F1 has seen such a huge growth in popular culture and has a dedicated fan base which is ever expanding. At the museum we’ve noticed more and more of our visitors asking if we have anything related to Aston Martin’s F1 team, and if Alonso or Stroll have ever visited us. Sadly not as yet, but consider this an open invitation both!
Earlier this year we opened a permanent display on Aston Martin and their involvement in F1. It takes a quick look at Aston Martin’s early foray into the sport with the DBR4 in 1959, and then focuses on their return 60 years later and what they’re doing now. To find out more about Aston Martin’s return as Red Bull Racing’s title sponsor in 2018, and the development of their current Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team, you’ll have to come and see the display!
So with all this going on I was intrigued and excited to see there would be an immersive F1 experience exploring the past, present and future of the sport. Cue a trip, part busman’s holiday and part special birthday present for my F1 fanatical Dad, to see the exhibition at Excel London.
Its popularity was very much evidenced by the hordes of people who had also travelled to see it early on a Sunday morning.
There was so much information packed into the exhibition and different, themed rooms which captured F1 from all angles throughout its history. I learnt about its development, its design, its drivers and its dangers.
With my museum hat on I was interested to see how an immersive car experience had been created and if there were any lessons that we could learn from it. The display was a really nice mix of objects, cars, audio visual content, text panels and interactives which were really engaging visitors. And with an extra level of nerdiness, while people around me were admiring the F1 car in front of us (which was amazing to see in such close proximity), I was also wondering about the logistics of getting it into position and looking at how it was chocked. As you do.
It was a brilliant exhibition with so much interesting content and I loved the way the display was arranged and how it varied as you worked your way through. Something that really added to it for me was having my own headset – which you automatically get on entry – and which you can activate yourself. It meant that you could tune in to the videos in your own time and at your own pace, and though these stations got incredibly busy it really added to the experience.
It was also great to see Aston Martin reflected in the content at points throughout the exhibition, naturally I had my eyes peeled for it! Bernie Collins, Sky Sports F1 Analyst and former Head of Race Strategy for the Aston Martin F1 Team, co-curated a video on race strategy which had some fab behind the scenes footage. And towards the end, an enormous wavy timeline called ‘Winning Streaks’, showing the dominance of different F1 teams from the 1950s, captured Aston Martin’s entry in the 2020s. With Adrian Newey’s appointment as Managing Technical Partner from early next year, perhaps we’ll see that green line grow!
Overall it was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed, and I’m still holding out hope for a visit from Alonso one day!
