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    • Formula One Documentary

    F1 Documentaries: Films And Series About Formula One

    There are some sports that seem entirely incomprehensible to the outsider. If you were to watch a cricket match without much knowledge of the sport, for example, then you could easily start losing interest when someone mentions ‘silly mid-off’ or asks if the batsman had an ‘inside edge’.

    Instinctively, you might think that the same would be said about Formula One, given the fact that it’s just racing fast cars around a track, but there are numerous aspects to it that make it difficult to follow if you want to get into the nitty-gritty.

    That is where documentaries come in, giving you the chance to learn more about certain aspects of the sport.

    These are some of the more interesting ones out there:

    Formula 1: Drive to Survive

    • Format: Documentary series
    • First Released: 2019
    • Length: 27–53 minutes per episode
    • Episodes: 78 episodes across 8 seasons
    • UK Age Rating: 12
    • Watch in the UK: Available with a Netflix subscription
    • Accessibility: English audio description and subtitles are available

    If you have ready any of the other documentary-themed pages on this site, you will see just how often we make reference to Formula 1: Drive to Survive. That is because it is the documentary franchise that spawned so many others, such was the success of the series at winning people over to the sport.

    It continues to be produced, with season eight being released in 2026, which gives you some indication of its popularity. That is because you get to go behind the scenes in the world of Formula One in an easily accessible manner, aiming to win over the likes of young people and Americans to a sport they would otherwise ignore.

    It was commissioned by Liberty Media, the owners of F1, which probably goes someway to telling you just how much you’re actually going to learn about the sport itself. In fact, Max Verstappen himself declared it to be ‘99% entertainment, 1 % racing’.

    Regardless, if you don’t know much about the world of Formula One then this is a really nice introduction to it, even if it is mostly propaganda. More than anything, it is about persuading people who might otherwise have thought that F1 was extremely boring into watching some races by telling us the story about the people behind the wheel, doing its job perfectly.

    Lucky!

    • Format: Documentary series
    • First Released: 2022
    • Length: Approximately 44 minutes per episode
    • Episodes: 8 episodes across 1 season
    • UK Age Rating: 15
    • Watch in the UK: Available with a Discovery+, HBO Max, Discovery+ Amazon Channel or HBO Max Amazon Channel subscription
    • Accessibility: English SDH subtitles are available
    • Content Warning: Contains flashing lights and strobing patterns

    Nowadays, Formula One is one of the biggest sports on the planet, with tracks based in the likes of Singapore, Las Vegas and Silverstone. That wasn’t always the case, however. In Lucky!, we learn the story of Bernie Ecclestone, who is the man that managed to transform it into the pinnacle of motorsport.

    Having begun his career trading motorcycle parts I the wake of the Second World War, Ecclestone started racing in Formula Three, took part in some F1 races as a privateer and then turned his hand to managing drivers prior to co-founding the Formula One Constructors’ Association and taking control of the sport for himself.

    Lucky F1 Documentary

    Across the following 40 years, Ecclestone grew the sport the point that it became one of the richest in the world. In spite of this, his time at the helm was not without controversy, to say nothing of the trouble he got into after he sold the Formula One Group to Liberty Media in 2017.

    From praising Adolf Hitler to suggesting that black people are more racist than white people, Ecclestone is very much a man from a different era. In spite of that fact, this is a documentary series that is worth looking at if you want to learn more about how the sport grew to become the behemoth that it is today, thanks in no small part to Ecclestone’s business mind.

    Schumacher

    • Format: Documentary film
    • First Released: 2021
    • Length: 1 hour 53 minutes
    • UK Age Rating: 12
    • Watch in the UK: Available with a Netflix subscription
    • Accessibility: English audio description and subtitles are available

    German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher competed in racing from 1991 until 2012, with a four year break between 2006 and 2010. During that time, he won a record-setting seven World Drivers’ Championship titles in the sport, retiring with the record for the most race wins at 91, most pole positions at 68 and most podium finishes with 155.

    In other words, he was one of the best to ever take part in the sport, racing for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari and Mercedes during his career. In the documentary that takes his name, we get to listen to interviews with those who help to trace his time behind the wheel.

    As much as this is an F1 documentary, it is also more about Michael Schumacher the man than it is about his racing achievements. That makes complete sense, of course, given the fact that you can go back and watch his races if you want to. Even so, it might well leave you feeling short if you want to know more about what made him a genius behind the wheel.

    The film doesn’t steer away from the tragedy of his life, with Schumacher revealing that he had considered going skydiving in Dubai in 2013, only to decide to go skiing in Meribel instead, suffering an horrendous accident that left him in an induced coma for six months.

    1: Life on the Limit

    • Format: Documentary film
    • First Released: 2013
    • Length: 1 hour 51 minutes
    • UK Age Rating: 12
    • Watch in the UK: Available with a Studiocanal Presents Amazon Channel subscription. It can also be rented or purchased through Amazon Video, Apple TV Store and Rakuten TV. DVD and Blu-ray copies are available
    • Accessibility: English closed captions are available with digital versions
    • Content Warning: Contains infrequent strong language and moderate injury detail. Flashing lights and strobing patterns

    Also known simply as 1, 1 Life on the Limit is narrated by Michael Fassbender and directed by Paul Crowder. It traces the history of Formula One from its early years through to the modern day, concentrating on the drivers that have lost their lives because of the sport.

    Nowadays, Martin Brundle is known as the man who wanders the pit lane interviewing people for Sky Sports before races get underway, but he used to be a driver and we see the crash at the Australian Grand Prix in 1996 that nearly ended his career. This is a documentary that doesn’t shy away from the darker sides of the sport, whilst also telling you more about the history.

    1 Life on the Limit

    We learn more about the battle that three-time champion Jackie Stewart had in getting more safety measure introduced, including safety barriers, with boycotts still not stopping drivers from being killed in accidents.

    The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which resulted in the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, proved to be something of a turning point for the sport, with no more deaths until the tragic loss of Jules Bianchi nine months after suffering a head injury in the Japanese Grand Prix in 2014. If you want to get a sense of just how dangerous F1 used to be as a sport, and still is to some extent, this is the film for you.

    Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story

    • Format: Documentary series
    • First Released: 2023
    • Length: 57–61 minutes per episode
    • Episodes: 4 episodes across 1 season
    • UK Age Rating: 16+ on Disney+
    • Watch in the UK: Available free on BBC iPlayer or with a Disney+ subscription
    • Accessibility: Audio description and subtitles are available
    • Content Warning: Contains flashing lights and strobe patterns

    Does Keanu Reeves presenting a four-part story into one of Formula One’s most unlikely stories, all for Disney, sound like your idea of fun. If that’s the case then Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story. Reeves is an excitable presenter who manages to get people to open up in an emotional manner, meaning that we see people crying more than once during the course of the series.

    The story begins with the tale of Honda’s team heading in to the 2019 F1 championship, which was threatened following the financial crash and Honda’s decision not to take part, leading to a management buyout by pit boss Ross Brawn and CEO Nick Fry.

    From there, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was going to play out like a typical ‘close but no cigar’ sports story. Instead, as the title suggests, the newly created Brawn GP went on to win five of the first six races of the season courtesy of their star driver, Jenson Button.

    This is a documentary that spells out clearly and brilliantly just how much Formula One is less about the best driver on the track and more about how business, politics and the design of the cars themselves are the deciding factors more often than not. Reeves is the one who makes this documentary series what it is, but the on-track exploits still thrill.

    Senna

    • Format: Documentary film
    • First Released: 2010
    • Length: 1 hour 46 minutes
    • UK Age Rating: 12
    • Watch in the UK: Available to rent or purchase through Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Rakuten TV and Sky Store. DVD and Blu-ray copies are also available
    • Accessibility: English closed captions are available with digital versions

    Formula One is a sport that has had more than its fair share of big names involved over the years, but few are as ubiquitous as Ayrton Senna. This documentary, directed by Asif Kapadia, the man behind the likes of Amy, Diego Maradona and Kenny Dalglish, focusses on Senna’s racing career.

    He made his debut in the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1984, dying behind the wheel at the San Marino Grand Prix ten years later. We get to see a mixture of archival footage of a young Senna in go-kart races, which gives you a taster for what’s tomorrow come. That is because the film itself is mostly made up of similar such footage, as well as news coverage.

    Kapadia choose to go down that road rather than opting for the typical talking heads that you might be more used to seeing from other documentaries, meaning that what you get to see feels more real than other such films might.

    It was acclaimed by critics, winning two BAFTAs, whilst the work alongside the Senna family means that the home footage we get to see of the driver away from the race track offers a real insight into his life. There is also a focus on the rivalry between Senna and Alain Prost, which came to a climax during the 1989-1990 seasons. Perhaps the biggest irony revealed is that Senna campaigned for better driver safety.