Fun
Knit to This: Formula 1
Dear Kay,
I have a friend who watches tons of reality TV. She is an amateur anthropologist and a student of human nature, so the shows she watches are a way to eavesdrop on people in all sorts of manufactured moments of high stress. She knows it’s mostly fake, but she also thinks there is insight to gain from watching people dealing with wacky scenarios. She’ll watch The Real Housewives of Dubai with no apology. Those groups-of-women shows (anything Kardashian or real estate related) don’t appeal to me, but hey, I respect her mildly prurient curiosity—we’re all just trying to figure out the world, right?
In my vast TV viewing experience, I’ve done my share of early Real World, Survivor, Bachelor, Cheer, and Alone. The early seasons are the only ones where the glimpse into human nature is at all genuine. Participants in later seasons have figured out too much. The reality is too easy to fake.
That said, I am totally into Formula 1: Drive to Survive, the wildly popular Netflix series now in its fourth season. It is despicable in many ways, foremost the fact that it’s about a sport where young men with fast reflexes climb into horizontal missiles and drive fast. I can’t imagine what the carbon footprint on this sport is. And the danger of it all is hard to justify. But here I am, dialing in anyway—it’s really well done. I love a deep dive into a subculture I know nothing about, and this subculture is fascinating.
The show follows the ten Formula 1 teams competing against each other, two drivers per team, during the 22-race season that takes them to tangly racetracks all over the world. The drivers are mostly in their early 20s, have been racing from the moment they found a Cozy Coupe.
The most common crashes are the head-on collisions among team leaders, drivers, sponsors, and engineers. It’s all behind-the-scenes intrigue. The access is sort of amazing, and the eavesdropping is superb. The show looks fantastic—the camera work and editing are genuinely beautiful.
At this point, the show has stirred massive new interest in Formula 1. And as with any reality show that succeeds, reality and artifice are now easy to spot. It’s hard to resist the chance to shape a story, even one as obviously dramatic as high-end car racing. Will Max Verstappen overtake Lewis Hamilton? Will Toto Wolff and Christian Horner make peace? I’m willing to suspend disbelief and keep watching.
Love,
Ann
I love this show and since watching it have become if not a fan, at least a follower, watching to see where this week’s race is (Belgium) and who took the pole in the day before’s practice round. Who am I? Thanks for sharing your thoughts about it. It’s great to know other knitters are watching too!! (Go Lewis Hamilton!!!)
My sister, an inveterate knitter. Showed me this blog post this morning. I am a Drive to Survive (DTS) fanatic also and once followed F1 back in the 60’s in my James Bond phase. A friend and I, both now obsessed with DTS but are neither Motorsport professionals nor journalists, have begun an F1 podcast called F1 Mode Push. She and just enjoy DTS and F1 as relief from the real world.
It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. We have fun talking about the personalities and politics and preview upcoming races. We also have a Twitter presence: @F1ModePush.
We’re geared to DTS fans and would love to get your feedback, hear comments and get questions. Thanks for listening!!
Will check your latest episode while walking this morning. Just love this idea. Just turned off qualifying to go walk. I usually do some type of stitching but will knit tomorrow in honor of this!!!
I haven’t watched the show (we don’t have Netflix), but have been a F1 fan for quite awhile. Lewis Hamilton is on the cover of the Sept issue of “Vanity Fair” and the article about him is pretty interesting. Looking forward to watching the Belgium GP tomorrow and getting some knitting done!
I have been knitting while watching Formula One for many years now. The drama is undeniable. I also take a sock in progress with me every year to the Indianapolis 500. Knitting and racing are a great match!!
We started watching the Formula 1 races while living in Germany for 2 years. The up and coming driver at the time was Michael Schumacher, and boy oh boy if you want a story, watch anything you can find about his life. When we got back to the States, one of the first things we bought was a satellite dish and subscription to satellite TV because it was the only way we could continue our F1 fix. That was over 20 years ago and we still tune in for all the races. You can tell from my knitting and crochet during those races how the stressful different points in the race were! The Netflix show added another dimension to our F1 world, but I have to say that I enjoy the actual races and the write-ups and commentary that can be found on the F1 Website and F1 TV streaming channel a lot more.
Hear, hear! The real races and race commentary, analysis, etc are way better than predictably drummed-up “reality show” narration. I’ve been living with an F1 fan for more than twenty years now and enjoy it. (Watching on a big flat screen is better than a movie!) We’ve even started following the BBC F1 podcasts (previews, wrap-ups, and post-race analyses) and they’re terrific – much more nuanced than most American sports reporting. So enjoy yourself without apology, Ann!
We get the weekly (Sundays) F1 races on ESPN on our local cable network (Optimum). My partner is Dutch so a fervent fan of Max Verstappen and always tunes in. It has definitely caught my attention, the excitement is undeniable and its easy to knit to! Go Max!
Yes! Formula 1 Drive to Survive is a new obsession! But definitely too exciting to knit while watching! I’m looking forward to the next season with bated breath. If you haven’t watched it yet on Netflix, give it a go!
Formula 1 is a wonderful wonderful thing, and DTS is a very good way to enter the world of F1. It’s excellent knitting viewing!
As far as the carbon footprint is concerned, my understanding is that the majority of the carbon footprint of any sporting event comes from the fans getting to the event. (And in my case, the electricity required to run my tv.)
F1 technology has done a lot to reduce the world’s carbon usage: automotive hybrid technology started there. The series is also going to 100% biofuels in the next few years. They’re aware of the issues, and are working to change them.
Many current and former drivers have used their individual fame to advocate for human rights and against climate change.
(As you can tell, I would be happy to talk F1 for **hours**!)
Brit Box has a new season (S2) of McDonald & Dodds, a mild detective comedy with nice touches of humor. Guess what the setting is for episode 2? F1 Racing!
Drive to Survive was the gateway to my F1 obsession for me. It’s a weird thing, but the show was a distraction that helped keepe from sinking into total despair after my husband died from cancer last summer. And it’s become a new connection to my family – my husband’s and mine, many of whom have been F1 fans for years.
Race weekends are now the time my daughter and I spend together which make it double special. There we sit knitting together watching the races and the commentary and all the rest.
I find it all tremendous fun and am a total fan girl now.
Also agree with Susan’s comments on F1’s sustainability. I have also read that the biofuel being developed is from non-food sources (waste, etc.).
You simply must watch the Lewis Hamilton episode of David Letterman’ s My Next Guest (in season 2).
I agree with Jouradnik above: the regular coverage of the sport is even better than the drummed-up drama of the “reality show” version. I’ve been living with an F1 fan for twenty years now and enjoy watching it myself, if not with the intensity of a true sports fan. Still, I’ve been rooting for Lewis Hamilton since he first came on the circuit. Pro tip: watch those races on a BIG screen. Better than a movie! We’ve even started following the BBC’s F1 podcast, with previews of upcoming races, post-race analyses and interviews. Much more insightful than most American sports coverage, I must say. So enjoy yourself, Ann, no apology required! But let me apologize if my comment appears more than once. The site seems to lose them randomly and then restore them . . .
Love F1 and Lewis Hamilton! I started watching Drive to Survive, and it got me hooked. Now we look forward to all the races – so much fun! I learned to purl without looking during one race that was too exciting to look away! Hoping to go to a race one day…