File this under 'things that make you go vroom': the trailer for season six of Netflix's Formula 1: Drive to Survive has just dropped. The show, which returns to Netflix with 10 new episodes on February 23, 2024, is as much about the personal dramas and interpersonal rivalries of the racers as it is about the cars, but of course you can expect some seriously exciting race footage throughout – not to mention a bit of snowboarding and some stunt jet fighters too.
Season six follows the 2023 season of Formula 1, where Red Bull wants to secure a third consecutive championship for Max Verstappen and the rest of the grid is battling to better the previous year's stats. The best Netflix show delivers never-before-seen footage of action both on and off the track, covering 10 teams and 20 drivers as they battle for motorsport supremacy.
Is season six of Formula 1: Drive to Survive going to get your heart racing?
Undoubtedly. One of the show's hallmarks is its incredible racing action footage, and season three racked up a whopping 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating from the critics for its mix of high octane action and high stakes battles. Season four and five didn't do quite so well, though: season four currently has a 19% audience score, while season three is sitting at 83% from the critics and a pretty woeful 36% from viewers.
The AV Club felt that despite having lots of drama to cover, the fifth and most recent season felt "pretty formulaic... if you just want to see things happen you could watch actual F1 races. There were so few eventful races in the '22 season that this season sometimes covers the same race more than once, which is repetitive at best and straight-up boring at worst". A particular irritant was a lack of tension: "When you know from an earlier episode that Verstappen wins a certain race (he wins most of them), it sucks all of the drama out of the air when a subsequent episode hangs its ending on the supposed excitement of whether or not Verstappen is going to win that race."
Here's to hoping that criticism has been taken on board, because when Formula 1: Drive to Survive is good it's breathtaking. As RaceFans said of season four, it's "fun, flawed and unmissable". Season six of Formula 1: Drive to Survive premieres on the best streaming service on February, 23, 2024.
