Max Verstappen unleashed another wave of criticism towards Netflix's docu-series Drive to Survive, singling out a scene in which he says Lando Norris was made to look like "a bit of a dick".
Verstappen has been critical of the popular Netflix series ever since its first season in 2018. The reigning world champion objected to how the producers portrayed him in the first installment, while also fabricating "fake drama" or wrongly playing up rivalries.
As a consequence, the Red Bull driver has refused to appear in the series.
But Verstappen's criticism has since been echoed by several other drivers, such as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, and Norris who mocked how an old out-of-context sound byte in an episode of Season 4 was used to dramatize his inner team rivalry with McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
F1 boss Stefano Domenicali noted the criticism and signaled that he intended on addressing the "fake drama" approach with Netflix, warning that the series' stories "must not move away from reality, otherwise it no longer fits".
Despite his criticism of DTS, Verstappen admitted to watching the series, which he says is "a bit more like ‘Keeping up with the Formula 1 World’", a reference to the reality Tv show 'Keeping up with the Kardashians'.
"I watched a few episodes of the last one and I was surprised, I suddenly found myself talking in it," said Verstappen. "And it’s probably stuff from like 2018 or something they picked up and used again – about fighting and what I like to do.
"But that already is not of course correct. I could hear that my voice was a bit different. And I also realised that a lot of times I was saying stuff and they were around with this beam [microphone] and they pick up a lot of stuff.
"So, I’ll have to be a bit more careful with that as well.
"It’s just not my thing. And then of course they tried to pick moments – throughout the whole season – and fabricate it in a way."
Verstappen then highlighted a scene that wrongly depicted Norris, and his rivalry with Ricciardo.
"What I didn’t like, and it’s not even about me, it was about Lando and Daniel, which I think are two great guys.
"They’re really nice, first of all. And it made it look like Lando was a bit of a dick, which he isn’t at all.
"And, again, I know Lando and I think many people know Lando as a funny guy, great guy – he has a great character.
"And actually when you look at that episode, you really think like ‘who is this guy, what the hell is going on?"
"When you are new to the sport and you’ve never seen a racing car or Formula 1 car in general, they don’t like him. And why should that be?
"Because he is a great guy and you just immediately get a wrong picture of a person. And that’s exactly what I think happened to me in the beginning.
"I’m someone [that] when you ruin it from the start, you don’t fix it. That’s it, you ruined it. So, that’s my stance and that’s how I’ll go forwards."
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