"You race to win. That's the goal and the target," Fassbender told THR. The two-time Academy Award nominee is part of a small club of actors turned race car drivers.
00:00Which is more impressive the first time you saw your name on the side of a Ferrari,
00:02the first time your name was on a director's chair?
00:06Good question.
00:11Both is a pretty nice feeling, you know.
00:13But yeah, this is pretty cool.
00:27I want to know what kind of zoom you got on that camera back there.
00:30I'm going to look in my mirror and see, is he still behind me?
00:36And if he's not behind me, where the hell is he?
00:38Whatever the case might be, pay attention to your mirrors, be consistent, stay online.
00:46I remember when I was young, I just couldn't wait until I was 17, until I could get my license.
00:51My grandfather used to always watch Formula One races, and then, you know, Schumacher became my hero.
00:56And for me, he's the best driver of all time.
01:07You want to see any stuff in here?
01:08Yeah, absolutely.
01:09Obviously, that's the radio, indicators, this is your pit limiter.
01:14But when you come into the pits, you've got to slow right down.
01:17That's a drink.
01:18If you have one of those things, you can press it.
01:20This is the traction control.
01:21You know, I might start the race off low in traction control, and as the tires start to go, maybe move them to two, just to protect them through the race.
01:31I'll do fuel and tires, and then when we do the tire change, the stickers will be on the wall.
01:36So you're an actor that races, is it hard to convince your agents and your managers, like, I'm not going to do this movie because I'm going to be out racing?
01:44They know that, you know, I've sort of made up my mind to really sort of commit to this right now, so we'll see how far their patience goes.
02:06Your brain and body has to assimilate to these high speeds, for sure.
02:18At the beginning, you know, I'm just thinking, God, I can't do this.
02:23Then you get used to the speed, you become comfortable with it, and then it's just about focusing and trying to get in a rhythm.
02:30You know, you look at telemetry, you look at data, where I'm braking, where I'm getting on the throttle, steering input, all these things.
02:37You try and assimilate all that, and then sort of translate it on the track.
02:43The corkscrew, everybody talks about it because it's sort of an iconic section of the track here, but you've just got to line up nicely in the apex on the inside, and then it's about straightening the wheel, and there's a tree there that's a marker, and just shooting straight for that.
02:56It's got to be hard to think, like, aim for the tree, aim for the tree.
02:59Not really.
02:59You know, if you're doing rehearsals for filming, I've been practicing this character, I'm putting it together, but I haven't really shown it to anybody.
03:10So that first day, it's sort of like, oh, God, I hope this works, for sure, but this is kind of a totally different thing.
03:16What's great about this, and, you know, it's very rare that it happens in life when you're doing something that really does bring that level of forced meditation.
03:25This becomes like a forced meditation because you're not thinking about anything else.
03:29And also, you're trying to control your breathing, so whenever you're going down the straights here, it's very important to just say, you get out of the car and you're buzzing.
03:42The adrenaline is pumping so hard.
03:44Half an hour, 40 minutes after the race, you know, once it dumps and it's gone, it's just sort of exhaustion, really.
03:50Last year, you know, I was pushing to try and find my limit, and when you're on that sort of edge, chances are things can go wrong.
04:02I ended up, you know, I ended up crashing, but, you know, I learned a lot, kind of the hard way.
04:11So last year, you know, it was my first year, and I found qualifying a lot of the times in fourth place.
04:17This year, I'm more up around the front.
04:22You got a podium at your first race this year at Daytona in the Ferrari Challenge.
04:26Yes.
04:27How driven are you when you compete in a race like this?
04:30You race to win, you know, for sure.
04:32That's the goal and the target and the idea of coming in sort of, you know, fourth or fifth or even, obviously, third and second.
04:39It's always great to be on the podium, but, you know, the goal is to win and to be the fastest.
04:45Do you think you're going to win this weekend like you did at Daytona?
04:48I'd have to be lucky.
04:50At the moment, I'm quite a bit off the pace.
04:56I'm always two seconds off where I need to be.
05:00There's a guy in my team that actually is setting the fast pace, so he's the one to catch.
05:04So are you competing against him or are you competing against yourself?
05:07For sure, it's very much about dealing with yourself.
05:09It's very humbling.
05:12The more times I walk away sort of disappointed with myself than, you know, pleased.
05:25Do you feel like you've become more assimilated to be like an Italian race car driver?
05:29No, I mean, I feel like I'm making progress.
05:32Not as fast as I'd like, but I suppose that's always the way.
05:36But definitely, you know, I'm making improvements.
05:39You know, I thought at some point I would do some form of racing for sure.
05:46It's just a pure thing of enjoying speed and trying to go through a corner as fast as you can.
05:51I didn't, you know, imagine that I'd be in a series like this with the machines that we have here.
05:57You know, that 488 Challenge car is so much car.
06:05It's a very sort of pure sport.
06:06You're either fastest or you're not.
06:08It's a sport that's so encompassing of so many things.
06:15It requires so much focus.
06:17You've got to be relaxed at the same time.
06:19There's an awful lot of adrenaline.
06:21Each time I get into the car, it's kind of, you know, pinch myself and I can't believe it sometimes.
06:27I've got to be messed up.
06:42You know, I love it.
06:45Every night, every night, every night, every night, every night, every night.
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