Motorsport Monday: From Hollywood to Le Mans

F1 the movie premiere

No Formula One race weekend this weekend, which may be a great break for the drivers but not for us fans who now have to find something interesting to do with our weekends. The bright side of this is we were able to actually sleep in on a sunday, rather than get up at the crack of dawn just to watch 20 cars race around in a funny circle.

Even with no F1 race to keep us entertained this weekend, we still have some fun motorsport news from this last week. First on the list this week is the F1 movie. Which I am sure you’re either excited about or you are waiting for all this propaganda to be over with.

The F1 movie premiere was this last week, and was held in the heart of New York City. The drivers meet the glitz and glam of the red carpet…grey carpet. I am still bitter that they didn’t commit to a red carpet since red is literally a signature F1 colour. It is the colour of the logo! Regardless they went with this sad ugly grey colour for the carpet.

Most of the driver’s were there, minus Max Verstappen, but we will get into that later on. The actors in the movie were also there to celebrate alongside the fans that attended the event. Taking the time to greet them, take photos, and to sign autographs. Just like any other public event, the media was also there with several different media outlets to cover the event and interview actors and drivers that walked the carpet.

We must take a moment to mourn the loss of 90s and early 2000s movie premiere red carpets. This carpet event didn’t have that same feeling as premieres once had. The outfits were minimal and not over the top, only a few outfits really stood out, one of them being Lewis Hamilton’s. It was overall a very calm environment. Which granted if you’re a driver getting thrown into this world or a longtime actor, the environment must have been less stressful and overall pleasant. I am beading around the bush a bit but movie premiers used to be a bit chaotic and over the top glamorous. The cars they arrived in, the outfits that had you talking about it for weeks, the amount of flashes from cameras, and ohh yeah…the carpet actually being red. I feel that era of Hollywood is over . One cool thing I can admit that the F1 movie carpet did was have the carpet full of F1 cars. A special touch that I did like. Hopefully the movie will still be good. The movie critics did give it a high rating after the premier which should be a good sign. Rotten tomatoes rating it at a high 89%

“Driven by Brad Pitt’s laidback magnetism and sporting a souped-up engine courtesy of Joseph Kosinski’s kinetic direction, F1 The Movie brings vintage cool across the finish line.”-Critics Consensus

Max Verstappen skipped the glitz and glam of the carpet, which nobody is surprised. That man will do anything to get out of media events. He is simply there to race and go home. Respect.

Instead of going to the movie premier, he decided to head to the famous track of Spa, which is located in Belgium, to test the Aston Martin GT3 race car. Not only that but to also spend time with his newborn daughter, as he expressed many times before, that family comes first.

Moving on from F1, the famous 24 hour Le Mans happened this past weekend. For the third year in a row, Ferrari claimed victory. Ferrari winning everything but F1. AF Corse-entered Ferrari 499P driven by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Phil Hanson completed the grueling 24 hour race with 387 laps. Just barely beating the no.6 Porsche Penske by 14 seconds.

Ferrari returned to the endurance race in 2023, and each year they had a different driver lineup and chassis. This victory is memorable on many accounts because Kubica also becomes the first Polish driver to win the event, and driver Ye is the first Chinese victor. Another round of applause, cheers, and champagne are in order for this year's 24h of Le Mans.

In Nascar news, Nascar plans for a 2026 street race in San Diego. This will be the first time. There are current talks with the city, planning and creating the layout for the course. Which is supposed to either be through the downtown area or alongside the waterfront. An official amount is to be expected as soon as July.

This move comes after the closure of the well known Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, and is meant to serve as a replacement. With moving to San Diego, Nascar hopes to gain new fans and the city hopes to boost local tourism.

Lastly, our news circles back to Ferrari. They released a teaser to social media. Something is releasing June 25th.

Teaser from Ferrari's social media

That concludes this week’s Motorsport Monday, see you next week!