Why is Netflix's Drive to Survive hated by a section of F1 fans?

F1's official social accounts made it a point to announce Netflix's Drive to Survive release date for the 6th season. There was, however, one development that was intriguing when you go through the comments.

While yes there were quite a few posts from accounts that were excited to see how the latest edition was going to be, there were a massive number of replies that did not have the most charitable things to say about the series. When the series first debuted in 2019, fans welcomed it with open arms. It reached a different level of fandom in 2020 during the pandemic as everyone looked for alternative sources of entertainment.

Since then, the sport has seen an influx of fans from the series. At the same time though, there has been a growing discontent against the series as well. Why has that been happening? Let's take a look.

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Why Drive to Survive is hated by a section of F1 fans

1. The 'DTS fan' phenomenon

A primarily social media phenomenon is the DTS fan phenomenon. In this phenomenon, a large chunk of fans have filtered through from the Netflix Drive to Survive series to the actual sport.

Unfortunately for them, they take the description in the series in the most literal sense and what that does is that it gives rise to a completely different expectation from F1 than what any fan would normally have. These expectations make their way over to social media when they are not met and what we see is a clash between traditional F1 fans and the ones that have moved over from the web series.

Over the years, there has been an increase in resentment against the series for the influx of a less aware fandom into F1. While bringing fans over from the Drive to Survive series to the sport is the primary objective, the side effect is something that the series ends up tackling as a major opposition.

2. The fake storyline

This is something that has been called out even by the drivers as well. The Drive to Survive series has had far too many instances of manufactured dispute and drama and a storyline that an F1 fan can tell is just not true.

Lando Norris has called out this as well when his quotes were taken out of context against Daniel Ricciardo and used in places where they painted a completely different picture. Max Verstappen had opted out of taking part in the series because he felt that the storylines were fake and manufactured. This might add to the drama but it was not a true representation of what was going on.

The same backlash does trickle down even with F1 fans as well as many have called out the narratives that just look false at the very first glance. More and more fans have been turned off by this and have questioned the prevalence of such a thing.

3. A somewhat predictable nature

What happens in every show is that more and more new things are tried, and when some of them work, that is the formula the series sticks with. That is precisely what has happened with the Netflix Drive to Survive series. The first few seasons witnessed an honest effort made when it tried to go behind the scenes and build a storyline about the drivers.

That has changed dramatically as the series has now started to stick with what works. The series transformed Guenther Steiner and Daniel Ricciardo into superstars. Hence, one can almost predict that both of them are getting a dedicated slot for sure. It is this predictability that kills the novelty that made the series so good and is causing the interest to fade.