Lewis on the phone…

Posted by Jamie Hibbard at 12:24 pm on Tuesday March 10, 2009 56 Comments

This is blatantly a viral ad put together by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, but it’s pretty fun. The end is cool, and we’re quite intrigued to find out how they actually did it. If you know the actors involved or any of the back story to this, then please comment below:

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  1. svrallo svrallone said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 12:43 pm Link to comment Report comment

    rc car: just used the normal rc transitter or modified the receiver to use blue tooth.
    real car: Computer grafic or lewis has magical power or lewis doesn’t know to drive and the real car in the whole season was secretly drived by satellite by an 8 year old kid’s playstation from canada. ;-)

  2. Lakefield said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 1:43 pm Link to comment Report comment

    If the FIA is going crazy again, they could recommend this as a safty feature when the driver is actually not in the car…

    … ohh, hold on… BREAKING NEWS!…

    The F1 Teams forced the FIA to establish this in the 2010 rules. Spokemen said, that this could help to safe some weight (and fuel) due to the heavy KERS system.

    Ecclestones comment was: “… as long as we keep the viewers happy…”

    Oh Dear.

    greetings from germany

  3. Martin said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 1:47 pm Link to comment Report comment

    They couldn’t have used a Storm, the sensors are just rubbish on it.

  4. claiborne said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 2:00 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Well remember lewis had his first foray into motorsport with remote controlled cars and I dont see how hard it would be to make a remote contrlled f1 car (maybe not with the original engine for simplicities sake, etc,etc) and then dub the sound over the top.

  5. roland said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 2:43 pm Link to comment Report comment

    That little power slide in the puddle was more exciting than the whole Valencia GP last year.

  6. RWF said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 2:45 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Hahaha, I would like to do that with a car that’s worth a few hundred million!!

  7. Dan said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 3:44 pm Link to comment Report comment

    That powerslide in the puddle was epic.

  8. autorock said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 3:53 pm Link to comment Report comment

    the powerslide was epic??!! the whole thing was epic!

  9. Joe E said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 3:59 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Without wishing to piss on anyone’s bonfire, how do you know that the original RC controller wasn’t used in the beginning? All that’s on the iPhone is a picture of some arrows.

  10. 118 50 said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 4:17 pm Link to comment Report comment

    hey everyone i found the new williams livery doesnt look half bad

    http://www.formula1.com/g allery/other/2009/383.htm l

  11. TX said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 4:30 pm Link to comment Report comment

    coolest vid EVER!!!

  12. ssss said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 5:19 pm Link to comment Report comment

    sdsdsdsdsdsddsdssdd

  13. mtss said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 5:21 pm Link to comment Report comment

    ”Lewis is now in his element” Ha ha so funy vid. Loved it!

  14. Marcus said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 8:33 pm Link to comment Report comment

    That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, viral ad or not.

    Sweeeeetness!

  15. catersam said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 8:36 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Dear Santa,
    I know it’s still a while until Christmas but…

  16. Matt said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 8:59 pm Link to comment Report comment

    This video is awsome.its really cool and lewis seems like a pretty good driver if he can just stand there and do that. i want a blackberry storm now.

  17. Rob said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 9:01 pm Link to comment Report comment

    AMAZING is the word I would want to put it..but it is way bigger than that..holy moos and the cows that say that..This is Fireworks!! :D

  18. tom said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 9:43 pm Link to comment Report comment

    I have a feeling mercedes benz will be offering that system for there cars where u dont have to walk to the car the car comes to you

  19. PeterMann said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 10:11 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Brilliant – and soooo funny too!

  20. Nitpicker said...
    Tuesday March 10, 2009 at 10:29 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Heikki is only a little fella you know, it wouldn’t be too much trouble for him to scrunch down a bit out of sight. Either that or Richard Hammond has been spoiled with another go in an F1 car…

  21. UrinatesonBonfires said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 12:09 am Link to comment Report comment

    This is a wild guess but dressing a real driver in a suit and helmet coloured in such a way that they could easily be matted out in post production would be the way I’d do it. I don’t believe for a minute that they’d risk a real F1 car by driving it remotely.

  22. Bruce said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 1:30 am Link to comment Report comment

    Anyone notice the position of the car when Lewis flicks the control right?

  23. Downtheroadapiece said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 4:19 am Link to comment Report comment

    It looked cool. But I’m skeptical they could use Bluetooth from that distance.

  24. Vancouverite said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 6:06 am Link to comment Report comment

    I highly doubt the actual car used bluetooth…

    remote real cars are nothing new, top gear had a few on I believe at one point

    but impressive none the less, I’m a little skeptical that it was a phone driving the f1 car but yeah

  25. Bruce said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 8:30 am Link to comment Report comment

    The magic of TV. Lewis holds the Storm and waves it around. “Pretend your driving a car”. The car is driven in another take. They are then brought together in an editing room. The Ad probably cost around 100,000 to make. Quite standard. The car would not be RC because of the cost to build one. An RC car is not the easiest thing to control, let alone one with 700bhp.

    Watch how Lewis moves the phone. He would have smashed the pit wall when it accelerated after he got it out of the garage.

  26. Elementry Dear Boy said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 12:00 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Cool vid but hardly. Bluetooth range is only 15ft, and Lewis was driving it away at 150ft.

    Good bit of fun nonetheless

  27. svrallo svrallone said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 2:17 pm Link to comment Report comment

    rc car= the little one
    real car= the big one
    just to be clear.

  28. Ben Ashcroft said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 4:12 pm Link to comment Report comment

    wow! Yes, the puddle bit was cool, but what about the drivin the car with the phone? I want one!

  29. Ken H said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 6:50 pm Link to comment Report comment

    It is intriguing to see that more that 0 people actually believe the phone had any controlling function against the cars.
    I guess this will to believe in anything is why people in Nigeria can get rich by sending a bunch of emails…

  30. StigJD said...
    Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 10:43 pm Link to comment Report comment

    i dont know if anybody remembers the old williams bmw ad when juan pablo montoya and ralph schumacher drove their cars around a track using proper remote controls. Shows that it isnt completely impossible to drive it RC.

  31. Marcus said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 5:28 am Link to comment Report comment

    Call me naive, but i think the real McLaren was actually driven by RC but not by Lewis and the phone.

    All it would take is a few engineers with some spare time, a “simulator”-type remote control system, and a camera on the car so the remote driver could see where they were going.

    So basically imagine a simulator like they use for training, but with an RC setup operating the controls in the car via servos and such. It could be done without too much difficulty.

    At first I was thinking they did it with a driver wearing a “green screen” suit and helmet, but that exit shot from the garage looks like it would be very hard to pull off in post.

    Who knows? I’m probably wrong, but I want to believe it was real!

  32. supportyourman! said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:08 am Link to comment Report comment

    I used to race in the same RC series as Hamilton, back in the day, and while he was a prodigy, I think its a little different driving an F1 car with a phone!! With all the electronics on the car I guess its possible, but I certainly wouldnt want to drive a multi-million pound car with a remote, and im pretty handy!! (a proper rc car costs about £350… :P )

  33. topman said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:22 am Link to comment Report comment

    its not a car of a dream you idot

  34. sam said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:24 am Link to comment Report comment

    i know a car that you will all like the new aston martin yeah if you dont like it then drive your mums old car

  35. sam said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:30 am Link to comment Report comment

    i say hammond always wins but i agree that clarkson is a bit over the edge some times and he is taller than both thats why he is a dick

  36. topman said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:34 am Link to comment Report comment

    cant belive your skyline got took off you

  37. topman said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:38 am Link to comment Report comment

    hahaha cool

  38. sam said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:44 am Link to comment Report comment

    how the race going on port dead line

  39. davy ross said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:54 am Link to comment Report comment

    i they used an i phone , just think! firt gp from the bar!

  40. Zooomm said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 5:50 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Possible, just about everything on an F1 car is fly-by-wire and/or hydraulic. Not from the Blackberry though, unfortunately

    Very good video, especially the slide!

    Quite fitting they binned it into the wall aswell, quite like Lewis recently hehe

  41. amanda said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 9:54 pm Link to comment Report comment

    ahhaa thats amazing

  42. Muerte said...
    Thursday March 12, 2009 at 11:04 pm Link to comment Report comment

    that is how they should desing race tracks – rc cars + boring office, then scale it up. add a puddle here, a spike strip there and you’re good to go :D

  43. Wyvern said...
    Friday March 13, 2009 at 1:31 pm Link to comment Report comment

    It’s worth suspending disbelief just to enjoy that. It was great fun!

    Would love to know the details though. The first bit’s definitely feasible (we’ve used Bluetooth to control all sorts of things in the lab at uni) and as for the second bit… well, that’s the magic of t’Internet :)

  44. Mikeado said...
    Friday March 13, 2009 at 5:35 pm Link to comment Report comment

    That was so cool!!

    I wonder how they actually did the 1/1 scale R/C car? I mean, without all the big machine stuff they needed on TG.

  45. Mikeado said...
    Friday March 13, 2009 at 5:37 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Muerte, another source of inspiration could be video games. I can think of 2 or 3 Gran Turismo tracks I want to see built, for instance.

  46. j keetley said...
    Wednesday March 18, 2009 at 4:14 pm Link to comment Report comment

    THAT WAS ACE

  47. axf1 said...
    Thursday March 19, 2009 at 4:56 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Lewis hamilton is the crapest f1 driver ever and so is his maclaren. anyway this video is CRAP! BECAUSE LEWIS’S CAR IS IN IT!!!!!!!!!! Ferrari and felipe massa are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!

  48. Damien said...
    Saturday March 21, 2009 at 5:05 pm Link to comment Report comment

    “Superbluetooth” hacking anybody ?

  49. martin said...
    Sunday March 22, 2009 at 11:46 am Link to comment Report comment

    the real car might be a RC, whoever said it has real engine, could be small electric just to keep it moving-it doesn’t go very fast in clip and then overdubbed with some noise of F1, which sounds to me like Ferrari!

  50. Jacob said...
    Sunday March 22, 2009 at 9:55 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Wouldn’t you get fired for using the office on a weekend and turning it into a test track?

  51. Jacob said...
    Sunday March 22, 2009 at 9:56 pm Link to comment Report comment

    AXF1 is most probablly a member of the Ferrari team and is just annoyed cos YOUR ARSE GOT KICKED

  52. Gully said...
    Wednesday March 25, 2009 at 7:14 am Link to comment Report comment

    if they spent more time devolping the car rather than doing this then maybz theyd b in a better postion for this weekend

  53. mike said...
    Wednesday March 25, 2009 at 8:21 pm Link to comment Report comment

    genuine video i mean i dunno if it’s possible with the real car but it was cool. anyways go kimi and ferrari

  54. marin said said...
    Thursday May 7, 2009 at 3:50 pm Link to comment Report comment

    Just used radio recaever

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    Sunday November 15, 2009 at 12:58 pm Link to comment Report comment

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