Drive to Survive is a series on Formula 1 racing; the people behind it, the behind-scene takes, the actions around it, the trophies, the money and tonnes of learnings for ordinary mortals.
Season 1, Episode 1 starts with Daniel Riccardio, the Australian F1 champion. It shows the killer instinct, the desire to win, the actual man and the victories. It takes a peek into his childhood, the earliest strains of being a world champion, his struggles of leaving home young for the race circuitry.
Inspirational Dialogue (ID) 1: “I do believe I can be world champion”; this statement says it all that I can, you can and everybody can for which you ought own the thought of “I can”.
Infact, he starts with a handicap even in his home country (Australian Grand Prix 2018) as the top 3 contenders for the same are all non-Australian, still! The names against whom he was competing were Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel with Ferrari.
It mentions the budgets involved in each race; whereas the big ones like Mercedes and Ferrari have budgets in billions, the other ones are not at all that lucky. It differentiates the smaller Hess F1 team from the biggies.
ID 2: “You just gotta keep trying and trying and a lot of success in racing comes down to just being stubborn”. Its not the budgetary support that matters, it’s the individual strife.
ID 3: “In a small team, we have less parts, less stuff. We need to do more with less”. It is easy to have a blame and sit tight holding on to it.
ID4: “We are the underdogs. We are new in here. But, for sure, we’re not here just to make the numbers up. We are here to compete”. What visible strength and grit!
We see peeks of the practice sessions before the final day of race; the accidents and some briefs of the racing history of this Prix.
Another key point is the pedigree of the racing teams. While Mercedes and Ferrari are from the car world, Red Bull Team is a subsidiary of a company into energy drink, nowhere close to the business of cars and racing.
ID5:”I wanna win, because its what I believe I can do and I have worked all these years to do it. So, no one’s gonna put more pressure on me than myself”. What a statement coming directly from the going-to-be world champion.
We are told about the immense pressure that the drivers are under for qualifying. The aspirants must be string and not afraid of death. Drivers narrate their feelings of driving.
ID6:”Everybody told us we will fail. But Gene (owner) supported me all the way and has put a lot of faith in me and failing in doing this is not an option.” This statement speaks volumes of the important of the leader and the way he handles his Team.
Finally, we have the D Day where 21 cars arrive to test themselves. The tension builds up and we see management of tension and distractions. We also sneak into the thoughts of death raising in the minds of Daniel’s parents. That’s probably the importance of families. We might fight for money, position, toys and wealth but for our families, we are just a family member.
We also see both the driver of Hess F1 Team come out of racing because of faults in their respective cars.
ID7:”Its easy in my position to blame somebody, but then in the end, the buck stops with me.” What a powerful thought coming from the manager of the Team. It speaks volumes on leadership and the trait which is difficult to find.
Being the fast things that they are, things change very fast’ one knows the starting point but no one knows where one will finish.
If one episode was this much, then there are lots in store in the forthcoming episodes.
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