EXCLUSIVE: ‘He embraced the series’ – How ‘charismatic’ Ricciardo took on a starring role in Drive To Survive

With countless wheel-to-wheel battles, bold overtakes and hilarious moments in the paddock to choose from over the years, Daniel Ricciardo left an indelible mark on Formula 1. But he also played his part in bringing a legion of new fans to the sport as one of the most prominent characters in Netflix’s blockbuster Drive To Survive series. Following the news of his RB exit, F1.com sat down with Executive Producer James Gay-Rees to look back on the memorable journey…

Embracing the concept

“Hi, I’m Daniel Ricciardo, and I’m a car mechanic.”

A grinning, full-of-life Ricciardo started as he meant to go on when Drive To Survive hit our screens back in 2019.

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Fiercely competitive on the track and full of laughs off it, the Australian endeared himself to viewers from the very first episode – enhancing his fun-loving reputation with existing fans and taking F1 newcomers along for the journey.

“I think Daniel just became everybody’s favourite straight away,” reflects Gay-Rees, who oversees the Box to Box production team with fellow Executive Producer Paul Martin. “He’s been an amazing part of it, there’s absolutely no doubt.

“I went back to watch the super-tease video for Season 1 the other day. I hadn’t watched it since we made it, probably – it’s a long time ago now. Then I ended up watching a bit of the first episode and obviously it’s the Danny show!

“He embraced the series when a lot of people weren’t really embracing it and gave us a lot of his time. He’s a hugely likeable bloke and just had an infectious energy from the get-go.”

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Honest and authentic

That “get-go” was a meeting with Box to Box heads in London’s East End during the build-up to filming Season 1, which would cover the twists and turns of the 2018 campaign.

Given that two big-name teams in Ferrari and Mercedes initially opted not to take part, Red Bull found themselves as the only front-running force offering full, behind-the-scenes access to Netflix’s cameras and mics through the year.

As a result, Ricciardo took centre stage.

“Funnily enough, I really vividly remember sitting in Shoreditch House with him and some of the Red Bull team, just discussing the idea of the show and what we’d like to do,” continues Gay-Rees. “It was a nice, long, lazy afternoon, having a few too many cocktails!

“First meetings are always pretty pivotal and seminal. I really liked him then, so we just got into things, and it all started to happen – that was the origin of it.”

When the cameras started rolling, following Ricciardo at the track, his European base in Monaco and with family back home in Australia, the production team knew they were onto a winner.

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“Daniel’s just very relaxed in front of a camera, isn’t he?” Gay-Rees comments. “He’s very relaxed with himself, he doesn’t overthink it, he’s charismatic, and he’s a very genial human being, so I don’t think he found it particularly problematic being filmed.

“I’d hate to be filmed! I can’t pretend that I would particularly like it, so hats off to anybody who can just roll with that stuff. He totally can do, so it was a really easy win to kind of find him and then to develop that relationship with him over the years.”

Amid all the joking, pranking and iconic one-liners, at no point did Gay-Rees feel that Ricciardo was putting on an act and trying to become somebody else.

“If you’re Daniel Ricciardo, it’s pretty straightforward – you just be yourself and it kind of works for people,” he adds of the Perth native’s personality.

“You can’t say that about a lot of athletes. That’s a huge generalisation, but a lot of athletes either don’t want the distraction, or they can’t be bothered, or they’re not particularly extroverted or whatever it might be. He was the right guy at the right time, wasn’t he?

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“Daniel became a major part of the show. He was a cornerstone, and still is, in some ways. It was meant to be. He continued to let us inside whatever happened in his career in a really amazing way, so it worked for both parties, I think.”

A career captured

A lot has happened in Ricciardo’s life and career since that very first Drive To Survive episode.

Season 1 covered the then-late 20s driver weighing up whether to stick with Red Bull – where team mate Max Verstappen was growing stronger by the race – or move to a rival outfit and become their main man.

After those deliberations, Ricciardo settled on a lucrative Renault switch, which would see him out-perform team mates Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon in 2019 and 2020, and bag a couple of podiums, but not add to his tally of seven Grand Prix victories.

Then, for 2021, he made another big decision – one that would change the course of his career.

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Ricciardo was determined to get back to winning ways when he swapped Renault for McLaren, and while he did so with a memorable triumph at Monza in that first season, the rest of his time in papaya left him with more questions than answers.

Struggling to find the same rhythm and consistency as rising star Lando Norris across two different rulesets, Ricciardo would be replaced by countryman Oscar Piastri at the end of 2022 – meaning he was without a seat for the first time since debuting in 2011.

While Ricciardo impressed Red Bull in a test filmed by Drive To Survive to secure a comeback with AlphaTauri (now RB) midway through 2023, his journey was dented by a hand-breaking crash during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, and just over a year on he found himself out of favour once more.

It’s been an emotional rollercoaster ride of blood, sweat and tears, every drop documented by Drive To Survive and one last blast to come when Season 7 arrives in 2025 to tell the story of – what appears to be – his final F1 stint.

“I’m sure it’s not necessarily how he would have wanted it to play out, and it’s hard not to ask the question of what would have happened if he’d stayed at Red Bull,” Gay-Rees ponders.

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“It would have been really interesting, because he was pretty competitive in that car and winning races. I think he would have given Max a run for his money. But who knows? We can all look back and go, ‘Coulda, woulda, shoulda’.

“It’s been an eventful journey with massive highs and some pretty big lows – but that’s modern sport. He won’t be the last driver who has a complicated journey through their F1 career as told by Drive To Survive.”

“The end of an era”

And so, for now at least, the F1 world is adjusting to life without Ricciardo.

Eight wins, 32 podium finishes, more than 250 starts and 1,329 points scored, along with hours of Drive To Survive footage that added context to his “wild and wonderful” adventure.

Ricciardo’s own suggestion of calling the show ‘Daniel To Survive’ might have taken it just a little too far, but there’s no denying his impact across the six seasons to date.

READ MORE: Horner hopes to keep ‘brilliant character’ Ricciardo in Red Bull family as he hints at F1 lifeline

“It’s the end of an era, isn’t it?” Gay-Rees sums up. “I think it was just a really happy union. We have that with a number of drivers now, which is good. We’re not trying to replace him. We’ll miss him on a personal, professional and sporting level, but nothing lasts forever – for any of us!

“If it is the end, it’s sad. We’ll be sad to lose him in that capacity, like we were sad to lose Guenther Steiner, in a way. But he’s a young man, he’s got a lot of time ahead of him. Who knows where it’ll take him? I’m sure he’ll have a pretty rich and storied life going forward.

“He’s going to be around in some capacity… I wouldn’t necessarily mind trading places with Danny Ric going forward, do you know what I mean? He’ll have a lot of fun!”

Head to Netflix to watch every episode from the Drive To Survive archive.