Yesterday I watched Truth in 24 for the second time. This is a movie about Le Mans 24 hour race and Audi Team. It talks about the raceday and rest of the year, what are the preparation that go into it, what is the mood on pitwall, the kind of situations they face, the communication, trust between teammates and above all the engineering effort. The movie takes care of all the intricacies involved and point out the minutest details that are taken care of (not the how part!). The preparations before the race, parade, qualifying and the race. Factors such as night, rain, fog, tiredness and how a combination of men and machine conquer all this to win the race.
Movie documents the 2008 Le Mans race and the victory by Audi team. The movie talks about ‘human element’ involved in winning the race and how with a slower R10 they managed to win a race against faster Peugeot 908. Audi team go as an underdog and win the race with few proper judgements and dedication of complete team. This team also focuses on importance of team and its not just the drivers who win the championship. I liked Howden Haynes, the chief engineer of the team and how he worked continuously for 24 hours to make perfect decisions throughout the race. The last part of race where he argues with race driver to change his tyres is brilliant. He with his data is confident but has to convince driver on track on how the conditions are going to change is nice piece to watch. And when later driver thanks him for perfect choice, as a student of science we feel great. My favorite scene from movie is after the victory, when everyone is enjoying, Haynes just goes away and sits on a pile of tyres. That is the moment when head of the team has called him ’secret weapon’, but he is not overjoyed, he just want to take some rest. Twenty four hours of such pressure is not just on cars but endurance test for humans too.
A must watch for motorsport lover. Either be f1, Indycar or Nascar fan, it does not matter, you will love it. Another aspect of movie that I liked is its narration, I suppose producers chose the best man to do this kind of job, Jason Statham.
