For over twenty years, Michael Mann – the filmmaking auteur behind Heat, Manhunter and Ali – has been trying to bring the story of the late Enzo Ferrari to the big screen. Now, at the age of 80, he’s finally managed it, with Adam Driver in the driving seat as the former race driver turned car mogul and Penélope Cruz taking the role of his wife, Laura.

Based on the 1991 biography ‘Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine’, Mann’s film covers a tumultuous year in Enzo’s personal and professional life. It’s the summer of 1957, and the couple are reeling from the death of their son, Dino, from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Their relationship is breaking down, and Ferrari's automobile marque is on the brink of bankruptcy. Amidst all this, he decides to enter his Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team into the Mille Miglia auto race, a route that saw drivers tear around the peripheral public roads of Italy.

To mark the film’s release, Esquire hosted a conversation between Michael Mann and Sky Sports F1 presenter Simon Lazenby. You can watch Ferrari in cinemas on 26 December, and stream it on Sky Cinema in 2024.