Impossible, incredible, epic: tackling the season run by the Brawn GP Formula 1 team in 2009, actor and co-executive producer Keanu Reeves retraces the most beautiful human adventure in motorsport, that of a team almost -amateur who became from her first participation world champion of manufacturers and drivers.
Charismatic, the star of Speed ??and Matrix conducts dozens of interviews with actors of the time, with humor and precision: team bosses Luca di Montezemolo (ex-Ferrari), Christian Horner (chief director of Red Bull) , Ross Brawn; the drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, but also the engineers, Bernie Ecclestone, “big moneyman” of F1 for four decades, and Anthony Hamilton, Lewis’s father…
To complete these face-to-face encounters, spectacular archive images, notably those taken using on-board cameras during the race, structure the four episodes. Carried out at a breakneck pace, they have nothing to envy of Formula One, drivers of their destiny, the series broadcast on Netflix since 2019 – if not the audience.
Additional attraction, this feat is destined to remain unprecedented, as evidenced by the improbable alignment of the planets which presided over it. Starting with the founding bluff of Ross Brawn, who left Ferrari in 2006 – “When he left, I accepted because he told me ‘I’m going fishing’”, says Luca di Montezemolo. When the Honda team has to close, Ross Brawn will convince the Japanese manager to sell it to him for 1 dollar…
“Face the Giants”
Second “planet”, the regulations, which from 2009 limit aerodynamics. A Japanese aerodynamicist, Masayuki Minagawa (found by Keanu Reeves), will then imagine a “double diffuser” which will give a decisive technological advantage to Brawn GP. Third, the magic of sport, which operates from Melbourne, where the opening race of the championship is traditionally run, without prior testing. Brawn GP doesn’t have a penny? The boss of Virgin, Richard Branson (also interviewed in the film), emerges from the paddocks, seduced by the idea of ??“confronting the giants”. Can we talk about luck… “Luck is preparation before seizing an opportunity,” believes Rubens Barrichello.
Episode 2 focuses on the response of the big teams, first in court to try to demonstrate that Brawn GP cheated. Then on the track. Keanu Reeves goes to each circuit to talk about the races and anecdotes with the drivers. The time spent encourages confidences.
After the two Brawn GP victories in Melbourne and Malaysia, it was too much for Luca di Montezemolo: “It was the start of the war. » First in the workshops. From Shanghai, Red Bull engineers are working on an in-house double diffuser. Then at the level of high authorities – the common theme of the third episode – even if it meant causing the worst crisis in the history of F1, when teams split and created FOTA (Association of Formula 1 Teams) in 2008 to mark their opposition to the two-headed management of the FIA, Max Mosley-Bernie Ecclestone. “I don’t really believe in democracy,” the latter comments today.
Midway through the championship, the technological lead of the Brawn GP single-seaters faded and the rivalry between Button and Barrichello increased. How do you turn this nightmare into a dream? To maintain the suspense, the final episode includes a flashback to Jenson Button’s childhood. Two races left, fifty minutes of film. And a promise: “It will never happen like this again. Never,” assures Lucas di Montezemolo.
