‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’ Renewed for Season 9 at Netflix

The engines are still roaring at Netflix. Following the sport going live on Netflix for the very first time (at least in the United States), Formula 1: Drive to Survive is returning for a ninth season, we’ve learned, capturing all the drama of the ongoing 2026 grid. However, it’s not all good news for motorsport fans, as the all-female spin-off docuseries F1: The Academy is seemingly parked in the garage for good.

While heavily debated, it’s hard to overstate how massively Drive to Survive has impacted the global sports landscape since its debut in 2019. The series is reported to have turbocharged Formula 1’s popularity in the United States and turned team principals like Guenther Steiner and Christian Horner into reality TV superstars.

With Season 8 dropping back in late February (with the added complication that this season was shared with Apple TV+, which has the US rights to the live races), fans have naturally been wondering whether the cameras would keep rolling to chronicle the turbulent 2026 championship.

Hints came much earlier this year that work had quietly begun behind the scenes when Will Buxton was interviewed, indicating he was already signed up for a ninth season. That’s in addition to Kym Illman (a famous photographer within the F1 world and YouTube personality) stating that production teams were present early at pre-season testing. Further commentary from Oliver Bearman seems to leave little doubt about the show’s future.

We’ve got further confirmation: we’ve now found multiple people connected to the crew listing season 9 as “current” on their online profiles, having been working on a new season since the beginning of the year. 

Multiple Netflix reps declined to comment or respond to requests for comment on multiple occasions. 

As always, you can expect Season 9 to drop in the exact same cadence as all prior seasons: on the Friday of pre-season testing, just one week before the lights go out for the first race of the year.

F1 Aiming for 10 Seasons of Drive to Survive on Netflix

Speaking about the long-term future of the series on The Sports Agents, Ian Holmes, Chief Media Rights and Broadcast Officer at Formula 1, admitted that the show has vastly exceeded initial lifespan expectations and revealed that they are actively plotting a path toward a milestone tenth season. “I don’t think when we set out on this path, we had any expectation that we would be eight series in,” Holmes noted, adding that they are looking at “probably nine going forward, and it would be nice to get to magical ten.”

You can see the slow decay of viewership when stacking up the available viewership launches for prior seasons:

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To reach that decade mark, the production is highly aware that the series must evolve to avoid viewer fatigue. Holmes explained that the team behind the scenes is constantly exploring ways to hand more agency to the grid’s stars to capture a more intimate, unpolished perspective. “There are some things that we have been discussing about how we can perhaps freshen things up, change some approaches,” Holmes explained. “In series seven with the Singapore Grand Prix, we had five drivers pretty much miked up for the duration, and they filmed most of the content themselves.” This experimental, self-shot style is something they are actively expanding, with Holmes noting, “We tried to do something similar for the series that’s about to drop in Las Vegas with four team principles, something kind of similar.”

Ultimately, the future of the series dictates that “the structure and narrative of Drive to Survive can evolve,” but it all comes down to the streaming audience. “That’s the brutal thing about this business. You soon find out if people don’t want to watch it anymore,” Holmes said regarding Netflix’s notoriously strict viewership metrics. Fortunately for fans of the F1 paddock, audience retention remains incredibly strong. “But so far, you know, the numbers are holding up super well, really well, I mean, ridiculously well given the number of series.”