Netflix: "Mercedes and Red Bull did not ask for certain parts not to be broadcast"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Paul Martin has played a very important role as executive producer in the creation of the two seasons Drive to Survive. The man of Netflix owes the success of the Formula 1 documentary to luck and says that Mercedes and Red Bull Racing have never asked for painful moments but not to be included in the episodes.
“A lot of this series is down to luck", Martin talks to Formula1.com. For example, during the first Grand Prix of 2018 the American streaming service followed the team of Haas F1. In the Albert Park race, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen dropped out of a promising position after two pit stops failed miserably.
Ricciardo takes another turn
Moreover, the transfer of Daniel Ricciardo to Renault provided beautiful images. "There was a time in Season 1 where I honestly thought Daniel Ricciardo was going to stay at Red Bull. I remember getting a phone call from his manager to say, 'Just to let you know, it's about to be announced that we've signed for Renault.’ And that dramatically changed the arc of that entire season."
Also in Germany Netflix was quite lucky. During the weekend of Hockenheim they were supposed to follow the world champion and that resulted in fantasy television, as Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton also made a lot of mistakes during the German GP in the rain. "We wake up Sunday and it's pouring rain. The way the race unfolded – I don't think we or they could have expected that they would feature in the race like that. But at the same time, I never had a conversation with anyone at Mercedes who asked us to take out a frame from that episode," Martin says.
Netflix first rank at change Red Bull
In the second season of the F1-documentary Netflix was also on top of the driver change of Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly. "You could feel the frustration of Red Bull, and you felt for Gasly. I've had people say to me they totally understand Red Bull’s decision, and I've had other people say to me, 'I can't believe that Gasly was treated in the way that he was."
Like Mercedes, Red Bull never asked Netflix to remove certain scenes from the episodes. "There was never a conversation with Red Bull about watering it down in any way. Red Bull wouldn't try to pretend that that saga didn't happen in the way that it did, concludes Martin.