Season two of the docuseries ‘Fernando’, by Amazon Prime Video and produced by The Mediapro Studio premieres on August 27 to the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. After a successful career spanning 20 years and a two-year break, the Formula 1 driver has decided to return to the rack track. At 39 years old, he’s not throwing in the towel just yet. Age is merely a number, and he’s more than ready and willing to prove it. Fernando Alonso prepares body and mind to once again be among the 20 people in the world capable of driving a racing car of these characteristics. Battle to regain a niche in the world of motor sports, in this case with Alpine (part of the Renault family) with one clear goal: to win. However, along the way he’s going to be accompanied by an unexpected guest: the pandemic.
It’s interesting to see how the coronavirus has affected every single being on the planet, celebrities are no exception. Few people have escaped a pesky PCR or a tiresome damn quarantine. In order to return to four wheels, the Spanish driver visits several countries, and faces the restrictions in place to fight the spread of infection. In one of the hotels where he stays, he was even on lock down in the room for 48 hours, waiting the result from the test. We see him pacing up and down impatiently from one end of his balcony to the other, ordering food, making video calls with family and friends… just as millions of people did during confinement during that indelible March 2020.
In addition to the pandemic, the four-part second season depicts the steps Alonso takes to return to the podium, through technical conversations with the team, nostalgic visits to the Renault factory and interviews with witnesses who are part of the brilliant story of the Asturian pilot, such as Flavio Briatore. We see an Alonso chasing a dream, going all out to achieve it, and who returns stronger than ever, persevering and wholly committed to the decision he’s made. As such, the series transmits an unquenchable yearning in the viewer to get out there and achieve your goals, and we are fully behind him from the sofa at home. We cheer him on when he competes in the Indi 500 circuit and keep our fingers crossed for his safe and successful return to his profession, which perhaps, he should never have left.
If there’s one thing you can say about the shows from the major platforms, in this case Amazon, it’s that they really know how to pull out all the stops. No detail is left to chance and everything from the poster to the soundtrack to accompany the driver’s races is as polished as it gets, managing to create a palpable level of excellence that if this same story had been constructed some years ago, would have been unimaginable. Without going any further, the poster for the series is exquisitely produced, as if it were an American series. The entire production, in fact, breathes an air of professionalism and know-how that watchers will appreciate. The attention to detail in each shot, the conversations in the distance, the silences … Every single element brings us even closer to Fernando, making him more human, generating the feeling that he’s one of our own and therein lies one of the keys to the outstanding editing.
We’re accustomed to seeing celebrities from afar, as unattainable beings, whose lives we imagine as being totally different from ours. However, the docuseries ‘Fernando’, with Laura Fernández Espeso, Javier Méndez, Javier Pons and Bernat Elías as executive producers, shows us that this is not always the case. It introduces us to an unpretentious and down-to-earth racing driver, outgoing and sociable with those near and dear to him, sometimes lonely, constant and demanding of himself in his work. The production, scheduled to be released in Spain and internationally, situates the celebrity in question on our level; someone who when they’re in front of a camera starts doing silly things, who laughs at himself and shares his concerns – the series highlights the close, loving relationship with his sister, Lorena. In short, the two-time Formula 1 world champion is presented to us in flesh and blood (a man with his good and bad days) pursuing a dream, just like so many of us often are.
