On Sunday evening two drivers in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship went down to the final lap to decide who would ultimately take home the crown.

With both on equal points going into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen lined up on the front row for 58 laps of stellar racing.

While Verstappen ultimately won the race, it was not without controversy, although, in all honesty, much of the 2021 season has been and this presents an interesting challenge for one party in particular – Netflix.

Over the last three years Netflix has released Formula 1: Drive to Survive. These 10 part mini-documentaries showcase the other side of F1 that we don’t often see. The way teams interact with each other, how they react to big wins and loses and the stresses everybody involved in the sport are all on full display in the series.

However, Netflix has come under fire in the past for turning up the drama when there really isn’t anything to be dramatic about. On the flip side, it has also been criticised for not highlighting important issues that surround the sport well enough.

The challenge Netflix faces with the 2021 F1 season, however, is that there was a lot of drama both on and off of the track.

While it was touched on in season three, the decision to bring in Nikita Mazepin by Haas will surely feature at some point. Before the driver was even racing he was being called out for his conduct off of the track. A video of the driver was spread on social media in which he was shown groping a woman. Even on the track Mazepin has failed to impress and in all honesty one episode could be dedicated entirely to him.

What about the return of Fernando Alonso? That could also be an entire episode given how well the returning world champ performed with Alpine. Given the turmoil the team faced when Daniel Ricciardo left to go to McLaren, we’d love to see an episode on how the team rose to the challenge on 2021.

Then there is the monumental year Ferrari has had following worrying few years for the team. While Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc may not have stood on the podium very often this season, the fact that Ferrari finished third in the constructors championship and Sainz finished overall 5th in the Driver Championship has to be worth exploring right?

Then there’s the tale of Alfa Romeo and how both of its drivers are leaving. Kimi Räikkönen is of course retiring from the sport and Antonino Giovanazzi is headed to Formula E. How the team are preparing for a fresh slate of drivers, including Valtteri Botas while working with the existing team would be incredibly fascinating to see since we didn’t see much of this when Haas did the same thing in 2020.

Once we start getting into the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes however, things become even more chaotic. The fight between Hamilton and Verstappen could quite honestly be told in an entire season on its own and then you have the stories of Valtteri Botas and Sergio Perez to tell.

There is so much content Netflix can draw from with the 2021 season we’re struggling to see how it’s going to pick. Perhaps the platform will increase the number of episodes from 10 to 12 just this once but we aren’t hyping ourselves up just yet.

Something we do hope is addressed is the failings of Formula 1.

For all of its talk about inclusivity and change, F1 is still very much a boys club that runs on fossil fuel in an era where climate change is a huge concern. The addition of a race in Saudi Arabia also drew harsh criticism given the allegations of human rights violations and the way journalists are treated in the country.

The downside of having more and more people becoming interested in your sport is that it becomes harder to sweep the nastier aspects of it under the rug. While we doubt Netflix while highlight the unsavoury aspects of F1 as a sport given that would risk its access to drivers and teams during the season, we live in hope.

We’re just glad we’re not in charge of producing this series because there is a lot of content to draw from. We haven’t even touched on the disaster that has been Michael Masi and his interpretation of the rulebook but perhaps he deserves a documentary of his own.

We now begin the long wait to the 2022 season. Here’s hoping for another cracking battle between the best drivers in the world.