In Full Tank the high-stakes, testosterone-driven, world of the legendary 24-hour Le Mans race is explored through the eyes of Swiss property developer (and competitive sailor) Esteban Garcia, who turns his dream of taking part into reality as his 50th birthday draws near, seeing him competing alongside professional drivers.
Sharing the driving duties with experienced racer Loïc Duval and relative newcomer Norman Nato, Esteban is pushed to physical and psychological limits as his Real Team Racing outfit tests and prepares for the ultimate challenge of skill and endurance.
Astutely, though, the filmmaking team of Julia Bünter and Benjamin Bucher take their camera into all aspects of the race track as well as dwelling on the drivers and the machinery. The turbo-charged engines sit alongside birdsong and moments of silence on the soundtrack, while clever cuts to nature delightfully parallel the throbbing speed of the vehicles. Full Tank succeeds as an intriguingly immersive delve into a complex and technical world, with the filmmakers favouring an off-beat tone that keeps things breezy and interesting.
At the centre of the film is Estaban, though the film never makes an attempt to make it all about him. While it is never discussed on screen, he is the one behind the Real Team outfit, having previously raced in Formule Renault. As is stated in the driver section on the team’s website, Esteban has always been a motorsport enthusiast, in particular thanks to his Realteam Sailing team, saying: “Sailing and motorsport are relatively similar in many ways. They are mechanical sports, which emphasise teamwork, precision and excellence.”
As he says in an interview, he has taken the driver number 50 because that is the age he is about reach, and with the encouragement and advice from his fellow drivers he continues to grow and develop the skills needed to race in the gruelling Le Mans event. From one race to the next (there is footage from races at Spa and Monza) the team refines the car and their tactics with the sole objective of overtaking opponents and ultimately winning.
The film is at its most immersive as it follows the cars screaming around the various tracks complemented by the racers’ ultra-technical jargon, all the time providing a sense of dizziness and throbbing speed. But what is most intriguing are the moments of quiet – two drivers take electric scooters around one of the tracks to work out best driving lines; Esteban is plugged into a virtual driving cockpit to practice his moves; birds sing track-side and alongside footage of the team practicing its refuelling and tyre-changing skills is footage of wasps bunching atop a metal screw.
The behind-the-scenes material blend nicely with the on-track footage, with Julia Bünter and Benjamin Bucher delivering a film that both informs and entertains. These days the technical minutiae of motor-racing is covered in depth by terrestrial and cable broadcasters who seem to have almost unlimited access to all technical aspects of races and teams, but Full Tank rather gently offers an alternative and often more human-orientated spin on the subject, with attention placed more on the inner workings of the drivers (or ‘pilots’ are they are called here) than the super-sophisticated and ultra-technical engines and vehicles.
Switzerland, 2023, 63mins
Dirs: Benjamin Bucher & Julia Bünter
Production/sales: Bande à Part Films
Producer: Jean-Stéphane Bron
Cinematography: Benjamin Bucher
Editor: Orsola Valenti
With: Esteban Garcia, Loïc Duval, Norman Nato
