One of the things that has helped bring Formula 1 to a new audience in recent years is Drive to Survive, a Netflix documentary series which provides a behind-the-scenes look at the sport, focusing on the drivers and races of the World Championship.
Already many are eagerly awaiting the fourth series, to be aired early next year. It will cover the dramatic events of this season which concluded with the dramatic finale in Abu Dhabi last weekend.
However, some critics believe that the controversial way that the race was allowed to end on Sunday, implying that the FIA and the owners of F1, Liberty Media, have forgotten that they are in the sporting and not the entertainment business.
Allowing Max Verstappen to overtake Lewis Hamilton and win the drivers’ championship on the last lap of the last race of the season was a climax worthy of any Hollywood blockbuster.
But the way it was contrived and the rules altered to suit the narrative has left a residual bad taste in the mouth for many fans of the sport. At best it was incompetence, and worst it smacks of manipulation.
Either way it means that, with the eyes of the world on them, Formula One fluffed their lines. The essence of sport is that it should be transparent, fair, and play by a set of rules that everybody has signed up to and agreed.
Those rules cannot then be changed on a whim, or be interpreted in a separate way.
Sport and entertainment can be synonymous. After all, WWF wrestling is popular with many, and is based on the premise that a large part of what goes on in the ring is scripted. If there is a 'game', everybody is in it, both participants and spectators alike.
However, F1 is ostensibly still a sport, and one in which hundreds of millions of dollars are invested every year, both by the teams themselves, but also by the broadcasters, sponsors, and the fans itself.
What happened on Sunday has damaged the credibility of the sport and cannot be allowed to happen again. What makes Drive to Survive enthralling is its authenticity. However, if people begin to suspect that it is all a sham, then not only will those new found fans of the sport quickly desert it, but also those who have been following it for years.