Disney+ F1 show about Brawn GP's 2009 season follows Drive to Survive formula
Avid watchers of Formula 1: Drive to Survive will feel right at home after pressing play on the Disney+ attempt at cashing in on the F1 boom.
But 'Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story' is not about the current stars of the sport. As the name suggests, the four-part series relives the 2009 season in which Brawn GP turned heads by not only staying afloat, but beating everyone to championship glory.
It's understandable that the highly sensationalised approach has been taken, and why this story in particular was chosen. After all, not only did Netflix enjoy their own huge commercial success with their ongoing series about the sport, but in return it brought an army of new fans to F1.
Those F1 newbies know Jenson Button only as a pundit for Sky Sports and not for his most successful ever season as a driver. And you might get quizzical looks from many when you mention names such as Ross Brawn, Nick Fry and Rubens Barrichello.
Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 story will fill you in on all of the above and more over four hour-long episodes. The show charts the demise of the Honda team in 2008, from which Ross' eponymous team was created, right through the one and only season in which his surname appeared on the grid.
Sebastian Vettel warns of looming F1 ban and is "very worried about the future"
Fitting in with the F1 world, everything about the start of the documentary is high-octane. The first few minutes of all four episodes feel like an extended trailer of dramatic action shots and loud noises cut together with dramatic, out-of-context soundbites from interviews.
It succeeds in keeping you on edge, even as someone familiar with the Brawn story and how the season played out for the team and its drivers. But it does feel a little overwhelming to dive straight into an episode in this manner, and when the pace slows down it can feel a little flat and anticlimactic in comparison. The gear change, particularly in episode one, is quite jarring.
The interviewees are well selected and bring tremendous insight. All the key players at Brawn GP take part including the boss himself and both drivers as well as other staff members in key positions at the time. And adding the likes of Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo brings fresh outside perspective that stops it from straying into promotional video territory.
Hollywood megastar Keanu Reeves may seem like an odd choice to narrate and host at first, but from a very early stage it become apparent he is having a whale of a time, cracking jokes with interviewees and showing great, genuine interest in the subject matter. He handles the interviews well for the most part but, understandably, withers in the presence of former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone whose bluntness leaves Reeves speechless on more than one occasion.
The Brawn show is clearly aimed at those newer F1 fans hooked by the sport in recent years. It doesn't really break any new ground in terms of nuggets of information that were not already in the public domain. The overdramatic nature may be off-putting to some, but Disney have done well to create an eminently watchable show that should appeal to most fans of the sport.
'Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story' premieres on Disney+ on November 15, 2023.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
