I was sad going in knowing that Russel’s Mercedes drive wasn’t going to be a feature story, as well as a couple other drivers, teams, and races, but honestly I’m finishing episode 9 right now and I’m finding this to absolutely be my favorite season so far.
I didn’t like S2 as much as S1 due to lack of chronology, as well as locking each story to its own episode with minimal overflow (IMO this in particular made a lot of episodes in season 2 feel rushed). S3 definitely isn’t super chronological in relation to the season on-track, but this time around they dove so much more deeply into the off-track drama that it really didn’t matter so much - chronology took the medium of behind-the-scenes rivalries and driver moves. As well, unlike both the prior seasons, episodes didn’t always feel like isolated mini-docs, and there was a lot of interconnectivity that made it feel like a “season” rather than collection of episodes; in particular the seat changes of Vettel, Sainz, Ricciardo, and Perez all got their own episodes, but we’re still all connected throughout the series, and allowed the subject matter in each particular episode to really flourish and get the mileage it deserved.
I only felt kind of “meh” on episode 7, and a little bit on 10, though I just binged it all in one sitting, so I could have some burnout impacting me by the end. I just wasn’t nearly as engaged with the fight between the McLaren drivers, and it felt more like they were trying to manufacture a story out of footage, sort of like the Sainz/Alonso “rivalry” episode in season 1. I will say that was the only episode that didn’t feel very organic to me this season.
While it did an amazing job with what was covered, I think one major thing this series could’ve benefitted from was one or two more episodes to get a couple more bigger stories in. I realize it’s possible the crews just weren’t there or there wasn’t enough footage to build a full episode, but I’m going to list some big moments I felt were missed.
- George Russell and/or Williams, especially with the change in leadership. This in combo with his opportunity to get a Mercedes drive could be really cool. They used flashbacks really well this season, so maybe it can get a short feature in an episode next season.
- Verstappen. He existed, but wasn’t really a fulcrum of any particular plot element, and when he was present, he was more synonymous with redbull in their features rather than an autonomous figure. A take on his personal struggle for title contention would’ve been cool, though I can see how that could lead to personal one-sided theoretical talks about moving to a more competitive team, and given how many moves were covered this season I could see how that could get convoluted or repetitive.
- Hulkenberg’s return. Aside from the fact that this major event was completely glossed over, this could’ve been an interesting element to mix in while Perez’s and destination was unknown, perhaps even with the Haas/Alfa driver story.
- Mention of McLaren’s switch from Renault to Mercedes power, seems like it could’ve slotted in well with Ricciardo’s move.
- Mugello chaos. It doesn’t seem to have any plot in and of itself, but there’s a lot of action there, and I could see it being well used as a builder/prologue in the Bahrain/Grosjean’s episode the highlight the danger.
- Silverstone tire chaos. I’m not sure where it would fit in but it was very exciting. Perhaps included with the Verstappen brainstorm I listed above.
S2 made me nervous, but the direction this new season took made me really excited for future seasons.