<\/p>
\u201cEverything we make is massive so it wasn\u2019t really a surprise!\u201d jokes James Gay-Rees, one of the masterminds behind Formula 1: Drive to Survive, with his very first line.<\/p>\n
He really is joking. Diving into the Formula 1 universe was hardly a safe bet for executive producers Rees-Gay and Paul Martin of Box to Box Films.<\/p>\n
Now, as the fourth season of their record-setting Netflix<\/a> docuseries is launched into the public domain, the pair have a brief moment to catch their breath and reflect on the evolution of the show and its stunning global success.<\/p>\n In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com<\/a>, Gay-Rees said: \u201cYou never know how these things going to work out. You have no idea at all. The worst thing you can possibly do as a filmmaker is try to second guess your audience and try to plan for this kind of reaction because it doesn\u2019t work out that way.<\/p>\n \u201cThese things tend to be come down to timing. It was right show, right time. It\u2019s just so pleasing because it\u2019s an incredibly hard show to make. If nobody watched it I think we\u2019d be pretty suicidal but thankfully, lots of people seem to be. It seems to be growing, which is unusual.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a friend with an 18-year-old daughter in Los Angeles. She hadn\u2019t even heard of Formula 1 and now she\u2019s transfixed by the show. If we knew what it was, we\u2019d be really rich because we could basically do it over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin also didn\u2019t expect the series to take off to quite the extent that it has but, with the benefit of hindsight, can see all of the ingredients that have combined to create a Formula 1 feast for the world.<\/p> He said: \u201cIf you go back and look at all the kind of the constituent parts of it, you can see why it would have turned into this.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a unique take on a kind of a familiar world. It\u2019s a truly global sport, you can be Dutch and like Max Verstappen and watch it because you like Max. It goes beyond sport. At the time, we definitely didn\u2019t expect people to react in the way they have.\u201d<\/p>\n It has been a breathless few months for the pair. There were just 73 days separating the wildly dramatic, wildly controversial final race of 2021 and the first day of 2022 pre-season testing. Add another 16 days between the return of pre-season testing and the launch of Ft:DTS season 4.<\/p>\n Gay-Rees said: \u201cI was in Barcelona last weekend sitting down with Christian [Horner] and Toto [Wolff] and they\u2019re like: \u2018We\u2019re here again, it\u2019s started again\u2019. They\u2019re all so knackered from the last year, they had a quick Christmas break but then they\u2019ve been developing the car the whole time. It\u2019s tough for us. It\u2019s harder for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin added: \u201cWe almost haven\u2019t had time to stop to really think about how we make it. Literally, we\u2019ve had people work on it from the first day of season one and they\u2019re still on it now. Four years of just non-stop Formula 1. Continuous.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t get much time to process on the show, you\u2019re already, even before the season has finished, looking ahead to the next year thinking: \u2018Ok, if we do this again, what could that look like.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWe were well positioned to deal with [the final race] and follow it. I was at home watching it \u2013 I wasn\u2019t in Abu Dhabi \u2013 but it was like a gift and a curse. This is amazing but oh my god we\u2019ve only got four weeks to edit this episode. How the hell are we going to deal with this?\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of what viewers should expect from the new season, Gay-Rees says the formula remains unchanged but the focus does indeed revolve around the gift of such an unbelievable title battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe levers you can pull don\u2019t change in terms of that you can film people in the paddock, you use the racing in certain narrative ways, you use interviews in different ways.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is obviously a different ingredient this year is that there was a proper championship battle which we hadn\u2019t had in a previous season. We made a virtue of that in the first few seasons \u2013 we didn\u2019t have Mercedes and Ferrari in season one \u2013 and so it was about the middle pack or the back of the pack, just shining a light on characters that didn\u2019t get that much exposure normally.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some great characters, as we know like the Guenthers [Steiner] of the world, but season 4 did become slightly more about the fight for the title because you couldn\u2019t avoid it.\u201d<\/p>\n Formula 1: Drive to Survive season 4 arrives on Netflix Friday 11th March. Seasons 1 to 3 are available now on Netflix. <\/strong>If you\u2019re looking for something to watch, check out our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0or visit our\u00a0Sport<\/a> hub.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, l<\/strong>isten to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a> with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Michael Potts Published: Saturday, 12 March 2022 at 12:00 am \u201cEverything we make is massive so it wasn\u2019t really a surprise!\u201d jokes James Gay-Rees, one of the masterminds behind Formula 1: Drive to Survive, with his very first line. He really is joking. Diving into the Formula 1 universe was hardly a safe bet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12131,"template":"","categories":[7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/inside-the-making-of-formula-1-drive-to-survive-season-4-with-the-producers.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/inside-the-making-of-formula-1-drive-to-survive-season-4-with-the-producers-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/inside-the-making-of-formula-1-drive-to-survive-season-4-with-the-producers-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/inside-the-making-of-formula-1-drive-to-survive-season-4-with-the-producers.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/inside-the-making-of-formula-1-drive-to-survive-season-4-with-the-producers.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/inside-the-making-of-formula-1-drive-to-survive-season-4-with-the-producers.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/inside-the-making-of-formula-1-drive-to-survive-season-4-with-the-producers.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Michael Potts Published: Saturday, 12 March 2022 at 12:00 am \u201cEverything we make is massive so it wasn\u2019t really a surprise!\u201d jokes James Gay-Rees, one of the masterminds behind Formula 1: Drive to Survive, with his very first line. He really is joking. Diving into the Formula 1 universe was hardly a safe bet…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/12130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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