Formula E’s Answer to Drive to Survive: Formula E: Driver

Andretti, Formula E

With the Formula E break coming to an end, with Brazil just a month away, it has been a Formula E drought since the London finale at the end of July. Like a lot of fans, I saw that Formula E had created its own Drive to Survive docuseries, Formula E: Driver, but didn’t delve into it until I was searching for something to fill the electric racing void.

Formula E: Driver follows four drivers, Mitch Evans, Dan Ticktum, Antonio Felix de Costa and Jake Dennis (with a guest appearance of Nick Cassidy), over the course of the 2023-2024 season, Season 10. It follows the highs and lows of the season, with Jake Dennis trying hard to replicate the championship win of Season 9, as well as Mitch Evans becoming the bridesmaid once again after a disappointing London weekend.

We get to see the issues that Antonio Felix de Costa has with Porsche. This issue is very interesting to watch, given where de Costa is in this upcoming season, as well as Dan Ticktum's attempts to show that he has grown a lot since his karting incident and ban and prove that he has what it takes to fight at the front.

It accomplishes all of this in four episodes, attempting to condense the 16 races into a short timescale. It does this efficiently, giving the audience unseen insight into the garages and the driver’s personal lives that even social media does not give us access to.

Unlike its Formula 1 and F1 Academy counterparts, Driver feels less dramatizes, focusing on issues in front of it and less about creating riffs that aren’t seen in real life. It goes into the struggles of drivers, showing their emotions and their mistakes with honesty and humility, sometimes getting them to human moments.

We also get a lot of different voices of commentary, from Nikki Shields, Sam Smith and Karun Chandhok, amongst others, in comparison to the overarching voice of Will Buxton, which you can hear in the early series of Drive to Survive (this has since expanded in later series). This commentary often feels more natural and less edited than what motorsport fans can expect from the Netflix series, with the voiceover commentary feeling the same.

While the series is enjoyable and a fast watch, only around 4 hours in total, I do wish that we could explore more teams and drivers during the season, showing a greater variety of the ups and downs of the season. With de Costa, it would have been good to see more of Pascal, but this is all dependent on whether he wanted to be involved.

With the Drive to Survive effect of Formula 1, drivers are aware that they could be quickly turned into villains. Dan Ticktum talked about it himself on social media shortly after the season came out, but I think that he comes off well in the episodes; however, it can quickly turn that way, as Max Verstappen has been vocal about his DTS appearance. With the creation of a new series, drivers and teams have the right to be sceptical, but I hope the release of the series did.

The only other thing is that the series does not seem to have the viewership to make numbers on Amazon Prime, where it is streaming. It had no reviews on Prime, and I also think releasing it in the middle of the season was a mistake. Releasing it in the break between two seasons could have been more beneficial, allowing fans to revisit a past season and to bridge the gap between Season 11, testing and Season 12. 

While we don’t know if another series of Formula E: Driver is coming out detailing the last season, this season is well worth watching, but hopefully the production can get better, including more episodes and drivers. I hope this is just the beginning.

Written by Amy Powis