Oliver Bearman has filmed a lot of material with Netflix—but it doesn’t seem to be appearing in Drive to Survive.
Oliver Bearman and the Netflix cameras – so far, it seems to be a one-sided romance. While the eighth season of “Drive to Survive” is hitting screens just in time for the start of the 2026 season, fans are searching in vain for the Haas driver in the new episodes. And that’s despite the fact that the Brit sacrificed a lot of time for the production team.
In conversation with Greg James on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Bearman revealed with a wink that he had already appeared in front of the camera several times as the main actor – but the result was sobering.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” joked Bearman, who was once again accompanied by a camera crew for his appearance on the radio station. “I’ve probably spent three or four days filming with them, but I’ve never seen a single second of it.”
Bearman’s Netflix frustration: “Not a single second”
The youngster, who is now starting the new season as an established regular driver after an impressive rookie season in 2025 (13th place in the World Championship with 41 points), still remembers his first experiences with the streaming giant well.
“The first time, I was so excited to spend a whole day filming with them,” the Brit continued. But disillusionment followed when he watched the episodes: “Not a single second was shown. Nothing. It all ended up straight in the trash.”
Uncertainty ahead of 2026: “It’s terrible”
But while Bearman takes his fate on screen with humor, the situation on the racetrack is much more serious. Ahead of the season opener in Australia, there is a lot of speculation at the US racing team Haas – as there is at all teams in view of the new technical era.
Although Bearman beat his experienced teammate Esteban Ocon last year, the cards will be completely reshuffled in 2026. “It’s impossible to assess where we stand at the moment,” he says cautiously after the test drives in Bahrain. “Everything I see from the team is positive, but we don’t know how we compare. We won’t know that until after qualifying in Melbourne.”
Reliability in particular is causing the youngster headaches: “Reliability will be a huge factor in the first few races. There will be teams and people who make mistakes with these new regulations.”
The leap into the unknown
For Bearman, this is the first time in his career that he has experienced such a massive rule change as a regular driver. “It’s both a blessing and a curse,” he admits. “On the one hand, we feel like we can have a big impact right away. On the other hand, it’s terrible not knowing where you stand.”
His wish for the coming months is therefore simple: “I’d love to fast-forward six months to see where we’ve ended up. But I’ll give it my all to make sure we’re as high up as possible.”
It remains to be seen whether the Netflix cameras will press the “rec” button more often when Bearman is on screen. The eighth season of the series has been available since February 27—but Bearman will probably choose to ignore it.
