Michael Fassbender: Road to Le Mans

[Digga]

Anyone else watching this? First episode was 11th October on Porsche's YouTube channel. The films track the progress of Michael Fassbender, as he learns to race the 991 RSR in a bid to race in the 2020 Le Mans 24 hour.

Interesting to watch. I remember him being pretty handy in the Top Gear Kia C'eed (third overall behind Rowan Atkinson and Matt LeBlanc).

It seems a pretty honest account of how a (reasonably good) rookie might try to find their feet in racing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBbAfDyC8f8

[stuthemong]

Thanks for posting. He looks to be a reasonable rookie, fun to watch & feel for him in that first 'd' oh' moment, must have wanted the ground to swallow him up!

[Digga]

Yes, it's quite brutal at times. Fair play to him for allowing it to be shot like this. Zero 'Hollywood' bullst.

I posted because even though I was looking out for this, I missed its release.

[bunchofkeys]

Thanks for the link.
Not a massive fan of Fassbender, but this is very watchable.

[theredbaron]

thats great. thanks for sharing.

[Ragatha christie]

Thats great, I like him!

[Digga]

bunchofkeys said:

very watchable.

It's interesting; you see the difference between being someon who can drive pretty well on a track and being a racer - the difficulty of learning racecraft.

There's quite a refreshing degree of humility and honesty, on behalf of both the driver and also the team. (and, I guess, Porsche too).

[Kev_Mk3]

Interesting, will have to go find this later

[Steve Rance]

The Elephant in the room is that not everyone has several million pounds in their back pocket or means to raise it as a complete novice to get there. It’s an interesting watch but bear in mind it’s the easiest possible golden ticket route. Guys with far more talent never get there.

That’s motor racing I suppose.

[Digga]

Steve Rance said:

The Elephant in the room is that not everyone has several million pounds in their back pocket or means to raise it as a complete novice to get there. It’s an interesting watch but bear in mind it’s the easiest possible golden ticket route. Guys with far more talent never get there.

That’s motor racing I suppose.

Yes, this is true. There is no doubt he's starting from the ground up, but just to get there requires a degree of luck and privilege.

But then access to money and knowing the right people has always been part of motorsport.

It still makes for an interesting watch.

[geeks]

Steve Rance said:

The Elephant in the room is that not everyone has several million pounds in their back pocket or means to raise it as a complete novice to get there. It’s an interesting watch but bear in mind it’s the easiest possible golden ticket route. Guys with far more talent never get there.

That’s motor racing I suppose.

Thus it ever was! He isn't the first "celeb" to do this either.

Its not really the elephant in the room more of a hard reality of racing, anyone who does it, if they were honest would do the exact same thing given the budget, I would start tomorrow if I had the money as I know I don't have what it takes on talent alone (I can considered to be average at best!)

Back to the video, nice watch, was impressed with his work in the wet!

[130R]

Episode 2 is on there as well if people weren't aware

[Steve Rance]

geeks said:

Thus it ever was! He isn't the first "celeb" to do this either.

Its not really the elephant in the room more of a hard reality of racing, anyone who does it, if they were honest would do the exact same thing given the budget, I would start tomorrow if I had the money as I know I don't have what it takes on talent alone (I can considered to be average at best!)

Back to the video, nice watch, was impressed with his work in the wet!

Yep, it’s the way of the world.

[prand]

bunchofkeys said:

Thanks for the link.
Not a massive fan of Fassbender, but this is very watchable.

Thanks from me too. Is there a film genre with actors making films about them racing their own cars (Steve McQueen must feature in this list somehow, Paul Newman too)? I really liked Eric Bana's film about him racing his Ford Falcon. Patrick Dempsey seems to have done pretty well racing in various series with a Porsche too, though I don't think that's been made into a film.

[Digga]

130R said:

Episode 2 is on there as well if people weren't aware

Without giving anything away, the incident in that race reminded me, exactly, of trying to learn to race on Gran Turismo years ago.

[MDL111]

Looks rather expensive, but good fun

[caminator11]

Don't see how this is an elephant in the room.

Watching someone self made spend their own money to do something they enjoy

vs

Watching someone's parents spend their own money to live vicariously through their kids


If I'm lucky enough to put away enough cash over the next few years, i'll do this too.

[Steve Rance]

There will be drivers on the grid that have neither. I have a little more respect for them. Not all racing drivers are or were fortunate enough to be in that position but many have their careers ended by being driven into by drivers with huge budgets fast tracking in formulae that they do not have the experience to race in. I’m not deriding Mr Fassbender at all, but for many drivers with more talent struggling to find their way to a drive at Lemans his circumstances are very much an Elephant in the room.

[pete.g]

Steve Rance said:

There will be drivers on the grid that have neither. I have a little more respect for them. Not all racing drivers are or were fortunate enough to be in that position but many have their careers ended by being driven into by drivers with huge budgets fast tracking in formulae that they do not have the experience to race in. I’m not deriding Mr Fassbender at all, but for many drivers with more talent struggling to find their way to a drive at Lemans his circumstances are very much an Elephant in the room.

I appreciate your point, but he is an actor and that is not the easiest job in the world at which to become successful - there are plenty of hard knocks.

We don't yet really know how much talent he actually has. He may not make it to LM at all.

It's only an elephant in the room if it's not acknowledged, and I don't think this is the case in this instance.

[Paul_M3]

I’m interested in how competitive a ‘normal’ person can be with the right amount of training and support. (And time / money obviously)

It may or may not have anything to do with me dreaming about how I’d have spent that £170m lottery win a couple of weeks ago...

Could somebody like me, who’s done a few track days (but is certainly no racing driver) have ended up racing in a GT series and not actually be driving round at the back 5 seconds a lap off the pace.