Interviews// Ferrari Challenge: Interview With Race Driver, Bruno Senna

“In racing we must and do respond quickly to competitive demands. We have something new for every race in every system of the car. This makes us – and I must admit it – a very impatient organisation. The spirit of racing is part of our everyday atmosphere at our headquarters in Maranello, its competitiveness, its urgency, its passion, its appetite for innovation and its demand for total teamwork as a secret of success. These imperatives combine to create the unique philosophy that we call ‘Ferrari’. This is the only way to create a dream.

Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari, 1991-today


SPOnG: Massimo, we’ve talked about the technical aspects of the game, but what I really want to know is the story behind the game. How did it come about? Tell us more about the relationship between System 3 and Ferrari.

Massimo Fedeli: Well, I have known Mark for many years, because he was a Ferrari customer and he had been racing in the championship back in 2000/2001. In 2005 I met Mark again and he told me he wanted to race again and we got talking a little bit more about what his business was, and while talking about game development I said, “Why don’t we make a Ferrari game?”

And Mark always likes to challenge himself. So it all started from there.


SPOnG: What was the story behind Bruno [Senna] getting involved, originally?

Mark Cale: Well, we wanted the System 3 car in the game as the official car, and some plonker here [points at himself] didn’t get the right lap times at Silverstone. When you go round a little slower than you did a few years ago, you really don’t want people saying, “is the game as bad as his driving?” (Senna and Fedeli laugh).


SPOnG: So, how did you meet Bruno?

Mark Cale: Enrico from Ferrari approached Bruno’s mechanic and a deal was done between Ferrari and Bruno for him to be a guest driver to drive the System 3 car at Silverstone. Obviously this was a huge success after two pole positions, one fastest lap and two race wins.

So, Bruno and I sat down and spoke in between the race meetings and he asked what we did and I explained and he was very keen to get involved, because he’s a video games fanatic – they are his second passion after cars – so I invited him to come and see me for lunch…

Bruno Senna: That’s debatable! My first passion is women, then cars, then videogames. [laughs]

[b]
SPOnG:[/b] So at what point did you realise, Mark, that Bruno was as passionate about his games as he clearly is?

Mark Cale: Not until we met. Then it became quickly obvious when we started arguing about what was the best racing game.

Bruno Senna: I think there was a point where I convinced you that I was good at games - which was when we played the simulator game in hospitality at Silverstone. I played it without putting too much effort in and then a day later some kid had beaten my time, so I then played it to win and shaved two seconds off the top time. I think that gained me Mark’s approval, he saw that I could play games as well as drive!