‘Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads……..but we do need racetracks.’ As the first weekend of testing got underway in Jerez (Spain), the revived McLaren-Honda F1 team celebrated the renewal of their partnership and leveraged interest in the upcoming season with a spoof webfilm based on the 1980s Hollywood blockbuster movie Back to the Future.
The viral, starring the team’s latest driver line up of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, acts as a launch vehicle for the new McLaren-Honda MP4-30.
This humour-led homage to the sci-fi classic sets the scene for the new F1 car launch and references the team’s heritage with engine partner Honda and Alonso’s return to McLaren (hence it is going ‘back to the future’).
The spot sees Alonso (who is back after his highly-charged and scandal-fuelled departure from the team in 2008) and Button convert a McLaren 650S (with a fabled ‘flux capacitor) into a time machine.
It opens with Button skateboarding into McLaren’s technology centre and the plot unfolds with the two drivers suggesting travelling back in time to the 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix (where F1 legend Senna sensationally drove his Honda-powered McLaren from 21st place to finish second) or forward to see what happens at this season’s opening race in Melbourne.
It is particularly appropriate to reference the film this year, as 2015 is the year that Marty McFly goes ‘Back |To The Future’ to.
Comment
The objective of this fun film is clearly to generate excitement around the new car launch and the upcoming season through the prism of the revival of the McLaren-Honda partnership.
The spot is already pushing towards one million YouTube Views.
The McLaren team is simultaneously using its YouTube channel to roll out a ‘History’ themed web series to celebrate the renewal of its partnership with Honda that includes ‘Time To Make History’,
and ‘We Build Again’.
After all, it’s been 22 years since McLaren and Honda last raced together – when they formed a partnership that largely dominated F1 in the 1980s and ’90s.
McLaren-Honda aren’t the only sports brand referencing the film this year, Nike is also paying its respects to ‘Back To The Future’ with the release of Nike self-tying MAG trainers (as seen in ‘Back To The Future: Part 2).
Memorable for their futuristic design and the USP o f self-tightening around the wearer’s foot, Nike designer Tinker Hatfield recently revealed that this year that the company would launch the trainers as they were intended (after the company made a limited run back in 2011 that featured manual laces).
Links
McLaren YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialMcLarenVids
McLaren App:
McLaren.com:
http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/
McLaren Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/McLaren.Racing
McLaren Twitter:
McLaren Google+:
https://plus.google.com/+McLaren
McLaren Instagram:
Honda F1 Website
