F1: The Movie spoilers follow.
F1: The Movie is packed with cameos from the real-life great and good of the sport – including producer and seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, former F1 TV lead host Will Buxton and even ex-Haas team principal and Drive to Survive fan favourite Guenther Steiner (who doesn't think APX GP "look like rockstars", let's put it that way).
The movie's closing credits feature a prominent acknowledgement of thanks to Martin Donnelly, and after seeing the movie, you might be wondering about him and what his connection to the movie is. So we're here to help.
Who is Martin Donnelly? Plus, how he inspired Sonny Hayes' story
Martin Donnelly was a rising star in Formula 1 in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But his racing career in the top flight of motorsport was cruelly cut short by a horrific crash which bears stark parallels to the shocking accident that ends Sonny Hayes' first stint in F1 in the movie.
The movie shows a younger Sonny driving a car with a similar yellow and blue Camel livery to Martin's real-life vehicle when he has his crash, which happens at the same Jerez circuit in Spain, but during 1993 (a few years later than the real-life incident).
Martin was born in 1964 in Belfast. He told The Lotus Forums that he had "a very working-class childhood". His dad was a keen motor racing fan, and they would watch competitions together when he was growing up.
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Martin started racing competitively as a teenager and worked his way up through the Formula 1 feeder series of the day, turning down a place at university to study mechanical engineering as his career got going.
In the 1988 International Formula 3000 competition, a forerunner to today's Formula 2 championship, he placed third overall, despite only taking part in five races during the season.
During his early career, Martin also drove in prestigious endurance races like the Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona (the latter of which Sonny is competing in at the start of the F1 movie).
Related: Simone Ashley is now barely in F1: The Movie - here's why her role was cut
He finally got a Formula 1 race call-up with Arrows in 1989 and then returned to Lotus, where he'd been a test driver, in a race seat for the following season.
However, Martin's life changed at the age of just 26 when, at the Spanish grand prix in 1990, he crashed during qualifying due to a suspension failure.
Martin hit a wall at an estimated speed of 176mph, with a force of around 42G. The force of the accident split open the safety cell designed to protect him, and cracked his crash helmet. His car was completely destroyed, with parts strewn all over the track.
As happens to Sonny in the movie, Martin was flung out of his car onto the track, still strapped into his seat, while other cars were still travelling around the circuit.
The FIA's medical delegate at the time, Professor Sid Watkins, was rushed to the scene to treat him, and the truly horrific images were seen around the world.
Those of you who have watched the 2010 documentary Senna may have seen footage of Martin's crash and the immediate aftermath, as Ayrton Senna was one of the drivers who saw what happened and came to try and help his friend.
“As for Ayrton, he'd been watching a man he knew near death," Martin told Motor Sport magazine in 2010. "He told a journalist that seeing me like that made him realise how fragile we all are."
Ayrton also visited Martin in intensive care, who revealed on Beyond the Grid that the triple world champion let it be known that if needed, "he would sort a plane [for me] to get back, financial help, just to let him know".
Martin's injuries were very serious, including multiple fractures to both legs, concussion, a broken collarbone and bruises to his lungs.
In the aftermath of the accident, his heart was reported to have stopped twice on the operating table in hospital. At one point, he was placed in a medically induced coma to protect his vital organs and give him the best opportunity to recover.
Speaking to Tom Clarkson on the Beyond the Grid podcast in 2022, Martin credited Sid Watkins with saving his life more than once, and went into further detail about how grave the situation was.
"I was on a respirator for seven weeks. I had kidney dialysis every day for three hours," he told Tom. "[Sid] advised my mum, he said, 'You know, it's gonna be touch and go'. And she got the hospital chaplain to come and give me my last rites."
After being taken to hospital in Seville following the crash, Martin spent several months continuing his recovery at the Royal London Hospital.
He has lasting nerve damage to his left leg, and walks with a limp, explaining that repeated reconstructive surgery means that it remains "in a bad way".
Martin confirmed that he was "very, very close" to losing a leg completely through amputation when in hospital in Seville.
Again, he said Sid Watkins' intervention likely saved his leg, with the medic using his own trouser belt to stop blood loss that was causing the hospital surgeons concern.
What happened to Martin Donnelly next?
Following the accident, Martin was determined to resume his Formula 1 career – but it wasn't to be. Despite a test with Jordan in 1993, further complications after subsequent surgeries meant that he was advised he wouldn't be able to race competitively again.
Speaking on Beyond the Grid, Martin recalled that while surgery was able to restore some of the movement in his leg, he came to accept that he would not be able to compete in F1 again.
"So after the first quadplasty, to me, that said, 'The guy upstairs is trying to tell you something, Martin'," he recalled. "'They brought you back to life three times. You've got a family now. You've got a life…. Let it go."
He added that the death of his friend and contemporary Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino grand prix also affected him, recalling: "He had a great life. He's three times world champion. Who am I compared to him?"
However, Martin remained in motorsport, maintaining his association with Lotus and later working as a steward in both F1 and at Goodwood events. He also works as a driver coach, speaks frequently at events, runs his own Donnelly Track Academy, and founded a racing team in his own name.
In 2011, Martin drove a Lotus 102 – the type of Formula 1 car he crashed in – at Goodwood for the first time since the accident.
"I can go out now in an F1 car. I drove the car at Goodwood some years ago, the first time back, and we organised to go fastest uphill that weekend," he recalled on Beyond the Grid.
"I got some special tyres, I may have won some hill climb tyres. And it wasn't an issue because there's no memory there [of the Jerez crash].
"And I go out racing now, you're wary of accidents, but you still go out there to prove a point and try and go out and win races."
Martin's life after Formula 1 has also seen him taking part in rallycross and touring car races, competing alongside his son Stefan at one point.
When asked by Tom Clarkson if he ever pondered what could have been, Martin replied: "I have to say that, you know, for me, the morning of my accident, I had four contracts after 13 Grand Prix, all paying me to drive. I hadn't got to bring any money.
"So I think that was a great adage on my abilities… who knows where we would have gone to after that?
"But I'm still here talking to you. I have a great family… So life's been good. You know, I haven't got millions behind me, but… you find people [who] have money behind them aren't necessarily any happier, you know?"
F1: The Movie is out now in cinemas, and will stream on Apple TV+ at a later date.
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