Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has become the latest to air issues with the Netflix Drive to Survive series, indicating that they often spin the truth to manufacture drama and entertainment.
Netflix arrived into the Formula 1 paddock in 2018, and followed eight of the 10 teams that year before Mercedes and Ferrari agreed to participate in season two.
The fourth season is set to air on Friday after much anticipation, and they will have had a lot of prime content to work with following the electrifying battle between Mercedes and Red Bull.
Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton were at the centre of multiple controversial moments last year, but the Dutchman refused to partake in any interviews due to the frequently perceived tendencies of Netflix to manufacturer storylines that do not really exist.
Wolff reveals that it took him a while to acclimatise to the constant presence of cameras in the paddock, but he accepts that it is helping the sport reach wider demographics.
“I’m watching this – episode one, episode two – and I hate it,” he told the Irish Independent.
“I never wanted to have the camera in my face. We gradually grew into this. Suddenly you realise that it has become so big everywhere in the world with new audiences, younger audiences.”
The Austrian is not a fan of the persistent manipulation of the truth to create entertainment, although he acknowledges that entertainment is ultimately the purpose of the show.
“You hate to see yourself in there,” he conceded.
“They create a spin to the narrative. They put scenes together that didn’t happen. I guess you’d say as an insider, well, that’s different than how it was.
“But we’re creating entertainment, and that is a new dimension of entertainment.”
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has recently warned that the sport will have to re-evaluate its position with Netflix if it transpires that they are no longer adding value.
“If it’s just becoming a different way to speak about F1 without adding or giving to the F1 platform any added value, maybe I think it’s better to renegotiate and see with Netflix and the other partners what could be a possibility to do something different in the future,” he said, quoted by Autosport.