The real racer who had Sonny Hayes’ crash in F1 movie · RaceFans

This article contains details of the plot of F1: The Movie.

The acknowledgement “thanks to Martin Donnelly” pops up soon after the credits roll at the end of F1: The Movie.

Donnelly made 15 appearances as a grand prix driver before his career-ending crash at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1990. That crash forms one of the first scenes in “F1: The Movie”, which opens in cinemas today.

In the film’s narrative, the crash occured three years later, and befell fictional driver Sonny Hayes, played by Brad Pitt. The crash brought an end to Hayes’ F1 career, as it did for Donnelly in real life, but in the film Pitt’s character gets the chance to return to grand prix racing some 30 years later.

As is the case for much of the racing action in F1: The Movie, genuine footage and filmed scenes are blended to create the sequences showing the crash. But the most impactful scenes – those of Donnelly’s twisted body lying on the track, the remains of his seat still strapped to his back – are shockingly real.

Donnelly described himself as “quiet and shy”, but caught the eye of F1 teams with his performances in the junior categories. He won four races as a rookie in British Formula 3 in 1986 and impressed with his results after a mid-season switch to Formula 3000 (equivalent to today’s Formula 2) two years later.

Although he was eclipsed by team mate Jean Alesi in 1989, both drivers earned F1 breaks that year, but Donnelly had to wait until the following season to become a regular driver. He got his chance at Lotus, who had won races with Ayrton Senna just three years earlier, but had slumped badly in the years which followed.

Their 1990 car, the 102, was essentially the previous year’s chassis modified to accommodate Lamborghini’s V12 engine instead of the smaller Judd V8 which preceded it. Donnelly’s team mate Derek Warwick recalled its disastrous debut before the world’s press.

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“Driving out of the factory the engine pulled out the back of the monocoque so we couldn’t have any drive,” he told RaceFans in a 2020 interview. “That was the start for me of worrying about the strength of the chassis.”

Despite persistent reliability problems, the car was quick enough to qualify mid-pack and both drivers collected top 10 finishes. Warwick managed a pair of points-scoring top-six finishes; Donnelly peaked with a seventh and two eighths.

By the time they arrived at Jerez for the 14th round of the season, Donnelly was only trailling his vastly more experienced team mate 7-5 in qualifying. Warwick had often only come out ahead by hundredths of a second.

Ferrari’s Nigel Mansell had announced at Silverstone he intended to retire and some members of the British press were quick to push Donnelly as a future star. Autosport put him on the front cover of one August issue, headlined: “Is Donnelly the next Mansell?”

Eager not to let their promising young talent slip away, Lotus got his name on a new contract on the Friday morning of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. “I was going to be the number one driver with Mika Hakkinen as number two,” Donnelly told RaceFans in 2010. “But we never got that far.”

In the first qualifying session held later that day, Donnelly briefly topped the times. But as he tackled a sequence of high-speed right-hand bends near the end of the lap, his front suspension suddenly buckled, pitching the car into guard rail close to the edge of the track at over 220kph.

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The Lotus 102 exploded into pieces, throwing Donnelly’s body onto the circuit. Pierluigi Martini, one of the next drivers on the scene, parked his Minardi in front of Donnelly’s body to protect him. The FIA medical delegate Sid Watkins was driven to the scene, though as he had to complete nearly a full lap it took almost two-and-a-half minutes.

The paddock fell silent as television cameras zoomed in on Donnelly’s inert body. Warwick sprinted the short distance from the pits to the scene and held his team mate. When Watkins finally arrived he began performing cardiac massage.

Donnelly’s life hung in the balance long after the crash. He was flown back to England four days after the crash and kept under sedation for over two weeks to reduce the strain on his body. His injuries included fractures to both legs, left thigh, collarbone and cheekbone. The impact was severe enough to crack his crash helmet and caused head injuries. He was put on dialysis for kidney failure and suffered a lung infection.

He was extraordinarily fortunate to survive, though he never returned to top-flight racing. Donnelly later set up his own racing team and made a handful of appearances in touring car races.

While his fictional movie counterpart returned to F1 three decades after his crash, the closest Donnelly came was a brief demonstration run in 2011. He climbed back into the narrow cockpit of a Lotus 102 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, an experience he likened to meeting a former girlfriend.

This is the second time a film about Formula 1 has brought attention to Donnelly’s career-ending crash. It appears as a significant moment in the 2010 documentary “Senna”, as the Brazilian hero visited the scene of Donnelly’s crash. Its reappearance in F1: The Movie gives a generation of new viewers the chance to learn about a driver who deserves to be remembered more for the potential he showed earlier in his career than the dreadful crash which curtailed it.

“F1: The Movie” opens in cinemas in most territories today and in North America on Friday 27th June. Read RaceFans’ review here

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