Offering unprecedented access, Season 5 will once again take fans behind the scenes, to witness first-hand how the drivers and teams prepare to battle it out for victory in one of the sport’s most dramatic seasons to date.
The first episode begins with a recap of the closing laps of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix controversy. After showing how important the relationship is between Guenther Steiner and Mattia Binotto for their respective teams, the 2022 Formula 1 season opens with pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The teams and drivers all prepare their cars for the upcoming races. This year also marks the largest changes to the cars in many years.
Controversy arises when Haas F1 Team drops its major sponsor Uralkali along with its sponsored driver Nikita Mazepin due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Haas brings back Kevin Magnussen after he was let go from the team back in 2020. Current World Champion Max Verstappen finally makes an appearance on the show after having declined to appear in previous seasons. In the early races many teams, especially the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, have to deal with issues of porpoising, a potential problem related to Ground Effect, which returned after having been banned in 1982. The first race, the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, is shown with both of the Red Bull cars losing power, Scuderia Ferrari achieving their first win in 910 days with their drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. taking first and second place respectively and Kevin Magnussen achieving fifth place on his first outing back at Haas.

The Haas team looks to reverse its recent fortunes with a new sponsor and two rookie drivers: Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher. Reliable Netflix gang-show entertainers, Guenther Steiner and his motley Haas crew are it again. This time they invited a Russian oligarch to sponsor them and his spoilt son to drive, what could possibly go wrong?
It soon turns out Nikita Mazepin can’t make head nor rear diffuser of the VF-21 car, being easily trounced by team-mate Mick Schumacher: 'I don’t know how he drives that thing' says poor Niki. Soon, some rather rude phrases are being exchanged between the team and driver, with the elder Mazepin threatening to withdraw his sponsorship early on in the season. However, what can only be described as a genius tyre call at his home grand prix in Sochi means young Maz rescues the situation and blazes a trail to finish.

Ricciardo is still trying to get to grips with that pesky papaya number, whilst things get tetchier and tetchier between the Macca team-mate as races go by. 'We’re very different,' says Norris darkly. Luckily there's a sprint race for Ricciardo to get his Mansell-esque chops into, then it all falls into place. Bottas gets a grid penalty, Verstappen and Hamilton waltz off the track together and Norris promises not to overtake the old man in front a la Damon Hill / Ralf Schumacher at Spa ’98. The Honey Badger is back!

This is the first of two episodes dissecting the psyche of Daniel Ricciardo. A second big money move in two years now sees the Australian set foot on the shore of the McLaren Technology Centre, only to find the territory is already occupied by Lando Norris. The Australian looks like he was really hoping to flash the car up into Q3 with his teeth, only to find it isn’t that easy.
Ricciardo is really struggling to get his head around the idiosyncratic MCL35M, but it gets worse: his boyish, funny, charismatic team-mate Norris is doing him over every week. The relations between the two drivers deteriorate also. Can Ricciardo recover his form?
The footage is interspersed with short scenes featuring Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

They have the raw talent, but can they handle the pressure? Now Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon must sink or swim in the rough waters of Formula 1. Yuki Tsunoda had to move from Tokyo to Milton Keynes and F1 cars are proving a bit more difficult to wield than the F2 machine in which he won races. Esteban Ocon is part of the all-French attack (from Enstone) in the shape of Alpine, soaking up the pressure to win the Hungarian GP.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen pulls off a string of victories. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes struggles to keep pace. Later, an accident leads to controversy. We will see more Red Bull vs Mercedes, with a bit of Ferrari thrown in. Again Wolff and Horner engage in what appear to be pretty staged chats with their loved ones over the first meal of the day about the intensity of the championship fight but also pumpernickel.
Monaco plays out brilliantly for Red Bull and miserably for Mercedes, but several laps of Horner’s garden still look more exciting than that ’21 GP round the principality. Things all come to a head at the British GP, and we will all know how that ends. Cue more swearing and breakfast war-planning.