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.

In his second year in the team, Haas driver Mick Schumacher faces a lot of pressure, which is not helped by a lot of expectations from being a Formula Two World Champion and being the son of a seven-time World Champion. The paddock travels to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the second running of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix; as qualification for the race begins, Mick's run grinds to a halt when he suffers a big crash, ruling him out of the race due to the damage sustained to his car. Schumacher continues to struggle after Saudi; in Miami, Schumacher, in ninth place, collides with Sebastian Vettel, taking both drivers out of the race; he starts his Monaco run at the back of the field, only to lose it coming into the swimming pool section and splitting his car in half in the ensuing crash.
By the time the paddock has traveled to Baku, Magnussen has led the championship for the Haas team with 15 points against Schumacher's 0, and faces a lot of pressure over his future in the team. Schumacher starts the race in last place, while Magnussen rises up the field. However, Magnussen's race is stopped due to an engine issue, leaving Haas' chance for points in the hands of a slow-running Schumacher. Indeed, Schumacher is running very slowly to the point he is lapped by the leading Verstappen. Away from the track, Schumacher trains with his personal trainer, convinced he can still score points.
At Silverstone, Schumacher starts at the back of the grid, but the session is red-flagged due to a big crash for Zhou Guanyu, which the Haas drivers manage to avoid. Schumacher and Magnussen are due to start 16th and 14th, respectively. Schumacher pushes through the field - and with an overtake on Ricciardo, a DRS-assisted overtake on Vettel - and ultimately Verstappen, he ultimately manages to finish eighth - his first points in Formula One, sending the Haas pit wall into a celebration; Vettel and Verstappen also congratulate Schumacher for his efforts during the race. However, despite his efforts in the race, Mick's seat in the Haas team remains open.

As the season goes into the summer break, the effects of Oscar Piastri's refusal of his Alpine seat are still felt - and right in the line of fire is McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo, who had been struggling throughout the season. Indeed, McLaren has announced Ricciardo's retirement from the team after the season, with Piastri taking his spot. Meanwhile, Alpine are still reeling from the losses of Piastri and Alonso, but the Piastri fiasco has backed both Alpine and McLaren into a wall, with Alpine potentially taking Piastri to court and McLaren CEO Zak Brown potentially having to pay Piastri and Alpine - and given Ricciardo's near-consistent results back at Team Enstone back in the 2019 season, it remains unknown if he would return considering his decision to move to McLaren in 2021.
The Dutch round is the first ever since the announcement, and Ricciardo and Gasly, both winners of past races, are looking to perform their best. Gasly fights with Alonso in the midfield as Ricciardo, having received fresher rubber, pushes on Vettel while Alonso manages to take Gasly up. Ricciardo continues to drop down the field as both Haas drivers pass him. Gasly finishes eleventh with Ricciardo in seventeenth. By the Japan round, Alpine announces will have a new driver in Pierre Gasly for the 2023 season.

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.

New Zealand - 850 years ago New Zealand was the last major land mass to be discovered and colonised by humans. A mere 850 years ago, Polynesian seafarers arrived in a land with no terrestrial mammals. New Zealand was a land of birds, and its avian rulers were giants: huge herbivorous moas were hunted by Haast's eagle - the largest eagle the world has ever seen. But within the space of only 100-400 years, the eagle, all the moas and over 20 other species of birds were gone. Had mankind become the monster?