Drive to Survive Was a Breakout Hit. Can Anyone Else Capture Its Lightning in a Bottle?
Just as Nirvana kicked off the grunge gold rush in the Nineties, so has Drive to Survive ignited a barrage of hopeful motorsport media projects. It’s too late for the flannel-clad bands that DNF’d the race to stardom, but there’s still time for these new TV, streaming, and film ventures to bring new fans to racing series.
This story originally appeared in Volume 13 of Road & Track.
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No doubt the projects will get a boost from the names in the credits, including F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo and NASCAR’s Austin Dillon, along with racing nobodies like Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves. Their star power is jump-starting some very different productions.
NASCAR is the largest racing series in the U.S., but it’s growing at a track dryer’s pace. It’s also a lifestyle brand caught between its “family first” messaging and the questionable judgment displayed in the Talladega infield. That’s the intersection where Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane sits. One of two new NASCAR shows airing on NBCUniversal’s USA Network, Fast Lane follows the lives of Dillon, who happens to be NASCAR royalty (he’s the grandson of ex-driver and superstar team owner Richard Childress); his wife, Whitney; and their son, Ace. Also featured are Dillon’s best friend and tire carrier, Paul Swan, and his wife, Mariel. It’s a sort of Chrisley Knows Best for stock-car racing, with all the McMansion-based hijinks that implies. More promising for hard-core NASCAR fans is USA’s still-in-development Race for the Championship, which is expected to train its focus on the racing circuit.
Closest to the Drive to Survive model is MotoGP Unlimited. That it’s nearly a shot-for-shot facsimile of DTS, only on two wheels, is no liability; it delivers the same blend of competitive drama, on-track fireworks, and humanizing vulnerability from competitors, team bosses, and other characters. In one chilling exchange between Yamaha rider Maverick Viñales and his wife, Raquel, pregnant with their first child, the ever-present specter of injury emerges starkly. In their posh kitchen, Raquel asks her husband about preserving the baby’s umbilical cord for stem cells, just in case “something happened to you or me.” Definitely TMI, but we all know what she’s talking about.
For Formula 1, several biographical documentaries are in the works, including an eight-part series by Manish Pandey (writer and executive producer of Senna) spotlighting ex–F1 impresario Bernie Ecclestone. The 91-year-old billionaire, who held the reins of F1 in his stony fist for four decades beginning in the late Seventies, is the subject of Lucky! Set for release this winter, it features interviews with Ecclestone, archival footage, and music by the Brazilian composer Antonio Pinto, whose credits include Senna and the Apple TV+ series The Mosquito Coast. Ironically enough, it was Ecclestone’s grip over rights that limited the flow of F1 content for decades.
Easily the nerdiest of prospective F1 programming is Reeves’s docuseries, currently in production for Disney+, according to a report in Variety. His subject is F1 managing director and back-of-the-house motorsport legend Ross Brawn, specifically his fairy-tale 2009 season with Brawn GP. That was the chaotic year Brawn pulled together a team from the bones of Honda F1, dominated the constructors’ championship, and placed first and third in the drivers’ championship with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello at the wheel. It’s a supremely wonky choice for Canadian megastar (and beloved meme generator) Reeves, but Brawn’s legacy is worthy of skilled storytelling.
Apple TV+ might be poised to take the lead in the content game, having reportedly outbid a number of well-heeled competitors to nab the golden motorsport project of this decade. The yet-to-be-named big-budget feature, destined for a major theatrical release, will star Pitt as a grizzled ex-driver who comes out of retirement (kind of like John Wick) and teams up with a rookie. Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski will direct, and Hamilton will get a producer’s credit. Speaking of the seven-time world champion, Apple says it will also produce a new feature documentary about his remarkable working-class-to-knighthood story.
In perhaps the least-known project so far (but the one with the most potential for weirdness), Ricciardo and Hulu are partnering on a scripted TV series, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Speculation is high on this one. I’m expecting some sort of F1-team workplace comedy but secretly hoping for Ricciardo to spin up an animated series, a kind of Rick and Morty meets Rush. Fingers crossed.
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