Latest news with #motorRacing
Bloomberg
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
F1 the Sport Should Be More Like F1 the Movie
When the filmmakers behind the movie F1 decided to make the most authentic motor racing film ever seen, they reached out to Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion. Hamilton signed on as a producer, and — with his input — the breathtaking, hyper-realistic racing has made the film a hit. However, F1 's commitment to authenticity isn't absolute. For years, Hamilton has been critical of Formula One over its lack of diversity and gender equality. Rather than depict that reality, Hamilton pushed the producers to hire a cast that reflects "how [Formula One] should be in the future, or should be now," he explained in 2023, when the film was still in production.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Harrison Ford entertainingly reveals Glenmorangie as Official Whisky of Formula 1®
- "Nice", says actor in witty verdict on whisky's pioneering partnership - GLASGOW, Scotland, July 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Glenmorangie Highland single malt Scotch whisky today becomes the Official Whisky of Formula 1® – the world's most prestigious motor-racing competition. Marking the union of two icons dedicated to taking their crafts to new heights and steeped in heritage, this landmark alliance is part of a decade-long collaboration forged by Glenmorangie's parent company LVMH and Formula 1®. Glenmorangie's partnership is revealed by another icon – Harrison Ford – star of the whisky's brand campaign, in an entertaining short film infused with his trademark wit. Meanwhile, Glenmorangie will celebrate the collaboration trackside this weekend, at the FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2025, by sharing a Harrison Ford-inspired photo-moment with racegoers. For more than 180 years, Glenmorangie's whisky creators have been relentlessly imaginative in their pursuit of excellence. They distil their more elegant spirit in Scotland's tallest stills on their mission to continually bring new flavours and possibilities to whisky, making Glenmorangie the world's most highly awarded Highland single malt. Formula 1®, which this year celebrates 75 years as the pinnacle of motor racing, is Glenmorangie's kindred spirit. Devoted to setting new standards in performance, and with an equally proud heritage, Formula 1® is a sport based in innovation and relentless progress. Ford, who plays himself in Glenmorangie's humorous brand campaign Once Upon a Time in Scotland, marks the partnership in a new short film. And, with the same amusing understatement he uses for Glenmorangie's whisky, Ford blesses the collaboration in a word: "Nice". Glenmorangie, which strongly advocates only alcohol-free driving, will captivate racegoers with experiences and serves celebrating the partners' shared commitment to excellence, throughout the 2025 Formula 1® season. Fittingly, the partnership will be marked with a special activation at the Formula 1® FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2025 at Silverstone, from July 4, 2025. As the site of the first official Formula 1 World Championship in 1950, Silverstone holds a special place in F1 heritage. There, fans will be invited to enjoy an exclusive Glenmorangie experience showcasing Glenmorangie cocktails and the exclusive Eagle Speedster Jaguar E-Type used by Harrison Ford in the whisky's brand film. Racegoers will be invited to recreate a moment from the film by taking a seat in this classic car, revered for its craftsmanship. Caspar MacRae, President and CEO of Glenmorangie, said: "I am thrilled to set in motion Glenmorangie's landmark partnership with Formula 1 – the pinnacle of motor racing. We share with F1 a great pride in our heritage and an unstoppable desire to reach new heights of excellence. We look forward to spectacular performances and imaginative serves and hope our collaboration will inspire and excite racegoers throughout Formula 1's 75th anniversary year – and beyond." Emily Prazer, Chief Commercial Officer at Formula 1, said: "As part of our 10-year deal with LVMH, we are delighted to welcome Glenmorangie from the Moët Hennessy Maisons collection as the Official Whisky of Formula 1. We have both been mastering our craft for many years, and we share a commitment to refinement and perfection delivered over time. With our mutual respect for tradition, it is absolutely fitting that we are launching our collaboration at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone - the circuit that hosted our first race 75 years ago - and from there around the world for many years to come." Video - - - View original content to download multimedia:
The Guardian
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I was angry at the world': Damon Hill on pain of his father's death and how it fuelled his rise
'It was awful and to this day I feel the tension that I experienced,' Damon Hill says of the moment he heard on television in November 1975 that his father, Graham, the two-time Formula One world champion, had died in a plane accident. Hill had to leave the living room to find his mother and tell her what had happened. 'It was like having a nuclear bomb and I dropped it on my mum. Of course it was accentuated by the fact I was 15, which is when you haven't got the defences to deal with it.' The extent of Hill's devastation is captured in a moving new Sky documentary which tracks his decision to follow his father into motor racing and eventually match him by winning the F1 championship in 1996. Early on in the film his wife, Georgie, remembers how, when they started going out together, 21-year-old Damon seemed to be one of the saddest people she had ever met. 'I was angry at the world,' Hill tells me. 'I was furious. I'd had a belly-full of growing up as the son of a famous racing driver and people being interested in me because of that. I just wanted a normal life where people didn't give a damn about that and I could establish who and what I was. Georgie was unimpressed by whoever my dad might have been, and by the racing world, so she was an oasis.' Six months later Georgie suddenly realised why he seemed so bereft. They drove past the graveyard where Hill's father was buried and, finally, the dam broke. 'I remember it like yesterday,' Hill says. 'I thought we were going on a trip down memory lane and I'd show her where I used to live. It hit me completely unexpectedly. Until then I had moments where I wept about my dad but they were rare. But there's something about crying which soothes and having a good old sob is a good thing.' In the film he speaks of his fleeting desire to have been on the plane with his father. Death, at 15, seemed easier than life. 'I felt that immediately after the accident,' Hill says. 'I was very upset and I wanted to be with my dad. If that meant being on the plane that would have been fine. I spent a lot of time next to my dad, in the co-pilot's seat, and I loved being with him because he was a fascinating guy.' Did Hill have counselling? 'The closest we got to that was a day or two after he died. My school chaplain arrived at our house and wanted to console me in some way. I was really touched but there was no grief counselling in those days. People hadn't even heard of it.' As a kid Hill had never wanted to be a racing driver as he was smitten with motorbikes. But in his mid‑20s he resolved to follow his father into F1. 'It came from a fairly juvenile sense of loss and attempting to recover something of the past. We had lost a life, and our world, and I wanted to try and recapture that in some way.' He told Georgie that, one day, he would become world champion. Hill laughs. 'I was always saying daft things like that. But I am determined and you need lots of determination to get up that ladder in F1.' Hill was 30 when his F1 career began in 1991 as a test driver for Williams. His big break came two years later when he was promoted to race for the team alongside the newly signed Alain Prost, then a triple world champion, who replaced Nigel Mansell. There is an astonishing, if quaintly amusing, scene in the documentary where Hill films Georgie as she reads the contract as it spools out of their old fax machine. He keeps the video rolling even though he can barely believe that Frank Williams had stipulated that Hill should pay for his own flights and accommodation. Hill smiles and says: 'Back then we thought faxes were space age technology.' But he adds insight into the machinations of F1. 'Frank was particularly clever and I'd said to him, because I wasn't terribly impressed by how much he was going to pay me: 'What about the travel?' He said: 'We'll pay for it.' I said: 'What about Georgie?' And he said: 'OK. We'll fix that.' Now I've got to pay for my own travel! So you realise very quickly in Formula One you've got to pay attention to the detail.' I tell Hill how interviewing Williams turned out to be one of my tougher gigs. He grins sympathetically. 'I could never have a conversation with Frank. People used to say they'd spoken to Frank and it was all lovely and I'd go: 'Honestly?' I couldn't get two words out of him and it would dry up and he'd stare at his tea. I'd say: 'Do you want me to go now?'' Hill showed incredible resolve, and great skill, to become world champion for Williams. But, near the end of that 1996 season, Williams coolly announced that Hill would be replaced the following year by Heinz‑Harald Frentzen. The team were about to begin a partnership with BMW and employing a German driver made business sense. Hill was axed but he clinched the championship anyway and left Williams as the team's second most successful driver, with 21 race victories, behind Mansell. 'You can't condemn people for having to do that when they've got a massive company to run,' Hill says. 'I think he did feel something – not remorse, but he was uncomfortable having done that to me. Latterly, he said something like: 'We should have kept you on.' It was a little late, but nevertheless appreciated. He said some nice things about me after I'd gone. He called me a tough bastard, which is a compliment from Frank.' The documentary offers fascinating insights into Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. Archive footage shows how Schumacher was irked by Hill's challenge. There is a scene where, after Hill won a race, Schumacher slaps his rival's cap. It is meant to look playful but it's a petty gesture tinged with frustration and anger. 'He was embarrassed and didn't know how to respond to someone who had beaten him,' Hill says of Schumacher. 'It was an awkward moment. I tried to have conversations with him and it wasn't possible. Our values were different. 'I was nowhere near as good as him, and I'm never going to pretend that I was. But having him as a foil brought out the most I could get out of myself, and I know what it's like to get driven absolutely to the maximum. Sometimes I was a match for him but, aged 36, it was hard. He was 26 and I was fighting the clock.' Georgie reveals how Senna, who had switched to Williams to drive alongside Hill, spoke especially kindly to her just before he died at Imola in 1994. He told her not to worry about Damon and reassured her that he would do well with Williams. 'We had the loss of [the Austrian driver] Roland Ratzenberger the day before. Everyone was conscious of that awful presence and I think he wanted to reassure Georgie about me and the team. It's very poignant.' Hill was a pallbearer at Senna's funeral and the memory still moves him today. 'Oh my God,' he says, 'ambassadors and presidents had come from all over South America, all over the world, to this state funeral. This was not a racing driver. This was someone who was the best thing about Brazil. At a time when they needed a hero, he was their leading light. He represented hope for Brazil and still does that today.' Does any driver today carry anything like the hinterland of Senna and other F1 greats? 'It's too early to say. They're still very young, in their 20s, but I think back to when you had James Hunt and Niki Lauda, Prost and Senna. They seemed different men. But that's maybe because I'm getting older and policemen are getting younger.' Is Max Verstappen approaching the heights of Senna and Schumacher? 'Yes, he's in that mould. Max is disciplined and honed, trained to fight. But the whole point of the sport is to be up against a foe or nemesis who defines you. I don't think F1 has the same gravitas as the era we're talking about. From their perspective this is serious combat – but I don't know if anybody's matched up to Max's seriousness yet. Until they do, he hasn't got the foil. In the past you had to be a tough old boot to take on Alan Jones, Lauda and Hunt when he was on fire. They were brutally serious. 'Max and [43-year-old] Fernando Alonso are the same. Max always gives it 100%. Same with Fernando, who is cunning and clever. I wouldn't want to play cards with him.' Which of the younger drivers have impressed him? 'Oscar Piastri is interesting. He has a calmness and confidence in himself that's not overstated. Charles Leclerc is super-talented, super-quick but he's maybe too comfortable in the Ferrari. Carlos Sainz Jr [who lost his seat at Ferrari to Lewis Hamilton] has got that mettle which makes him fight in whatever position you put him in.' And Lando Norris, who is locked in battle for the championship with Piastri, his team-mate, and Verstappen? 'Lando is very talented,' Hill says. 'He's gifted and smart, but I don't sense he's concerned enough that he might lose it. I would be worried he's going to come off second-best to Oscar. I don't know if he realises the consequences. You just can't be beaten.' In his quest to heal himself, and match his father, Hill would not be beaten in 1996. He recalls how, before a crucial race at Suzuka in Japan, he said a few words of prayer to Senna. 'An extraordinary thing happened,' Hill says as he remembers driving magisterially, like he had never driven before, as if he had found a mysterious way to channel the brilliance of Senna. 'I have no real explanation for what happened other than we are constrained by our conscious brain to be cautious and our limbic system is much more capable than we ever give it credit for. 'If we can just get ourselves out of the way, we can do extraordinary things, and making that little prayer freed me up. I couldn't find any other way of going quicker. I was going to get beaten by Michael. I wouldn't say it was an out-of-body experience because I was there in the car, but my hands and my feet were just completely free. It was like someone had suddenly taken off the handbrake.' Hill became world champion, at the age of 36, and he says: 'I'm proud of myself for having achieved it, and it's a great accolade to get to the top of any sport. I'm constantly reminded of the respect that accords but I paid my dues. I put myself through a lot to get there.' HILL will air on Sky and streaming service NOW from Wednesday 2 July.
The Guardian
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I was angry at the world': Damon Hill on pain of his father's death and how it fuelled his rise
'It was awful and to this day I feel the tension that I experienced,' Damon Hill says of the moment he heard on television in November 1975 that his father, Graham, the two-time Formula One world champion, had died in a plane accident. Hill had to leave the living room to find his mother and tell her what had happened. 'It was like having a nuclear bomb and I dropped it on my mum. Of course it was accentuated by the fact I was 15, which is when you haven't got the defences to deal with it.' The extent of Hill's devastation is captured in a moving new Sky documentary which tracks his decision to follow his father into motor racing and eventually match him by winning the F1 championship in 1996. Early on in the film his wife, Georgie, remembers how he seemed to be one of the saddest people she had ever met. 'I was angry at the world,' Hill tells me. 'I was furious. I'd had a belly-full of growing up as the son of a famous racing driver and people being interested in me because of that. I just wanted a normal life where people didn't give a damn about that and I could establish who and what I was. Georgie was unimpressed by whoever my dad might have been, and by the racing world, so she was an oasis.' Six months after they started seeing each other Georgie suddenly realised why he seemed so bereft. They drove past the graveyard where Hill's father was buried and, finally, the dam broke. 'I remember it like yesterday,' Hill says. 'I thought we were going on a trip down memory lane and I'd show her where I used to live. It hit me completely unexpectedly. Until then I had moments where I wept about my dad but they were rare. But there's something about crying which soothes and having a good old sob is a good thing.' In the film he speaks of his fleeting desire to have been on the plane with his father. Death, at 15, seemed easier than life. 'I felt that immediately after the accident,' Hill says. 'I was very upset and I wanted to be with my dad. If that meant being on the plane that would have been fine. I spent a lot of time next to my dad, in the co-pilot's seat, and I loved being with him because he was a fascinating guy.' Did Hill have counselling? 'The closest we got to that was a day or two after he died. My school chaplain arrived at our house and wanted to console me in some way. I was really touched but there was no grief counselling in those days. People hadn't even heard of it.' As a kid Hill had never wanted to be a racing driver as he was smitten with motorbikes. But in his mid‑20s he resolved to follow his father into F1. 'It came from a fairly juvenile sense of loss and attempting to recover something of the past. We had lost a life, and our world, and I wanted to try and recapture that in some way.' He told Georgie that, one day, he would become world champion. Hill laughs. 'I was always saying daft things like that. But I am determined and you need lots of determination to get up that ladder in F1.' Hill was 30 when his F1 career began in 1991 as a test driver for Williams. His big break came two years later when he was promoted to race for the team alongside the newly signed Alain Prost, then a triple world champion, who replaced Nigel Mansell. There is an astonishing, if quaintly amusing, scene in the documentary where Hill films Georgie as she reads the contract as it spools out of their old fax machine. He keeps the video rolling even though he can barely believe that Frank Williams had stipulated that Hill should pay for his own flights and accommodation. Hill smiles and says: 'Back then we thought faxes were space age technology.' But he adds insight into the machinations of F1. 'Frank was particularly clever and I'd said to him, because I wasn't terribly impressed by how much he was going to pay me: 'What about the travel?' He said: 'We'll pay for it.' I said: 'What about Georgie?' And he said: 'OK. We'll fix that.' Now I've got to pay for my own travel! So you realise very quickly in Formula One you've got to pay attention to the detail.' I tell Hill how interviewing Williams turned out to be one of my tougher gigs. He grins sympathetically. 'I could never have a conversation with Frank. People used to say they'd spoken to Frank and it was all lovely and I'd go: 'Honestly?' I couldn't get two words out of him and it would dry up and he'd stare at his tea. I'd say: 'Do you want me to go now?'' Hill showed incredible resolve, and great skill, to become world champion for Williams. But, near the end of that 1996 season, Williams coolly announced that Hill would be replaced the following year by Heinz‑Harald Frentzen. The team were about to begin a partnership with BMW and employing a German driver made business sense. Hill was axed but he clinched the championship anyway and left Williams as the team's second most successful driver, with 21 race victories, behind Mansell. 'You can't condemn people for having to do that when they've got a massive company to run,' Hill says. 'I think he did feel something – not remorse, but he was uncomfortable having done that to me. Latterly, he said something like: 'We should have kept you on.' It was a little late, but nevertheless appreciated. He said some nice things about me after I'd gone. He called me a tough bastard, which is a compliment from Frank.' The documentary offers fascinating insights into Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. Archive footage shows how Schumacher was irked by Hill's challenge. There is a scene where, after Hill won a race, Schumacher slaps his rival's cap. It is meant to look playful but it's a petty gesture tinged with frustration and anger. 'He was embarrassed and didn't know how to respond to someone who had beaten him,' Hill says of Schumacher. 'It was an awkward moment. I tried to have conversations with him and it wasn't possible. Our values were different. 'I was nowhere near as good as him, and I'm never going to pretend that I was. But having him as a foil brought out the most I could get out of myself, and I know what it's like to get driven absolutely to the maximum. Sometimes I was a match for him but, aged 36, it was hard. He was 26 and I was fighting the clock.' Georgie reveals how Senna, who had switched to Williams to drive alongside Hill, spoke especially kindly to her just before he died at Imola in 1994. He told her not to worry about Damon and reassured her that he would do well with Williams. 'We had the loss of [the Austrian driver] Roland Ratzenberger the day before. Everyone was conscious of that awful presence and I think he wanted to reassure Georgie about me and the team. It's very poignant.' Hill was a pallbearer at Senna's funeral and the memory still moves him today. 'Oh my God,' he says, 'ambassadors and presidents had come from all over South America, all over the world, to this state funeral. This was not a racing driver. This was someone who was the best thing about Brazil. At a time when they needed a hero, he was their leading light. He represented hope for Brazil and still does that today.' Does any driver today carry anything like the hinterland of Senna and other F1 greats? 'It's too early to say. They're still very young, in their 20s, but I think back to when you had James Hunt and Niki Lauda, Prost and Senna. They seemed different men. But that's maybe because I'm getting older and policemen are getting younger.' Is Max Verstappen approaching the heights of Senna and Schumacher? 'Yes, he's in that mould. Max is disciplined and honed, trained to fight. But the whole point of the sport is to be up against a foe or nemesis who defines you. I don't think F1 has the same gravitas as the era we're talking about. From their perspective this is serious combat – but I don't know if anybody's matched up to Max's seriousness yet. Until they do, he hasn't got the foil. In the past you had to be a tough old boot to take on Alan Jones, Lauda and Hunt when he was on fire. They were brutally serious. 'Max and [43-year-old] Fernando Alonso are the same. Max always gives it 100%. Same with Fernando, who is cunning and clever. I wouldn't want to play cards with him.' Which of the younger drivers have impressed him? 'Oscar Piastri is interesting. He has a calmness and confidence in himself that's not overstated. Charles Leclerc is super-talented, super-quick but he's maybe too comfortable in the Ferrari. Carlos Sainz Jr [who lost his seat at Ferrari to Lewis Hamilton] has got that mettle which makes him fight in whatever position you put him in.' And Lando Norris, who is locked in battle for the championship with Piastri, his team-mate, and Verstappen? 'Lando is very talented,' Hill says. 'He's gifted and smart, but I don't sense he's concerned enough that he might lose it. I would be worried he's going to come off second-best to Oscar. I don't know if he realises the consequences. You just can't be beaten.' In his quest to heal himself, and match his father, Hill would not be beaten in 1996. He recalls how, before a crucial race at Suzuka in Japan, he said a few words of prayer to Senna. 'An extraordinary thing happened,' Hill says as he remembers driving magisterially, like he had never driven before, as if he had found a mysterious way to channel the brilliance of Senna. 'I have no real explanation for what happened other than we are constrained by our conscious brain to be cautious and our limbic system is much more capable than we ever give it credit for. 'If we can just get ourselves out of the way, we can do extraordinary things, and making that little prayer freed me up. I couldn't find any other way of going quicker. I was going to get beaten by Michael. I wouldn't say it was an out-of-body experience because I was there in the car, but my hands and my feet were just completely free. It was like someone had suddenly taken off the handbrake.' Hill became world champion, at the age of 36, and he says: 'I'm proud of myself for having achieved it, and it's a great accolade to get to the top of any sport. I'm constantly reminded of the respect that accords but I paid my dues. I put myself through a lot to get there.' HILL will air on Sky and streaming service NOW from Wednesday 2 July.
Times
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The 10 best motor-racing films to watch after F1
The motor-racing film is having a moment — Brad Pitt's F1 is out in cinemas, while this week a new documentary, Hill, looks deep into Damon Hill's 1990s triumphs when he stepped out of the shadow of his father, Graham (Sky, from Wed). Time, then, to consider the pantheon of pedal-to-the-metal movies. This list is not about films with the best car chases or wheel-screeching heist getaways, but rather films specifically about competitive motor racing, whether on the track or off it. Some are for committed motor-sports fans, some will appeal to all, and no doubt some will appal petrolhead purists. If so, rev your engines and floor it to the comments. A highly suspect contender perhaps, but anyone saying this is the worst motor-racing film hasn't seen Cannonball Run II. A 1980s VHS guilty pleasure, this probably hasn't dated well, but if it does have a sexist streak — the swivel-eyed doc leering at Farrah Fawcett's ditzy tree-lover, for example — it's not as bad as you might think because the Spandex-suited Adrienne Barbeau in a Lamborghini actually triumphs over Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Roger Moore (in a DB5) in their coast-to-coast race. The entire cast appears to be half-drunk. Prime Video The only thing anyone remembers about this is that it was the one in which Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman met, and that it was 'Top Gun on wheels'. Cruise is Cole Trickle (who came up with that name?), the hot up-and-coming driver, while Robert Duvall, adding a bit of class, is his ageing mentor Harry Hogge (ditto) amid the car-smashing dangers of Nascar. If nothing else, in Show Me Heaven it has the best theme song in any motor-racing drama. Paramount+ Easy Rider on four wheels rather than two. It involves a race through the American southwest, with hip dudes Dennis Wilson and James Taylor (yes, the musicians) tearing along in a 1955 Chevrolet against Warren Oates's TV producer in a Pontiac. 'Their lives begin at 140mph,' screams the trailer (could a 1955 Chevy go this fast?), and it's got something or other to say about America's existential crisis in the Vietnam era. Of its time, but if you want to sound hip while talking motor-racing movies, namedrop this one. Blu-ray • The 30 best sports films of all time — ranked The franchise-spawning original is perhaps more a crime movie on wheels — being about high-speed lunatics who hijack lorries at 170mph — but there were actual street car races in it too. And you would be hard-pressed to find a movie that burns rubber more screamingly or more dramatically, with Dodge Chargers and souped-up Mitsubishis flipping over to a booming Limp Bizkit racket. Sky/Now Authentic, plot-free and lacking any dialogue for about 45 minutes, this epic flop in which Steve McQueen shows the world how much he really loves fast cars will bore some to tears. 'When you're racing, it's life. Anything before or after is just waiting,' he intones, a profundity for petrolheads, whowill watch this for footage shot at the actual 1970 Le Mans, with all its insanely cool cars (that Porsche 917K!). Paramount+ • The best films of 2025 so far McQueen's Le Mans may be the epitome of cool, but it doesn't beat Kenneth More and Kay Kendall in a 1905 Spyker with a St Bernard in the back. This is from the golden age of English eccentricity as two couples take each other on in a Brighton-to-London vintage car race, peaking with Dinah Sheridan's immortal spoonerism about the men 'hauling like brooligans'. The original wacky-races film and arguably still the best. ITVX A divisive one — it's a bit silly at times and your enjoyment depends on how seriously you can take Christian Bale's vaguely Brummie accent, which is a bit jarring in this 1960s world of all-American Mustangs. 'Bloody 'ell, learn to drive, you pillock!' he yells, burning round a track in the sexiest sports car you'll ever see (a Ford GT40). But for my money this is terrific entertainment — certainly more so than Adam Driver's po-faced Ferrari of 2023 — with Matt Damon a breezy Carrol Shelby and Tracy Letts amusingly boo-hiss as Henry Ford II. Giddy up! Disney+ Another that's perhaps purely for motoring fans because the plot is an irrelevance — James Garner's troubled American is driving for a Japanese F1 team. Instead you can play spot-the-F1-cameos: Graham Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and so on. The exhilarating race scenes also won Oscars, the pioneering use of on-car cameras bringing you the kind of close-to-the-tarmac speed thriller replicated in films like Mad Max. Rent • Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews The revved-up James Hunt v Niki Lauda biopic came from the director Ron Howard, so its' no surprise that it's painted in bold, primary colours. 'The closer you are to death, the more alive you feel,' declares Hunt, a himbo ladies' man with the looks of Thor (being played by the blond beefcake Chris Hemsworth). He's quite a contrast to Lauda the rat-faced monomaniac, but as the latter, Daniel Brühl makes this something far more interesting. And his lung procedure after being near-melted in his 1976 crash is suitably wince-inducing. Netflix Asif Kapadia's character study of the Formula 1 icon is more than nostalgia for a golden era of F1 (although there is that), and it's not just a documentary for motor-racing fans. Partly because it has no talking heads getting in the way, partly because Ayrton Senna was such a soulful and fascinating figure. But most of all, as we follow his momentous clashes with Alain Prost, and so on, we know what's coming. The final footage of him, in the driver's seat at Imola before his fatal crash, then his cockpit-eye view right before it, is haunting and emotionally poleaxing. Netflix
