Gabriel Leone’s Red-Hot 'Ferrari' Debut

Like many Formula 1 fans, Gabriel Leone’s interest in the sport is relatively recent. Unlike many fans, it wasn’t megahit Netflix docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive that piqued his interest. It was a new job. “I'd say it wasn't until Ferrari,” he explains, that the sport truly clicked for him.

The Brazilian actor joins a dream cast of heavy hitters, including Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, and Patrick Dempsey, in the highly anticipated new Ferrari biopic. Leone humbly admits that it took diving headfirst into the role of F1 legend and international playboy Alfonso de Portago to fully appreciate the sport. Clearly, though, Leone got the racecar driver swagger just right. After wrapping what will no doubt be his breakthrough Hollywood role (the Michael Mann–directed film got a 7-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival), Leone was tapped to bring the history of the sport to life yet again in an upcoming Netflix miniseries — this time to play arguably the most iconic F1 driver (until Lewis Hamilton took the crown): fellow Brazilian Ayrton Senna da Silva. 

While the U.S. market has fallen in love with the sport’s full-throttle pace, behind-the-scenes drama, and, let’s be honest, heartthrob drivers like Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jr., it’s more than just hot guys in hot cars. Today, F1 is the world’s sexiest motorsport, attracting record-breaking audiences to ESPN’s coverage of the weekly races (with the Miami Grand Prix recently added to the already rigorous global racing schedule). After all, who doesn’t love scenic locations like Monaco and Monza, a steady flow of Veuve Clicquot, and drivers that look like models? 

In short, the appetite for a stylish period piece like Ferrari is at an all-time high. So, when Leone logs onto our Zoom interview (him from São Paulo, myself from Brooklyn) to chat about the film on his day off, he slips quickly into racing mode, explaining that while his love for F1 is new, there’s a long history of the sport in his home of Brazil. 

Growing up in the 1990s, the 30-year-old Leone feels he just missed Formula 1’s heyday in his home country. After the tragic passing of Senna in 1994, “I think Brazil kind of passed through grief, you know, in Formula 1, because we had two other drivers before and after him, but it wasn't the same,” he explains. “And so I kind of grew up in this world where we had lost our biggest idol, our biggest hero.”

Make no mistake, though, Leone delivers a magnetic, fully convincing performance as the swash-buckling de Portago. On-screen, he embodies all the charm and attitude you’d expect from a brash playboy descended from the King of Spain, wearing a swoon-worthy, devilish smile as he speeds around in a red Ferrari. His scenes with Driver (playing the titular Enzo Ferrari), especially, crackle and pop with one-upmanship and toxic machismo as the characters’ ultimately doomed hypercompetitiveness unfolds. 

Over Zoom, however, the actor is much more unassuming. “I wasn't a huge fan. I knew almost nothing about [racing]. But then I got the call last year to be in Ferrari, and I started doing more research. I started practicing on the track,” he says. Despite (or perhaps because of) his lack of personal experience, Leone credits extensive study — from reading obscure biographies to listening to interviews on vinyl — for his success.

To truly get into the mind of de Portago, however, Leone needed some real-life experience on the track. “I've always loved driving, but, like, regular cars, normal cars.” Racing, he explains, is a whole different animal. “When you're on a track, your mentality is to win,” he clarifies. “I remember one day, I was with a stunt driver, and he opened the map of the track, and he pointed to a big safety area. He said, ‘These two points, if you spin, nothing is going to happen… you're not going to die.’ So he said to me, ‘Allow yourself to brake later; allow yourself to make the mistake.’” 

Danger, of course, is the dark side of the draw of F1. Many of the sport’s greatest talents have crashed on the job, and there’s always an air of impending tragedy, which — without sharing too many spoilers — Ferrari seeks to capture. That pedal-to-the-metal sensation proved priceless for Leone. “When you lose control of the car, when you have this experience, that's when you start learning how not to lose in that situation… That's when I started changing my mentality, driving with more adrenaline and allowing myself to cross the line sometimes.”

Perhaps that taste of what it feels like to race without limits is why Leone developed so much respect for the sport. The actor cites, among others, McLaren as a standout team for its innovative approach to engineering and history of employing Brazilian drivers, and Hamilton as a source of inspiration. “I love Lewis because of the connection he has with Brazil, especially with Senna, who was Lewis’s biggest idol,” he says, adding that Hamilton, who’s spoken out against racism and advocated for more diversity in racing, is an amazing role model on and off the track. “I really admire him not only, of course, as one of the greatest drivers of all time, but as a human being.”

Granted, the glamorous, champagne-and-air-travel side of Formula 1, which is largely responsible for its popularity amongst the fashion crowd, informed his performance, too. He spent months enjoying the Italian countryside and filming in Modena. He bonded with the Ferrari cast over afternoon aperitivo. He took ballroom dancing lessons to channel de Portago’s upper-crust background (Mann insisted that it would help him achieve the right posture) and focused on acting in English for the first time (Mann also urged Leone to keep his Brazilian accent, as it's similar to de Portago’s vaguely European cadence). 

“He was [a] gentleman,” says Leone of de Portago. “He was a sportsman who rode horses; he went to the Olympics with the Spanish bobsled team. And one day, he just decided because he had the money, he wanted to start driving professionally,” which is what got the attention of Enzo Ferrari. “When the script describes my character, it describes him as a young [Marlon] Brando — not only because of the way he dressed but because of his energy, because of this background being a playboy and full of confidence.”

Leone also got to work with personal heroes in Driver and Mann on Ferrari, which, as he tells it, was the absolute highlight of the experience. “Adam is a big reference for me as an actor, so to have most of my scenes with him was phenomenal,” he says. “He was super kind to me. We've had a great time together.” It wasn’t just good vibes on set; there was hard work, too. Leone learned a great deal observing Driver’s performance on countless repeat takes (a technique Mann is known for employing). “He's a phenomenal actor. All of his takes had something new and fresh, something unpredictable,” says Leone of Driver.

Post shooting, Leone returned to his home in Brazil with a few new keepsakes: A photo of his father, who’s been a huge Mann fan for years, with the storied director (“It was a magical moment for me. My dad was there, watching that guy directing me”); some stylish pieces swiped from the set (“my gloves, my scarf, and the goggles”); oh, and the famous Brando-inspired moto jacket ("The costume guy promised me he would give me it at the premiere — thank you for the reminder"). And last but not least, a new favorite cocktail, courtesy of the Italian coast. “I got really addicted in a good way, of course, to Aperol Spritzes.”