Wednesday 9th February 2000

Sylvester Stallone disappointed F1 fans when he revealed that his highly anticipated motor racing film, Driven, would in fact be based on the American CART Champ Car series. He had spent more than two years visiting grand prix for research but said F1 was too closed and Bernie Ecclestone too powerful for such a project to work. “I apologise to fans of Formula 1, but there is a certain individual there who runs the sport that has his own agenda,” he said. “F1 is very formal, and it’s very hard to get to know people. Here in CART it is much more open and that will be reflected in the film. It is extremely important to me that we create a film that accurately depicts the true sense of CART – the emotion, excitement, speed, technology and glamour that is Champ Car racing.” The movie was released in 2001 but flopped and was nominated for seven ‘Razzie awards’, given to the worst movies of the year.