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Verstappen displeased with portrayal in 'Drive to Survive'

Max Verstappen had admitted that he wasn't happy with how he came across in the first season of the Netflix Drive to Survive series depicting life behind the scenes of Formula 1.

"I don’t think it was the real me," the Dutch driver complained in an interview with ABtalks. "The problem is they will always position you in a way they want.

"It’s a series," he added. "Whatever you say they will try to make you look reckless, or try to make you into whatever fits the story of the series."

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The second season of the phenomenally successful documentary show was released on the streaming service on Friday, ahead of the start of this year's Formula 1 season in Australia in two weeks' time.

Verstappen is yet to see the new series, but clearly took a dim view of how he'd been portrayed in last year's run of episodes.

"The series is all about excitement and it needs to be exciting, so they position you and whatever fits to the episode.

"You’re interviewed and they use the words also under different circumstances so it never really fits," he explained.

"I never really liked that. I prefer to just have a one-on-one interview with the person who would like to know me."

As a result of the production team's approach, Verstappen said that he felt the editing of the show had a tendency to make him look arrogant and dismissive, which was very wide of the mark.

“I like to be just myself," he insisted. "I speak when I need to speak, and if I don’t have anything to say then I won’t say anything.

"I don’t think I show a lot of emotion," he suggested. "I’m just easy going, but I’m also very determined to win.

“I try to do everything for it because my life, it’s my passion. Sometimes it might seem arrogant or whatever, but I’m there to win.

“Everybody’s different, everybody works differently," he added. "But for me, that seems to work the best."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.