DATE WITH A FERRARI

French director Claude Lelouch and Ferrari have partnered to create a short film called Le

Grand Rendez-Vous, featuring the SF90 Stradale being piloted through the streets of Monaco by Monegasque racing driver Charles Leclerc.

The film marks the cancellation of the Monaco Grand Prix due to Covid-19 (the run took place on May 24, the day the race was to be held), the end of French lockdown — and of course is an

homage to Lelouch’s legendary 1976 film C’etait un Rendez-vous

(It Was a Date), which featured a high-speed and highly illegal early-morning run through central Paris, seen through a camera mounted low on the bonnet of a mystery car.

Lelouch himself drove a Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 on the 10.597km route, although a Ferrari soundtrack was later overdubbed. The entire run is just eight minutes and seven seconds, with speeds of up to 200km/h allegedly reached.

The film ends with Lelouch’s girlfriend Gunilla Friden (one of only two people aware of what he was doing on the day) appearing at the Sacre-Coeur to meet him — although the driver’s

face remains hidden.