When we are sure that DtS 7 is actually happening now, the first episode gets off to a flying start by combining a couple of bombshells – Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari, and Christian Horner’s (since dismissed) workplace misconduct allegations.

Series bosses have waxed lyrical about Daniel Ricciardo’s contribution in the past, but really it’s Horner who has made the series so far, so omnipresent has he been to any dastardly DtS storyline which doesn’t involve Haas or Alpine. It’s proven more than ever in S7.

Cameras catch the Red Bull boss perched on the pitwall during the 2024 Bahrain GP’s FP2, at the exact moment a flurry of Whatsapp messages related to his misconduct were leaked to F1 journalists. Horner sits there (and later narrates) as his phone lights up, head in hands and swearing to himself while grim-faced technical director Adrian Newey is sat next to him. Looking at his colleague from corner of his eye, grand prix racing’s greatest boffin gives off a strong ‘I’m-too-old-for-this-nonsense’ impression.

Netflix shots show McLaren boss Zak Brown and his Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff clearly loving it – but Horner hangs on despite the best efforts of others to stir the pot.

And DtS could well have breathed a sigh of relief. Horner – almost always as the bad guy – is compelling in this series, central to also the Norris vs Verstappen storyline and downfall-of-Perez-promotion-of-Lawson episodes. DtS would be lost without him: people love having someone to hate, and he’s a good pundit.

This is emphasised once more by Verstappen barely appearing as a talking head, and Perez’s absence of anything interesting to say.

The episode centred around the beleaguered Mexican’s demise is one of the best, but Perez appears to have no answer off-track just as he doesn’t on-track.

“You have to give full credit to DtS for squeezing all the editorial juice out of 2024’s most boring story line”

Amongst several revealing moments are just how ready Red Bull was ready to dump Perez mid-season for Ricciardo, but for the Australian’s own abject form making him an unacceptable choice.

You also have to give full credit to DtS for squeezing all the editorial juice out of 2024’s most boring story line: which lower midfield team will Carlos Sainz sign for?

Williams team boss James Vowles pens love letter after love letter to the Spaniard: “It would be a complete transformation of Williams to have Carlos by my side. I go to sleep and wake up thinking of nothing else.” Blimey! To quote George Russell.

Sainz hilariously stands up Vowles when he’s supposed to arrive to sign a contract, but why? Because of Flavio Briatore, that’s why.

Alpine’s returning dark lord, along with Horner, is one of two characters who makes Season 7 and, accompanied by a ham Italian operatic soundtrack at all times, is the Godfather-send the series makers were praying for.

Alpine’s team-boss-turned-CEO comes in swinging the axe. He says the car is “s***”, tells Pierre Gasly he thought he was a “w*****” prior to some decent performances and, worst of all, declares the Enstone coffee not up to much. He then falls out with and fires Esteban Ocon, while Jack Doohan looks bemused as he’s being given the latest priceless Flav download. It’s all good stuff.

Commenting on the changing of guard at Alpine and Haas (we’re clearly meant to infer the contrast between the Briatore comeback versus the rise of the F1 technocrat), Horner doesn’t even know who the promoted mega-nerd Ayoa Komatsu is: “All these vanilla engineers, all they talk about is data and probabilities… data, data – not like it was a few years ago…” Yearning for a bit of Eddie Jordan in his life, clearly.

Horner’s right though: the above-mentioned scenes sit amongst a decent swathe of beige.

As we negotiate the series, the race sequences simply aren’t that interesting. They’re completely necessary to the Netflix-based fan who might tune in to the occasional GP, but if you’re a diehard who watches every round live, you’re just waiting for them to end and are sorely tempted to skip forward.

An episode where Norris, Leclerc, Albon, Russell and Gasly are given phones to record their weekend at the Singapore GP promises a lot and delivers little – Albon giving a running commentary on the window cleaners outside his 20th story hotel room proves the video diary highlight.

The most telling moment is that Russell appears to have a panic attack following heat stroke-type symptoms after the Singapore GP – nothing more shows you the physical and mental strain the drivers are under to perform at all times, and demonstrates why fans want to use DtS as a glimpse behind the scenes. This, ironically, isn’t caught on Russell’s phone but by the standard Netflix cameras.

You feel the series’ better moments emphasise some missed opportunities though. Adrian Newey’s transfer to Aston isn’t covered, which is a shame as owner Lawrence Stroll is a great villain. Logan Sargeant doesn’t get to say his bit on why he repeatedly crashed a rubbish Williams – and there’s no mention of his replacement, the charismatic Franco Colapinto, who you would think is made for DtS.

Ex-Haas boss Guenther Steiner only appears fleetingly. His sweary analysis of his former team would have been appreciated also.

Drive to Survive S7 is an amusing representation of F1 in 2025. Despite F1’s young, vibrant, cigarette sponsorship-less modern day image, it’s the old guard of Horner and Briatore that make it compelling, because they actually say something.

As the presented day-to-day human element of F1 gets ever more dull – teams offering up quotes, interviews and video that might as well be AI-generated, does DtS give us some ‘real’ behind the scenes insight? Does it present F1 as much more than just LinkedIn-plus-a hybrid system?

Yes, at times. But you’ll have to deploy a bit of fast-forwarding to get there…