Lewis Hamilton’s Perfect ‘Ferris Bueller’ Tribute Kicks Off F1 Season
Formula 1’s new season kicks off this weekend in Australia, and the big news is that seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton will be making his debut as a Ferrari driver.
To mark the occasion, Hamilton just dropped a pitch-perfect tribute to the 1986 teenage fever-dream that is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has been one of my favourite movies since I was a kid,” Hamilton wrote on Instagram. “This is to pay homage to the iconic film and to celebrate my first season with Ferrari,” the champ added.
Actually, calling Hamilton’s short film a ‘tribute’ is wrong. It’s almost more like a deepfake, with Hamilton inserting himself into the role of the infamous parking garage valet driver. Except, it’s not really a fake. Hamilton created it with the full blessing of Paramount Pictures and even somehow roped Edward Norton into it. Watch the whole Lewis Hamilton “Ferris Bueller’s Day off” video right here and decide for yourself.
If you’re a kid from the ’80s or early ’90s, this will be a major nostalgia-bomb for you. Hamilton was born in 1985, which is likely why this John Hughes comedy starring Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck and Mia Sara made such a big impression on the F1 driver as a kid.
In the film, Ferris Bueller (Broderick) convinces his friend Cameron (Ruck) to let them borrow Cameron’s father’s prized 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. The nervous and shy Cameron is, naturally, extremely reluctant since 1) Ferris Bueller absolutely cannot be trusted as the whole movie demonstrates and 2) Cameron’s father values the car more than anything.
“Less than 100 were made. Father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love. It is his passion,” Cameron says. “It is his fault he didn’t lock the garage,” Ferris says before driving off in the vintage Ferrari with Cameron riding shotgun.
They pick up Ferris’s girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) from high school and drive into Chicago, eventually parking the car with a nameless valet played by Richard Edson. Naturally, Edson and his buddy from the valet go tearing off in the Ferrari, adding precious miles to the odometer and, well, we won’t spoil the ending because some of Hamilton’s younger fans probably haven’t even seen the movie.
In Hamilton’s version, the champ is the Ferrari joy-riding valet, originally played by Edson, while Ed Norton joins in as the valet buddy. It looks freakishly perfect. And it’s absolutelysomething we’ll be seeing in memes throughout the upcoming F1 season, no matter how Hamilton’s debut for Scuderia Ferrari goes down this weekend. In less than 24 hours, the video racked up over half a million views on YouTube alone.
As a seven-time champ, it looks as if Hamilton is finally entering the part of his F1 career where he’s just enjoying life and having fun. And, well, we love to see it!
It seems as if he poured a lot of his own time and effort (and money?) into this little movie production. “It definitely took a lot of cutting edge tech, production and planning to get right,” he wrote on IG, giving a shout-out to his production company Dawn Apollo Films.
“Had to get the exact car too,” Hamilton posted. “It’s been a dream car since seeing the movie. Shout out to the legendary @edwardnortonofficial for coming along for the ride. This is the energy and excitement I’m bringing to the track this year. ANDIAMO !!”
