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Elle
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
The Surprising Story Behind Kerry Condon's 'F1' Role
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Damson Idris and Brad Pitt may be getting all the love for their new summer blockbuster F1, but the real MVP is Kerry Condon. The Banshees of Inisherin star plays Kate McKenna, a technical director for the fictional Formula 1 team in the film, APXGP. Though Condon's role was not based on a real-life person, she was inspired by a few other trailblazers in the sport. The first was Bernie Collins, an F1 analyst for Sky Sports and the former Head of Race Strategy for the Aston Martin F1 team. 'I learned a lot from Bernie because of her Irish background,' Condon told F1 Nation. 'I thought that was going to be perfect. I thought, 'Yes, bingo, I'm going to base it kind of on Bernie's backstory.'' Collins was born in Ireland, just like Condon, and her love for Formula 1 began in school. While enrolled at Queen's University Belfast, she studied mechanical engineering and joined the Formula Student program, an international engineering design competition where students design and build racing cars. Throughout her career, Collins has held various strategy and performance engineering roles at McLaren, United Autosports, Force India, and Aston Martin. 'Bernie had a similar education to me,' Condon told TODAY. 'She went to an all-girls school and stuff, so I kind of brought in a lot of my own background and made it my own.' While on set, Condon also asked Collins for advice on certain scenes. 'And then little things like the notepad that I have when I walk to the pit wall, I asked Bernie what she would have written on the front page of her notepad,' she told F1 Nation. 'Just in case the camera caught a glimpse of my notepad or something.' Condon also took cues from Ruth Buscombe, a British motorsport engineer and F1 TV presenter. '[She] was very helpful,' she said. 'I just kind of found out a little bit about where they went to college and what they studied and the route that they took to get there.' Buscombe also became interested in F1 at an early age. She attended the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering and studied aerospace and aerothermal engineering. After graduating, she joined the Ferrari team as a development engineer and then later became their race strategist. She's also held engineering and strategy positions at Haas and Sauber.
Daily Mirror
30-04-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mirror
Fresh Lewis Hamilton doubts emerge as 'killer' problem spotted in his Ferrari data
A trait has been spotted in the driving style of Lewis Hamilton which one Formula 1 pundit believes is making the Brit's adaptation to Ferrari machinery that much harder. It has been a difficult start for Hamilton who has struggled for form since making the switch from Mercedes. Other than a surprise first win in red in the Sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix, his form has been underwhelming. His best Grand Prix finish remains the fifth place he managed in Bahrain and Hamilton lies seventh in the drivers' championship. He has spoken many times of how he is struggling to adapt to his new car. And after the last race in Jeddah he issued a rather glum prediction when he said: "This is how it's going to be for the rest of the year. It's going to be painful." There is no doubt that Ferrari have a car that is not competitive enough to win races right now. And operationally there are improvements to be made, evidenced by their embarrassing double disqualification in the main China race, just a day after Hamilton's Sprint success. But while the Brit has struggled, team-mate Charles Leclerc has generally been able to squeeze all the performance he can out of the car. As a result, he is two places higher in the championship and secured the team's first podium of 2025 in Jeddah. Leclerc has raced for Ferrari for many years and so it is no surprise that he is more comfortable than Hamilton in these early weeks of the new season. But F1 TV pundit Alex Brundle has spotted something concerning in the seven-time champion's data which suggests it will be tough for him to turn things around. "He has talked about moving the car towards him, and he's talked about moving himself towards the car," said Brundle, referring to Hamilton, on the F1 Nation podcast. "I look at the data from Lewis every weekend - the trait is the same. "He goes into high-speed corners and hits a little bit more brake pressure than Charles Leclerc. You can draw a line directly up the wheel-speed graph, to the steering trace, and the brake aligns perfectly with a tiny bit of movement. It just upsets the Ferrari everywhere. "Leclerc is just Mr. Measured on the brakes. We know that Lewis had a problem with the same thing, I saw the data, at Mercedes. Can he coach himself out of a lifetime's worth of driving technique to move towards the car? We will find out." Modern F1 cars require more of a degree of instinctive actions from their drivers and Brundle went on to say that fact is going to make Hamilton's task even tougher. He added: "It's a killer trait to have in a car, especially if you're behind because you look for the time, and it punishes you again. It gets worse and worse. "Look at Carlos Sainz at Williams - he has completely engaged with their way of doing. Lewis is still behind the game at Ferrari so you wonder if it is going to be possible."
