The thrilling finale of the 2021 Formula One season will go down as one of those “where were you” moments. It was so exceptional and shocking at the same time and the truth is that merely describing it as “thrilling” is an unforgivable understatement.
In many ways, it’s hard to imagine that we’ll ever see a more captivating conclusion to any sporting season ever again when you consider that the Formula One live betting UK would have priced Max Verstappen at around 100/1 to win the race with just six laps to go. Indeed, it was extraordinary, unheard of, pulsating, and emotional, how do we move on from here in terms of sporting climaxes?
We can of course live in hope that we will see something similar in the future and perhaps we can hold onto a crumb of comfort that we’ll be entertained again if we cast our minds back to 2012, and the finish between Manchester City v QPR that decided the Premier League season with what was the last kick of a nine-month campaign. We were told then that we wouldn’t ever see anything like it ever again but, oh boy, how they were wrong, the events in Abu Dhabi made that finish at the Etihad Stadium look like a dull weekday morning of TV infomercials.
That extraordinary final lap of the 2021 title race in full 😮#AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/kknTMDfpAF
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 12, 2021
Yes, the goings-on at the Yas Marina Circuit defied logic and reason but the best part about all of it is that Netflix was there to record it in glorious 4K. Indeed, the hit show from the streaming giant called Drive to Survive will enter its fourth season and is likely to be released in early January. For those feeling a bit lost at this point, in essence, the documentary series goes behind the scenes of life on the road of a Formula One season and gives us exclusive access to the drivers and the team principals in their bid to win the championship.
Incredibly, the third season of Drive to Survive boasted an audience of over 50 million which gives you a good insight into what a tremendous success it was with viewers. Indeed, in three short seasons the producers of Drive to Survive smashed the concept that F1 was boring by showing us the personalities of the main protagonists. Now, couple that with high-octane racing where the stakes couldn’t be any greater and the phenomenal science behind the F1 cars, and you all of a sudden have a hit series.
This just gets better every time we watch it 😱💙pic.twitter.com/4uiiRFIZgv
— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) December 14, 2021
Which leads us to what will happen in season four in terms of viewing numbers after the conclusion in the desert? You can easily imagine that these figures double and Netflix announces sometime next year that the fourth edition of Drive to Survive has broken the hundred-million mark. In fact, they may even go higher than that when you consider that this is probably the most eagerly awaited show on Netflix behind the rather bizarre but equally entertaining Squid Game.
The difference, of course, is that the popular South Korean thriller is fiction whilst Drive to Survive is a reality show, although you wouldn’t believe it given that there hasn’t ever been a better script than the one we saw on the 12th of December 2021 on the shores of the Persian Gulf.