Lando Norris blasts Netflix’s Drive to Survive for revving up his rift with Max Verstappen

Lando Norris accused Netflix of ‘fabricating nonsense’ in their hit Drive to Survive series, saying they deliberately misrepresented last year’s title fight.

His criticism comes after he starred alongside Max Verstappen in the current seventh series in an episode entitled Frenemies, which depicts their championship rivalry.

At one point, after Norris won in Miami last May, the show cuts to a dejected Verstappen hanging his head in disappointment – though the scene was filmed later in the season and seemingly inserted for dramatic effect.

‘They need to show the truth about people more,’ said Norris, who lost out on the title three races from the end. ‘I’m not a fan of fake stuff.

‘I want facts; I don’t want made up scripts and fabricated nonsense, which there is. I mean the portrayal of Max, and how we were against each other so much. They don’t need to create things. There’s drama, anyway. They can just show the facts of the drama.

‘Maybe it needs to be more of a documentary of the season than a show.

Lando Norris has implied that Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ pushes ‘fabricated nonsense’ to fans

He cited the exaggeration of tensions between him and Max Verstappen in the recent season

Verstappen previously refused to take part in the series, accusing Netflix of ‘faking’ scenes

‘Drive to Survive is a good thing for F1, good for the fans. They still get to see a lot behind the scenes which you never get to see. I want them to keep doing it, but they need to come back to reality a bit more. It’s drifted too far away.’

Verstappen refused to take part in the fourth series, accusing Netflix of ‘faking’ scenes. He relented for series five. This time he supported Norris’s objections, saying sarcastically: ‘Apparently I was very sad after Miami.

‘I literally had the best time ever that Sunday night, so I don’t know what I was upset about.’

Responding to Norris’s comments, a Formula One spokesman said: ‘Drive to Survive has been a very important part of growing the sport and reaching new audiences.

‘We should focus on the positive impact of the series and not criticise something that has been hugely beneficial to the whole sport.’

Box to Box, the production company behind Drive to Survive, said: ‘The stories we tell across a series are not fabricated; the narratives clearly follow real events. In order to help make Formula One appeal to a wider audience, we tell these stories in an entertaining and compelling way, which has helped drive leagues of new fans to the sport, a legacy we’re incredibly proud of.

‘We would obviously love to have cameras with the drivers 24/7 to capture every moment as it happens, but this isn’t possible. We have to edit the limited footage we are able to capture.

‘The series is produced under incredible schedule pressure, and sometimes mistakes do happen. When these are pointed out to us, as was the case this year with some footage of Max post-Miami, we move to correct these unintentional errors.

‘Ultimately Drive to Survive is an entertainment show, not a season review, and we hope to continue helping F1 deliver entertaining content in future.’