In the world of Formula One, there are a handful of names that will never be diminished or forgotten by history. Niki Lauda, the infamous rival of James Hunt, who is regarded as one of the most cunning strategists on the track, happens to be one of those icons. And although Drive to Survive exists beyond the era of the Austrian race car driver, it’s using a Mexican to fill in the void.
![Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team [Credit: Drive to Survive | Netflix]](https://fwmedia.fandomwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/04103403/Red-Bull-driver-Max-Verstappen-at-a-pit-stop-Credit-Drive-to-Survive-_-Netflix-1-1024x576.jpg "“I never said you were”: ‘Drive to Survive’ Deliberately Made Will Buxton a Villain in Sergio Pérez’s Eyes After a Niki Lauda Comparison 7")
With an affinity for dramatizing events and juxtaposing misleading audio over video montages to create a false narrative, Drive to Survive has been known to disregard facts in favor of fiction. And that aspect of the Netflix series has now managed to impact the former Formula 1 driver Sergio “Checo” Pérez.
Drive to Survive drives a wedge between two F1 mainstays
![Will Buxton in Drive to Survive [Credit: Netflix]](https://fwmedia.fandomwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/04103542/Will-Buxton-in-Drive-to-Survive-Credit-Netflix-1024x575.jpeg "“I never said you were”: ‘Drive to Survive’ Deliberately Made Will Buxton a Villain in Sergio Pérez’s Eyes After a Niki Lauda Comparison 8")
For the last 4 years, Sergio Pérez has been racing for Red Bull as a fearsome partner to his younger teammate, reigning world champion Max Verstappen. However, despite his otherwise stellar career record in Formula One, the past couple of years have been anything but good to Pérez in terms of his race stats.
However, under no circumstance were the allegations of Pérez being a “pay driver” hurled at him, despite his consistently underwhelming performances. Meanwhile, Drive to Survive did what it does best – put the allegations under a shroud of misleading quotes by the British motorsports journalist Will Buxton, who recently grabbed headlines for his exit from the series.
While there was no correlation between his comments about pay drivers and Checo Pérez, the editing of Netflix’s heavily manipulated show made it seem like he directed his comments toward the Mexican alone.
This not only drove a wedge between the driver and the journalist in question but also insinuated to the fans that Pérez bought his way into Red Bull and, despite his negative race performances over the last 2 years, his financiers and sponsors made sure that he retained his seat at the Austrian company.
The “pay driver” allegations against Sergio Pérez
The first season of Drive to Survive established the nature of the series by extensively formatting parts of the show to enhance driver rivalries and make some off-track remarks and incidents seem more sensational than they actually were. The consecutive seasons only kept building on that narrative.
In one such instance, the British journalist Will Buxton (who served as the narrator/commentator on the series until his recent exit) went into a detailed explanation about what a pay driver is (one who brings personal funding or sponsorship to a professional race car team in exchange of driving for them) and recounted famed race car driver Niki Lauda as an example.
In an appearance on The Fast and the Curious podcast, Buxton then detailed how his explanation about pay drivers then managed to hurt Sergio Pérez despite his name never being mentioned in the context:
Obviously you gotta be honest about stuff. And sometimes some things rub people the wrong way. Or they will use things a certain way. Season One Perez [was] furious with me because there was a bit about pay drivers. They painted it exclusively with pictures and footage of Sergio. And I never said you were. I just explained what one [pay driver] was.
Though Drive to Survive‘s intentional misrepresentation can easily lead to misunderstandings, one can see how Buxton’s claims about pay drivers could be applied to Pérez, especially given his poor performance run over the past 2 years for a team that was strongly contending for the championship title.
The 2024 Grand Prix season was marred by Checo and his dismal 152 points, which famously cost Red Bull the World Constructors’ Championship title. It can then be easily inferred that his commercial pull within the Latin American and Mexican market was a strong motivator for his seat in Red Bull, despite his subpar turnout on the track.
Drive to Survive Season 7 will premiere on Netflix on 7 March 2025.
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