^ It's Spaniard Carlos Sainz driving for Ferrari!
Affable and funny, Carlos won the Australian Grand Prix last month. Que bueno!
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^Venues in hot climates often schedule their races after dark,
promising cooler temperatures and maximum visual drama.
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^ Mercedes is my favorite team, Their cars have been performing
miserably of late, but still Lewis Hamilton is my favorite driver, and
Toto Wolf (center) is far and away my favorite team principal.
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^ There's a new camera for capturing the driver's POV called Driver's Eye.
The tiny lens mounts on the rim of the helmet between the driver's eyes
and it literally makes you feel like you're driving the car. This shot was
taken with an old-school onboard camera which is still pretty cool.
Formula 1: Drive To Survive | Created by Formula 1 and Netflix
Streaming on Netflix
10 teams.
20 drivers in 20 cars.
23 races every season.
2 big prizes each year - one for the drivers and one for the teams.
And a million ways for it all to go wrong.
Welcome to the world of Formula 1 racing.
Watch the fastest cars in the world scream around a specially designed circuit or a knitted-together series of public streets.
Call it a race or a Grand Prix. Either way, it's an hour and a half of flashing metal, squealing tires, throaty downshifts, and nail-biting maneuvers.
Inside each car is a driver who has his own way of balancing the fiery passion for racing with the need for zen-like calm and self-control behind the wheel. And behind each driver are hundreds of people who design, manufacture, and maintain the car, as well as experts who help the drivers maximize their performance. Sitting in the middle of this massive network is the team principal who attempts to hold everyone together and keep them flowing toward a winning season.
Netflix's Drive to Survive breaks down the particulars of the sport in a way any newcomer can understand, while providing nuance that even the most rabid F1 fans will find fascinating. The series begins with the 2018 season and carries on through 2023, so the viewer gets to know the drivers and the team principals, and begins to understand what makes each one of these distinctive personalities tick. These people would be the first to tell you that they're all a little crazy, but that makes it all the more fun. Netflix pumps up the drama by highlighting the rivalries and grudges that inevitably rise to the surface, but mostly what the show reveals is that there are a lot of really fantastic people striving to make F1 - and Drive To Survive - a wildly entertaining experience.
* * * * *
During the first decade of my life, I was blissfully unaware of mainstream professional sports. Other kids marveled me with their knowledge of our hometown Tigers, Lions, and Pistons but I knew close to nothing. Of course, my parents followed University of Michigan football with the full-blooded passion of the true Blue alumni that they were, and most Saturday nights in winter we tuned in to Hockey Night in Canada, but those were mere runners up to the main sport in my young heart.
Formula 1 racing.
My dad had a passion for motor sports and I quickly picked it up.
I knew the racers.
I adored their cars.
My heart thrilled at the sound of the revving engines.
My pulse quickened as the cars sped off their lines, bunched up impossibly close, and then spread out to circle the track again and again
I loved the tension of waiting to see who would be first to whip past the checkered flag.
My brothers and I invented endless games that involved us impersonating our favorite drivers. On our swing set, I'd race them, pumping my tiny legs to make my swing fly as high as it possibly could, and then at the highest point, launching myself out of the seat as they launched themselves out of theirs. As we soared through the air, we would each call out our favorite racer's name. Mine was always the same.
Sadly, my hero Jim died in a race accident when I was 9, and that - along with my father's departure from our family - really soured the taste of F1 for me.
From then till now, I hit the brakes on racing.
So imagine my delight when, over the past few years, my two oldest daughters independently fell in love with Formula 1 racing. And earlier this month, when the three of us spent ten days together, their ongoing chatter teased me back to the track. One of them steered me onto Drive to Survive, and now I'm all caught up on the players, their past races and reputations, and the crazy drama that unfolds when these colorful people come together to race.
Just like in the old days, I'm wildly in love with Formula 1.
I do believe it's in my blood.
* * * * *
What I'm watching lately.
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