.
It’s still compelling television. It still pulls back the curtain. But for long-time fans, the hunger for raw, uncomfortable truth remains. And maybe that’s the real tension now, not just on track, but between Formula 1 and the story it chooses to tell.
The F1 Drive to Survive Season 8 is available for live streaming on Netflix app and website in India. In the USA, the Apple and Netflix both are the streaming options.
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