"I don't want to watch another season of Drive to Survive": Josef Newgarden bluntly explains the rise and fall of Netflix's F1 series

IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden was featured in a video on the Athletes & Assets™ with Noah Lack YouTube channel. The video was uploaded on March 10th, where Newgarden discussed all things motorsports. The Team Penske driver highlighted the reason for the rise and fall of Netflix's F1 docuseries Drive to Survive.

The latest season of the F1 Drive to Survive docuseries, based on the 2024 F1 season, just released on Netflix. However, the hype around the docuseries isn't the same as it was for the last few seasons. Josef Newgarden came out and detailed the reason for the same, explaining how people have moved on from behind-the-scenes actions and want to see the real sporting action.

The host, Noah Lack, asked Josef Newgarden about how people want to see the behind-the-scenes actions more than the actual event, to which the Team Penske driver replied,

“I think we're actually coming out of the behind the scenes a little bit, like. I don't think it's going to go away, but I think you had such a big run up and pop of like, we have to have the behind the scenes content. We got to know what happened behind the game that like now I even myself, I'm like, man, 'I don't want to watch another season of drive to survive'. Like, I don't need another sport doc.” (23:15 onwards)

Josef Newgarden explained how the behind-the-scenes footage wasn't previously available for the audience and how the introduction of the docuseries broke the bubble. However, the continuation of the behind-the-scenes over the actual event is what's leading to the decline of the popularity of the series. He added

“You know, like, I think it was a bit of a bubble, personally, you know, and it was a needed bubble. I think it's coming back more to the sport, which is a good thing. Like, people are now going to really focus on why do we originally tune into this and like it comes back to the basics. You want to see a great game, you know, you want to see like a buzzer beater.”

IndyCar itself has changed the format for its docu-series called ‘100 days to Indy’. While the last two seasons were produced in collaboration with VICE and CW and focused solely on the Indy 500 and the championship, the new format will move focus to all the races as FOX signed as the new partner for the series.

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Josef Newgarden on FOX converting the Ethanol perfume into a reality

FOX released the Josef Newgarden IndyCar promo in January this year, which portrayed the two-time Indy 500 winner as the hero in every situation. A part of the promo suggested that Newgarden loved the smell of unleaded fuel and wore it as a fragrance.

At the St. Petersburg GP, FOX turned the Ethanol perfume into a reality and put up a booth for the same. Newgarden was questioned about the same during the weekend, to which he replied,

“Apparently, yeah. I saw it this weekend. I'm like, you can go see the ethanol cologne. We had so much fun filming that. Yeah, look, there's a whole booth. Pato has his own stand, the one-man boy band.”

“I'm ridiculous. I don't know why I'm doing that. People are going to make fun of me. But it's really cool. We had a lot of fun making that commercial.”

Josef Newgarden finished the 2025 Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg in P3 after being in contention for the win. However, he ran out of fuel on the last lap and lost P2 to Scott Dixon.