While the F1 season has taken its annual summer break, it can be pretty tough for fans to entertain themselves on what would be a race weekend. Luckily there is a new film that can ease the tension for current F1 fans and ones that are trying to get into the sport. The film “Gran Turismo” will premiere in theaters starting August 25th. The film follows the life of current Super GT Racer Jann Mardenborough. Mardenborough had never once taken Motorsport seriously until he participated in the GT Academy competition in 2011. During the competition, he managed 90,000 other entrants and won the competition. As the winner, he was able to do a victory drive with Nissan at the Dubai 24 hour race.
Mardenborough even received the opportunity to race in the FIA European Formula Three Championship in 2013 with Carlin Motorsport. In 2013, he also competed for the Le Mans 24 hour race and placed third. After his first and only season in F3, he joined GP3 series and was signed by the Red Bull Junior Team development program in 2014.
Mardenborough’s story is astonishing to many due to the natural talent that pours out of him. Without ever having raced a car in real life and only having the PlayStation 3 game as a reference, Mardenborough has been able to achieve a lot of success. In an interview done in 2012 with GranTurismo.com, he talks about how the game has helped in real life with the car. The game has allowed him to get a feel for how the car can be and how to have better control of the car.
Mardenborough’s story has not always been an easy one. In 2015, he was involved in an accident at the Nürburing that caused the death of a spectator at the race. His car ran off the track and into the stands and caused multiple injuries that day. In an interview for Express.co.uk regarding the “Gran Turismo” movie, Mardenborough mentioned how important it was for the movie to include that traumatic yet important event. He stated, “It is my life, I lived through that, A very dark moment in my career, a very dark moment in my life as a person.” Deaths in motorsport are sadly a common thing. From Ayrton Senna in 1994, Jules Bianchi in 2015, Anthoine Hubert in 2019, and Dilano Van't Hoff this past July. However, it never gets any easier to process the young lives and talents that are lost to this dangerous sport.
This upcoming film will work as a way to promote motorsports to a newer crowd and potentially help the sport gain more attention from the younger audience. Due to the fact that it is also based on a video game, avid fans of the game can also enjoy the movie. Mardenborough’s story serves as an example that if you try hard enough and are willing to put in the work, you are able to achieve the unimaginable, even if you have never done it before.
