Senna, Rush, Williams, Ford Vs Ferrari are some of the commercial as well as critically acclaimed movies to hit the cinema theatres in recent years. The common running theme in all the movies is the focus on motorsports and the individuals who compete in the highly thrilling yet gruelling sport testing your physical and mental endurance. Motorsports appeal is transcendental, from the racing circuits to the cinema theatres and on OTT platforms like the Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime. The movies I have quoted above are based on the famous and successful F1 Racing which spawned stars like Niki Lauda, Aryton Senna, Micheal Schumacher. Indian motorsports has had its sharing of following and given that Internation and National automobiles brands have taken to the sport only shows its potential.
Chronicling the Indian motorsports is a new documentary series named “The Driving Force”. Available on Hotstar, The Driving Force is an insightful documentary covering the various Motorsports Championships being held in India. The six-episode series is a collaboration of Volkswagen Motorsport India and GoQuest Digital Studios. The producers were helped in the humongous task by MRF, Federation of Motorsports Club of India, Volkswagen Motorsport among others.
With behind-the-scenes footage, the viewers get a fair understanding of the complexity in organizing motorsport events in India. Volkswagen recently completed a decade in the sport and are the only automobile manufacturer to be in the business of motorsport in India. The brand started its journey way back in 2010 with the first one-make circuit racing series announced at the Delhi Auto Expo. One of the first in India, it was the first racing series to be running with diesel powered engines. The crowned champion of this series went on to compete in the Scirocco R-Cup in Germany. The documentary covers exciting events like the Volkswagen Ameo Cup, MRF F1600 and F1300, 2019 FMSCI Indian National championship. This is an exciting watch because it covers the whole Indian motorsports scene. Motorsports is not just the machines burning the tracks, there are a lot of important things happening behind the camera. The series covers various aspects like logistics, administration, management plus the mental and the physical toll it takes on the racers.