There will be no Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, unfortunately, for the first time since 1954. But that doesn’t mean its streets will be free of high-horsepower madness, as Ferrari recreated one of the most legendary car films in cinema history this weekend.
The Prancing Horse teamed up with the original director Claude Lelouch behind the 1976 short film C’était Un Rendez-Vous, which featured a pre-dawn, high-speed and highly illicit drive around the empty streets of Paris. Set to a Ferrari 275 GTB soundtrack, it was actually driven in Lelouch’s Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9, because the car’s hydraulic suspension would better support a camera. Though there is no official credit of who was driving, it’s widely believed that Lelouch’s friend, six-time Le Mans winner and former Formula 1 Grand Prix winner Jacky Ickx, was behind the wheel.
This time, the Monaco principality officially closed its streets for filming of what Ferrari calls Le Grand Rendez-Vous. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari’s young Formula 1 star and a Monegasque himself, piloted the Italian marque’s SF90 Stradale, Ferrari’s first hybrid series production model, reportedly at speed of up to 240kph. Look closely at the finished film and you’ll even see a brief cameo of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, grand master of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Speaking of the film in an official statement, Ferrari explained:
“The roar of [the SF90’s] hybrid V8, generating a total power of 1,000 CV, sent out a message of optimism and signalled a first step towards the return of motorsport, film and social life as we endeavour to put the pandemic behind us through mutually responsible behaviour, commitment and solidarity.”
That Le Grand Rendez-Vous also helps promote the upcoming Historique Monaco Grand Prix and gave its new F1 number one the chance to stretch his legs outside the realm of a SIM racing rig couldn’t have hurt much either.
*Images courtesy of Ferrari and IMDB
