Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has explained why the team did not participate in the recent Netflix Formula 1 series, “Drive to Survive”.

While most teams granted Netflix permission to film behind the scenes for to document, Mercedes did not. Wolff said he made the decision because their main championship rivals Ferrari had done the same.

“We had some good reasons not to join last year,” said Wolff during the Australian Grand Prix weekend. “The main reason was that I felt that it was a big distraction and could potentially be a distraction especially also because our main competitor was not doing it.”

Mercedes decision not to take part means Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas feature little in the 10-episode series. Wolff believes the presence of Netflix’s crew would have distracted Mercedes during the championship fight, which Hamilton won.

“There is a different environment when you are within your inner circle in the team and you need to protect it, and [then] you have a microphone swinging over your head and a camera pointed at you.

“The media work already, as much as it makes Formula 1 and we must be grateful, has become a very big part of the race weekends. And I felt that doing more of it would harm us in our performance and this is why I decided that it was not for us.”

Mercedes will discuss to what extent they will participate in the second series of “Drive to Survive” which will follow the 2019 F1 season.

“I’m open-minded. I watched the first three episodes on my way over, liked some of the things in there. Certainly the production’s great, it’s on a very high level.

“It shines a completely different light on Formula 1. The narrative is interesting, it creates stories that are not the obvious ones, it’s not about Ferrari against Mercedes. The sport is maybe not the primary narrative but interesting other stories. I get feedback from people that are not normally so interested in Formula 1, they said it’s great.”

Wolff said the team will “stick our heads together” and “evaluate whether we want to do this or not”.

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Netflix F1 series “Drive to Survive”: Every episode reviewed by RaceFans

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2019 F1 season