An F1 star has revealed that his former team tracked him when he went to speak to rival teams.

Esteban Ocon completed a switch from Alpine to Haas for the 2025 season, and since leaving the Enstone-based outfit has been vocal about his problems with the team.

Despite enjoying a race win at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, and two later podiums with Alpine, the Frenchman didn’t part with the team on the best of terms.

Alongside being denied the opportunity to say goodbye to members of the team, Ocon also confirmed a rumour that Alpine tracked him when he spoke to rival teams.

Ocon: Cars had trackers

In conversation with Lawrence Barretto for F1’s Off The Grid series in Geneva, Ocon was asked if it was true that Alpine had tracked his GPS when he was at the Williams factory, to which Ocon laughed.

“Yes, I know the cars have trackers but I don’t have anything to hide, I wanted to look elsewhere. So even if the car has a tracker, I was allowed to go to Williams and that’s it,” Ocon said.

“I went there, did what I had to do. Came out. I don’t really understand why that story came out, it is normally secret information.”

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Drive To Survive has had a transformational impact on interest in F1 in recent years, and the release date for Season 8 in 2026 has now been confirmed.

The Netflix blockbuster – which originally launched way back on March 8, 2019 – has attracted millions of new fans to the sport as it goes behind the scenes to review every season.

We get to find out what the drivers are like once the curtain is pulled back, and we get the beef behind the biggest storylines. It is must-see TV.

Of course not everybody loves it – four-time world champion Max Verstappen for example has expressed his displeasure at the way the show is filmed.

Whatever you think about it, it’s impossible to deny that DtS has been a major win for F1 – perhaps the biggest single factor in the growth since that takeover by Liberty Media in January 2017. With the days counting down to Season 8 in 2026, here is all you need to know.

F1 TESTING 2026: Dates, times and how watch live

When is the release date for Season 8?

The release date for the latest series of Drive to Survive is on February 27. That’s a Friday night for those of you keen to watch as many as you like without the threat of having to get up for work the next day.

The seventh season of DtS was released all at once and binge watching fans will hope for a repeat.

DtS normally drops on a Friday, and it normally drops very close to the start of the new season which in this case is the Australian Grand Prix on March 8.

How to watch Drive to Survive Season 8

This is pretty simple – if you are an existing Netflix subscriber you can watch all the seasons so far (and Season 8) without doing anything. And at no extra cost. More on pricing to come.

The big storylines in Season 8

There are always some surprises and some unexpected stars when the show makes its big annual reveal, but here are the biggest storylines we are excited about from the 2025 season:

Red Bull sack Christian Horner

Undoubtedly the biggest single moment of the 2025 season came on July 9, 2025 when Red Bull announced they had sacked Team Principal Christian Horner after a glorious 20-year run in charge of the Milton Keynes team. It ended a tumultuous 12 months at Red Bull, and DtS should reveal some more of what happened in the lead-up to that seismic moment.

Lewis Hamilton and a miserable Year 1 at Ferrari

It absolutely was not supposed to play out like this. The marriage of Hamilton and Ferrari brought together the two most glamorous brands in F1. But Year 1 of the project was an abject failure. Hamilton could not get to grips with the SF-25 car and struggled mightily during his opening act at Maranello. He would eventually finish the season in sixth place in the Drivers’ standings with 156 points – a massive 267 behind new world champion Norris.

McLaren vs McLaren and papaya rules

The Drivers’ Championship appeared to be McLaren’s by the summer break – it was just a question of who, Lando Norris or Ocar Piastri. But then came that terrific Max Verstappen revival which took it right down to the final lap of the final race. Along the way McLaren kind of lost their way with those papaya rules and some very uncomfortable moments.

Max Verstappen anti-hero arc

Yes, from being the driver that so many people didn’t like (outside of the Netherlands that is), Verstappen suddenly had fans rooting for him in 2025. It wasn’t just that his renaissance in the second half of the season gave us a title race after all. It was also becoming a father for the first time with the birth of baby Lily, and the way he built relationships with the rookies on the grid. Turns out he’s a nice guy off the track who cares about his family and who doesn’t take himself too seriously. Who knew.

Hulkenpodium

We did not expect this to be one of our 5 storylines, but it’s one which might have us reaching for the tissues come late February. The German star had gone 239 F1 starts without ever making a podium before his glorious third-place finish in the 2025 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It was a magical moment for one of the most likeable characters on the grid, and everybody loved it. Now we get to watch it all again.

Drive To Survive FAQ

How did Drive To Survive start?

It was the brainchild of Sean Bratches, former MD of Commercial Operations at F1. When current owners Liberty Media bought the sport a few years ago, Bratches wanted to bring it to a wider audience. As a former ESPN staffer, he understood the value of rich sports documentaries (remember 30 For 30?) and the rest is now very successful history.

How can I watch previous seasons of Drive To Survive?

Seasons 1-7 are all available on Netflix, and if you haven’t seen them yet you can get started before Season 8 hits your screen.

How much does it cost to watch Drive To Survive?

It varies depending on which subscription level you choose, and which country you are in. In the UK Basic with adverts is £5.99 per month while Premium is £18.99. In the United States it starts at $7.99 and goes up to $24.99.

F1 CAR LAUNCHES: Dates for every team in 2026

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Audi F1 star Nico Hulkenberg could be set to pick up a multi-million Euro bonus in his first season with the German outfit if he manages to replicate his 2025 form.

Last season saw Hulkenberg finally make it onto an F1 podium after 250 grands prix starts, beating seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton to P3 on home turf at the British Grand Prix.

The German racer picked up 15 points from his Silverstone triumph alone, finishing the season tied with rookie Isack Hadjar, after both drivers accumulated 51 points.

Ahead of his first season driving for fellow German icon Audi, reports in foreign media have claimed the 38-year-old has struck a deal that could see him pick up an additional €50,000 for every point he earns with the rebranded squad in 2026.

With new regulations entering the sport, not even the drivers know how the competitive order of the grid will unfold in 2026.

However, if Hulkenberg replicates his 51-point tally from last season and reports of the bonus agreement prove true, he could be looking to take home an eye-watering €2,550,000 on top of his first Audi F1 salary.

DRIVE to SURVIVE: the ex-McLaren junior comes into his own this season as he and Hulkenberg are both handed the opportunity to show off their potential with a new team under new regulations.

If either driver fails to impress however, they could be out of a full-time seat entirely given that both their contracts only run until the end of the 2026 campaign.

To add to the pressure, a whopping 16 out of the 22 drivers lining up on this year’s grid do not have a confirmed spot 2027, meaning this whole championship could act as an audition for any rival drivers hoping to catch Audi’s eye.

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