Drive to Survive Season 6 trailer and release dates

Yes, there is a trailer for the new series of Drive to Survive and as usual, it’s trying to amp up all the drama as much as it can. But, what it’s also trying to do is jump on the latest news. The first time we see Lewis Hamilton in the trailer, he’s telling Toto Wolff that he can’t stay at Mercedes for 20 years, a little bit of foreshadowing?

Whether or not Drive to Survive manages to pull out any more clues to the seven-time world champion’s shock team switch is yet to be seen. But it does suggest that the inside story of what happened at Alpine that led to the departure of Otmar Szafnauer will feature heavily and the return of Daniel Ricciardo, replacing Nyck De Vries at AlphaTauri, is going to be a focus.

In reality, this is just under two minutes of Drive to Survive, nothing we haven’t seen before, nothing to mean we absolutely have to watch Season 6, but it’s definitely created another Steiner meme. And for that, we can be grateful.

Netflix's teaser for season six of Drive to Survive begins with a sun-glassed Lewis Hamilton basking in the heat of a summer's evening before cutting to Lando Norris kicking back in his private jet and Nick De Vries staring wistfully out of the balcony of his five-star hotel suite. Three shots that, in 20 seconds, successfully capture the sheer glamour of F1.

But F1 is also a brutal business, as Guenther Steiner notes in the preview video; even he probably didn't realise quite how brutal it was before being unceremoniously booted out of the Haas team at the end of 2023.

From sun-kissed swimming pools to fighter jets, snowboarding, and, of course, competing in one of the most high-speed and dangerous sports known to man, the latest edition of Drive to Survive looks to pick up the baton where the old ones left off. Giving us a firsthand taste of what the life of an F1 driver is really like when it’s release on 23 February.

As the drivers finish their final shakedowns of the new 2024 cars viewers will go behind the scenes in the twists and turns of the previous season. While the racing on the track is probably not going to go down in history as the finest of all time, hopefully, some of the machinations will provide more interesting viewing.

Highlights of season five included the inter-team battle to control the porpoising epidemic that swept across the paddock after the introduction of new ground effect-style regulations. It also had the welcome return of champion Max Verstappen, who had declined to take part in the previous season after being upset with the way he and other drivers were portrayed by the show.

Always a star of the show, Christian Horner took centre stage at many times, while Guenther Steiner’s friendship with Mattia Binnotto was a happy point in a show often riddled with (sometimes faux) angst. 

This year’s show will have several intriguing storylines to play with. The arrival of Binnotto’s replacement Fred Vasseur at Ferrari and his following internal shake-up. McLaren’s rapid engineering and management reshuffle brought about by the departure of Andreas Seidl to the team that will become Audi in 2026 and the merry-go-round of management at Alpine seem like some logical strands to tug on. Although we will have to wait until season seven for the dramatic decision by Lewis Hamilton to jump mega-ships to Ferrari.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.