Latest news with #Senna
New York Times
5 days ago
- Automotive
- New York Times
This Rookie Driver Started With a Crash, Then Got Everyone's Attention
The first half of Isack Hadjar's rookie Formula 1 season with Racing Bulls has been bookended by accidents. His debut, in Australia, ended before it began. He spun into the wall on the formation lap in wet conditions and tearily trudged back to the paddock, where he was consoled by Anthony Hamilton, the father of Lewis Hamilton, the English driver. At the last race, in England, Hadjar was one of many caught out in the rain and crashed. In between, Hadjar, 20, has captured attention. 'I think Isack's performances have been nothing less than sensational,' Laurent Mekies, the team principal of Red Bull, said in an interview in July, when he was the team principal of Racing Bulls. Hadjar is 11th in the championship standings and has scored points five times. That included an eighth-place finish on his first visit to the challenging Suzuka Circuit in Japan and a sixth-place result in Monaco, where he finished as the lead driver outside the top teams. He also, according to Mekies, 'killed the midfield' in Spain, in a race that 'required experience to manage tires in hot conditions,' finishing seventh. 'He had done extremely little F1 testing before the race season,' Mekies said. 'So to put everything together in Melbourne — first Grand Prix, first qualifying, he was half a tenth from the top 10 — that was outstanding already. Yes, Sunday happened, and the famous formation lap, but then China, seventh on the grid, so at that stage, he's largely exceeding expectations.' Hadjar was the final driver confirmed for 2025. Last year, he won four Formula 2 races, though he missed out on the title, which was won by Gabriel Bortoleto, now of Sauber. The result capped a journey that began in the suburbs of Paris, when Hadjar was drawn to motorsport through the movie 'Cars,' his father watching Formula 1 races and the documentary 'Senna,' about the life and death of the Brazilian motor racing champion Ayrton Senna. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Herald
6 days ago
- Automotive
- The Herald
Ayrton Senna's final Honda V10 F1 engine goes under the hammer
According to the company, Senna used this exact engine during warm up at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in October 1990 and again in the race at the season-ending Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide on November 4. Back in the day, Honda's F1 power units were typically returned to Japan for inspection and dismantling, with most parts eventually discarded. But with the firm shifting its focus to V12 development for the 1991 season, engine V805 was spared, thus making it the last Honda F1 V10 driven in competition by Senna. Monterey Car Week is a mecca for classic car collectors, where high-profile sales, concours events and historic races attract global attention. HRC has confirmed it plans to expand its memorabilia business in future, including in Japan, with more auctions of historically significant machines and components.
TimesLIVE
6 days ago
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
Ayrton Senna's final Honda V10 F1 engine goes under the hammer
Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) will auction off a significant piece of Formula One history next month — the final Honda V10 engine used in competition by legendary driver Ayrton Senna. The unit, engine number V805 of the RA100E series, powered Senna's McLaren Honda MP4/5B during the 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship. It will go on sale at the Bonhams Quail Auction in Carmel, California, on August 15 as part of the prestigious Monterey Car Week. HRC announced earlier this year it would launch a motorsport memorabilia programme aimed at offering collectors and enthusiasts access to authentic race cars, engines and components. The V805 engine is the first item in this initiative and it's an important one. Disassembled and preserved by HRC's own technicians, the engine will be auctioned in a custom-built display case containing all its original parts. It also comes with an HRC-issued certificate of authenticity. According to the company, Senna used this exact engine during warm up at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in October 1990 and again in the race at the season-ending Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide on November 4. Back in the day, Honda's F1 power units were typically returned to Japan for inspection and dismantling, with most parts eventually discarded. But with the firm shifting its focus to V12 development for the 1991 season, engine V805 was spared, thus making it the last Honda F1 V10 driven in competition by Senna. Monterey Car Week is a mecca for classic car collectors, where high-profile sales, concours events and historic races attract global attention.
Spectator
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The wit and beauty of bank notes
William Shakespeare was the first to feature, in 1970. Alan Turing was most recent, in 2021. But the Bank of England is now asking whether anyone else should appear, ever. The Bank's redesigning our bank notes and wants the public's thoughts on replacing the famous people who currently grace them with buildings, animals, films, historical events or even food. However the redesign ends up, let's hope the notes continue to display the wit and beauty they've traditionally had. The Churchill fiver, for instance. Look closely and you'll see that Big Ben stands at 3 p.m., the hour that Winston made his first speech to the Commons as Prime Minister. One of the security measures on Jane Austen's tenner (she's the latest person to replace Shakespeare on that note) is a quill that changes from purple to orange as you tilt it. The clear window on J.M.W. Turner's £20 is the shape of the fountains in Trafalgar Square, referencing 'The Fighting Temeraire'. And Alan Turing's birthday on the £50 is shown in binary, that being the way that his (indeed all) computers count. As it happens, every member of the quartet either died at 41 (Austen, Turing) or has been played on screen by Timothy Spall (Churchill, Turner). The same wit is shown by the public who use the notes. The £10 note is sometimes known as an Ayrton (Senna), while the smallest denomination's nickname of Lady Godiva led to City boys calling £15 a Commodore, as it was three times a lady. The Rainbow vegetarian café in Cambridge was less amused, however, when the plastic fiver was introduced in 2016. They refused to take it, as it contains traces of tallow. Blind people tell which note they're holding by raised dots in the top left corner (the fiver has none, the £10 two, the £20 three and the £50 four). Another clue is that the notes get bigger as you go through the values, unlike in the US where they're all the same size. The young Ray Charles insisted on being paid entirely in single dollar bills, to prevent cheating. Eric Clapton used to snort his drugs through rolled-up £20 notes, which he would then throw away. His gardener Arthur Eggby would retrieve them, dust them off and spend them on his holidays on the Isle of Wight. Meanwhile when Elton John played in the Soviet Union in 1979, he was paid £4,000 in notes so old that they had to be taken to the Bank of England to be changed for new ones. This is a service the Bank provides for anyone, and there's no time limit. Old notes used to be burned at the Essex factory that prints new ones, supplementing the site's heating. Until 1853 each note was personally signed by one of the Bank's cashiers. The monarch, who you might have thought had always been on them, has only appeared since 1960, meaning Elizabeth II was the first to see her own likeness. As if to celebrate the fact, she always carried a fiver (very occasionally a tenner) in her handbag, ready for next week's church collection. The note was ironed by a butler into a little square, folded so that you could only see the Queen's face.
Daily Maverick
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Maverick
F1: The Movie brings high-speed thrills to the big screen
F1: The Movie makes for a thrilling watch that will have fans on the edge of their seats. As for the plot? It could have done with a serious shift in gear. Formula 1 is at the top of its game. The sport has a global fan base of 826.5 million, superstar drivers and countries often vying for a place on its annual calendar – it commands worldwide attention. Formula 1's long and storied history has been both documented and fictionalised in films such as Rush, Senna, Ferrari, Schumacher, Netflix's Drive to Survive and now, F1: The Movie. With the championship in its 75th year, there is arguably no better time to capitalise on its hype than now. The film follows racing driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who is convinced to return to Formula 1 with the struggling APXGP F1 Team on the brink of being sold. He is partnered with rookie driver Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), whom he is encouraged to mentor and pass down his years of racing knowledge to – but the pair immediately clash, not only on the track but also in the garage, where tensions are high and neither is used to coming second. The production worked hard to make this a real blockbuster. Seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton was brought in as a producer for the film, and his expertise was aimed at making this the 'most authentic racing movie that's ever been made'. Chassis from Formula 2 vehicles were built up to look like Formula 1 cars, and filmmakers worked with the Mercedes F1 team to build custom bodywork according to real-world regulations. Cameras were then built into the models at 16 different places, giving viewers gripping perspectives of racing not seen before. 'It was a machine built for shooting a Formula 1 movie – completely custom, but a real race car at the heart of it,' director Joseph Kosinski told the F1 Explains podcast. Filming took place over two years at real race weekends and circuits including Silverstone, Spa and Yas Marina, and alongside real Formula 1 drivers on the grid, in the paddock, on the podium and on the track. The results are spectacular visuals that truly capture the spectacle and sheer magnitude of the sport. The audience is treated to shots of wide, open skies above hundreds of thousands of fans, the roar of the crowd rising up from the grandstands, the smoke of flares coloured in Ferrari red and Dutch orange. We ride onboard through every sweeping corner of the racetrack, and feel the pure speed when the pedal hits metal. There are heart-in-throat moments as drivers fight for position, the thrill when they win a tussle and shock when they crash out with sickening crunches of carbon fibre meeting barrier. This is undoubtedly a technically stunning film. However, the movie's push for authenticity is also what lets it down in many places. To be clear, there is a lot one could nitpick here, especially for a passionate F1 fan: there are moments where remaining faithful to regulations and rules of engagement has been abandoned in favour of drama and suspense, and that is to be expected in any Hollywood film. But the decision to film alongside real race teams and drivers blurs the lines between fact and fiction, and can take the viewer out of the experience when paired with the unrealistic moments mentioned above. It also lets the plot down: of course, Formula 1 drivers are not actors, and they aren't expected to be. This results in very little tension in the racing scenes, as viewers cannot be introduced to the rivalry between competitors that is fundamental to the sport and, by extension, any racing movie. One can forgive this lack of developed secondary characters due to the filmmakers' deliberate choice to favour authenticity. However, there isn't much character development for the stars of the film, either. Pitt plays a charismatic and driven driver who has been at the heights of racing fame and fallen to its lowest lows. He is a complicated character who takes massive risks, on and off the track, yet his motivations for being a driver remain elusive. Sonny will eventually admit that he is 'chasing that moment of peace… where everything goes quiet' and he is one with the car, but outside of that one line of script, viewers will be hard-pressed to understand what makes him want to be a racing driver. Joshua Pearce's story is similarly surface-level. Sonny's rookie teammate is portrayed as young and cocky, and while he undergoes some personal development in the course of the film, his storyline never digs deep into his passions, desires or drives. In one scene, he does point out that he had to work 'twice as hard' as other drivers to get to where he is, but the film does not explore that further, which is a shame. There are no other Black men other than Hamilton on the grid, in the film or in the real world, and filmmakers missed an opportunity to present multidimensional, passionate racers of colour – something that has been woefully overlooked in the media for years. Kerry Condon, who plays the team's technical director, Kate McKenna, is also a victim of poor writing. To prepare for her role, Condon worked with former Formula 1 strategists Bernie Collins and Ruth Buscombe – both women who have been instrumental in proving that motorsport is not just a man's game. Unfortunately, Kate is reduced to Sonny's love interest who is only capable of building a fast car once he starts working with her. Other female characters don't fare too well either. Jodie (Callie Cooke), a pit crew mechanic and one of the only team members to have a speaking role, is repeatedly presented as out of her depth as she fumbles around the garage, bumping into drivers and misplacing equipment. Simone Ashley, who spent the past year promoting the film, was cut from the final product almost entirely. Again, filmmakers had an opportunity to break down the stigma around who belongs in racing, and it is a shame that Kate and Jodie were not allowed to shine as smart, strong women in motorsport in their own right. This film brings Formula 1 to the masses, yet it lets a core demographic down by reducing women to stereotypes that women like Collins and Buscombe have been working to dismantle. Ultimately, followers of the sport may leave the cinema disappointed for valid reasons. At the same time, there is a lot the movie gets right. The excitement of fans is tangible, the pure speed is exhilarating, the racing is gritty and dramatic. These are things that make the sport so special. DM
