This weekend, for the first time. It’s a race that would never have happened without the runaway success of Formula 1: Drive to Survive and the scores of new American fans that it has generated. So it fits that the sport and streaming service jointly announced Thursday that DTS will be back not only for next season, but the year after as well.
This is interesting, because it marks the first time that F1 has ever confirmed plans for more than one season at a time, as points out. Chalk that up to attracting the largest audience yet, per , and cracking Netflix’s Top 10 list in 56 countries.
Unsurprisingly, this announcement holds nothing else worthy of note. Seasons 5 and 6 promise yet more “unprecedented access” and “never-before-seen footage and interviews,” though you have to wonder if the show’s producers will be able to by then. Season 6 will also coincide with the first in nearly four decades, another event that likely wouldn’t have come to fruition without .
It’s hard to imagine DTS ever ending. Even if the rapid growth of F1's fanbase begins to plateau, it’s still the best possible tool for corralling new fans who aren’t going to randomly flip on a race on a Sunday morning. , the show writes itself, so to speak. I personally gave up watching the latest season somewhere around the sixth or seventh episode, and have had zero interest to revisit it. But then, it’s not really for me; F1's already got me and likely anyone reading this, too.
Meanwhile, long-rumored take on the DTS formula is still gestating, and . to mixed reception — though a dubbing snafu, very little marketing and the fact the docuseries was given the name of a streaming service for some reason probably didn’t help. To make matters worse, MotoGP Unlimited was on Amazon Prime video — a platform lots of people are clearly subscribed to, though I wonder that they are.
Netflix doesn’t have that issue, but then again . Look, I love watching Daniel Ricciardo say “balls” en route to or from an airport as much as anyone else, but I ain’t going to pay for it.