“Jann Mardenborough was a shy Cardiff teenager who loved his Gran Turismo computer game,” The Guardian wrote in 2012; “he’d spend time in his bedroom, where he played video games.” “At home, I had always played GT on a tiny 17-inch screen,” he told PlayStation.Blog. “In the middle of 2011, Mardenborough had entered an online competition on Gran Turismo 5 that offered one final shot at the real thing”: GT Academy, the “programme run by Nissan and Sony,” as The Guardian later put it, “a program giving contestants the opportunity to go from video games to real competition on the track,” in the words of the Le Mans organizers. GTPlanet says it ran “with 90,000 players attempting it.”
“I had no professional racing experience otherwise,” he said. “He passed the test at Brands Hatch and later, at Silverstone, beat 11 other finalists to the place as a GT Academy driver,” The Guardian reported. “At 19 years old, I first got behind the wheel of a 485-horsepower GTR at Silverstone Circuit,” he recalled. The race camp “culminated in a grand finale with the remaining competitors in a head-to-head race. Jann did win that race,” GTPlanet says, and “After winning, Jann called his mother from the podium to say ‘I kinda won GT Academy.’” Nissan dates it: “Since winning Season Three of GT Academy in June 2011.”
“In six months he and the winner of the US GT Academy, Bryan Heitkotter, gained their international racing licences, a process that normally takes three years,” The Guardian wrote. In January 2012, “Mardenborough, who’d never set foot in a racing car, was at the wheel of a serious piece of kit in the Dubai 24 Hour race,” and “Mardenborough brings the car home with ease and the team is on the podium.” GTPlanet: “They did, however, claim a podium finish in class.”
In June 2013 came Le Mans. “British driver Jann Mardenborough … finished third in the LM P2 class in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans participations, alongside Michael Krumm and Lucas Ordonez,” the race organizers wrote. The result came after a disqualification: evo reported Nissan and Mardenborough “promoted to third place in Le Mans 2013’s LMP2 class following the disqualification of the G-Drive Racing Oreca Nissan.” In February 2014, as The Guardian’s headline put it, “Red Bull snap up PlayStation champion Jann Mardenborough,” “The 22-year-old, who learned to race on games consoles.”
Then came Hollywood. PlayStation.Blog describes him “going from Gran Turismo fan to pro driver and subject of a Hollywood movie,” the film Gran Turismo, released in 2023, and he did “stunt driving for the film about his incredible life,” performing “stunt driving sequences on behalf of the actor depicting you,” as the interviewer put it. The film changed things: “Jack Salter from Gran Turismo is not a real person,” Dexerto notes of his coach in the film. Mardenborough’s own message: “I hope people take away that you can do anything you dream and set your mind to.”
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- He learned to race on a PlayStation, but two years later he raced at Le Mans. The Guardian: “The 22-year-old, who learned to race on games consoles.” Mardenborough, to PlayStation.Blog: “At home, I had always played GT on a tiny 17-inch screen.” Nissan: “Since winning Season Three of GT Academy in June 2011”; Le Mans was in June 2013 (24h-lemans.com). 2486
- His name is Jann Mardenborough. The Guardian (2014): “Red Bull snap up PlayStation champion Jann Mardenborough.” 2
- As a shy teenager in Cardiff, he played Gran Turismo in his bedroom. The Guardian: “Jann Mardenborough was a shy Cardiff teenager who loved his Gran Turismo computer game”; “he’d spend time in his bedroom, where he played video games”; “He returned quietly to his bedroom, where he took to the next best thing – virtual racing on the video game Gran Turismo.” 1
- Then, in 2011, he entered a contest to turn gamers into racing drivers. The Guardian: “In the middle of 2011, Mardenborough had entered an online competition on Gran Turismo 5 that offered one final shot at the real thing.” 24h-lemans.com: GT Academy, “a program giving contestants the opportunity to go from video games to real competition on the track.” The Guardian (2014): “GT Academy programme run by Nissan and Sony.” 162
- He was up against 90,000 gamers. The Guardian: “Out of 90,000 other virtual racers.” BBC Newsbeat: “After beating 90,000 other gamers.” GTPlanet: “with 90,000 players attempting it.” 135
- He had never driven a real race car. The Guardian: “Mardenborough, who’d never set foot in a racing car, was at the wheel of a serious piece of kit in the Dubai 24 Hour race.” Mardenborough, to PlayStation.Blog: “I had no professional racing experience otherwise.” 14
- But at Silverstone, he beat 11 other finalists in real cars. The Guardian: “He passed the test at Brands Hatch and later, at Silverstone, beat 11 other finalists to the place as a GT Academy driver.” Mardenborough: “at 19 years old, I first got behind the wheel of a 485-horsepower GTR at Silverstone Circuit.” Nissan: “Since winning Season Three of GT Academy in June 2011.” GTPlanet: the race camp “culminated in a grand finale with the remaining competitors in a head-to-head race. Jann did win that race.” 1485
- He called his mother from the podium: “I kinda won GT Academy.” GTPlanet: “After winning, Jann called his mother from the podium to say ‘I kinda won GT Academy.’” 5
- In January 2012, he raced the Dubai 24 Hour. The Guardian (April 2012): “in January this year, Mardenborough … was at the wheel … in the Dubai 24 Hour race.” 1
- His team made the podium. The Guardian: “Mardenborough brings the car home with ease and the team is on the podium.” GTPlanet: “They did, however, claim a podium finish in class.” 15
- In June 2013, he raced the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 24h-lemans.com: “British driver Jann Mardenborough … finished third in the LM P2 class in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans participations, alongside Michael Krumm and Lucas Ordonez” (a photo on the page is captioned “THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013, QUALIFYING”). 6
- In his first try, he finished third in his class. 24h-lemans.com: he “finished third in the LM P2 class in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans participations.” evo: “promoted to third place in Le Mans 2013’s LMP2 class following the disqualification of the G-Drive Racing Oreca Nissan.” 67
- Hollywood later made his story into a film. PlayStation.Blog: “going from Gran Turismo fan to pro driver and subject of a Hollywood movie”; “Gran Turismo arrives exclusively in US theaters August 25.” 4
- And he drove in it. PlayStation.Blog: “stunt driving for the film about his incredible life”; “you also got the opportunity to perform stunt driving sequences on behalf of the actor depicting you.” 4
- “You can do anything you dream and set your mind to,” he said. Mardenborough, to PlayStation.Blog: “I hope people take away that you can do anything you dream and set your mind to.” 4
Sources
- From gamer to racing driver (Giles Richards, April 29, 2012) The Guardian / The Observer
- Red Bull snap up PlayStation champion Jann Mardenborough (February 17, 2014) The Guardian
- ‘PlayStation racer’ signed up to compete at GP3 (February 17, 2014) BBC Newsbeat
- Gran Turismo movie Q&A: Jann Mardenborough’s ‘gamer to racer’ story (August 24, 2023) PlayStation.Blog
- ‘Gran Turismo’ Fact Check: The Real True Story of Jann Mardenborough (August 26, 2023) GTPlanet
- 24 stories from 2013 – 16 of 24: Nissan, titles, wins and young talents 24h-lemans.com
- Nissan and Mardenborough promoted to Le Mans podium (June 2013) evo
- Jann Mardenborough (driver page) Nissan
- Is Gran Turismo based on a true story? Dexerto
Notes
“Never driven a real race car”: BBC Newsbeat says “Three years ago Jann Mardenborough had never even been to a racing track, let alone driven on one,” and he told PlayStation.Blog “I had never karted nor driven on a track”; but The Guardian says his father took him to a kart circuit at eight (“I stopped when I was 11”), and Nissan says he went to a kart track six times at 10. The Short says only that he had never driven a real race car (The Guardian: “who’d never set foot in a racing car”).
Le Mans: the car crossed the line fourth in LMP2 and was promoted to third after the G-Drive car was disqualified for a fuel tank over the limit (evo, which also said that team would appeal); the organizers’ own 2013 review lists him third in class. The Short says “finished third in his class,” not that he stood on the podium.
Dubai: The Guardian says “the team is on the podium,” GTPlanet “a podium finish in class.” The Short says “His team made the podium.”
“Eleven other finalists” is The Guardian’s number for the GT Academy finalists at Silverstone. The final head-to-head race itself had fewer cars; the Short doesn’t claim eleven cars were in one race.
The film: Gran Turismo (2023) changed events and invented people. Its coach, Jack Salter, “is not a real person” (Dexerto); GTPlanet says he “appears to be an amalgamation of several people.” Popular clips built on the film’s dialogue are not used.
Jann Mardenborough is alive and racing. Only race results, published interviews and his own words are used. His mother appears only through his own podium call, unnamed; Lucas Ordóñez and Michael Krumm are named only as his co-drivers. Left out: his family’s private life and money, and the later end of his Nissan contract.
Pictures: no free photo shows the GT Academy final, the Dubai 24 Hour race or a Le Mans podium. Only the five Le Mans photos show his own 2013 race: car 42, the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan he shared with Lucas Ordóñez and Michael Krumm, photographed by Surreal Name Given on June 22–23, 2013 (four photos, one of them LMP2 cars under the Dunlop bridge with car 42 among them) and by Pahazzard on June 23, 2013; who is at the wheel in those frames isn’t known. Jann himself is in Robk23oxf’s portrait at the British GT round at Brands Hatch on August 31, 2014, in his Arden GP3 car at Silverstone on July 5, 2014 (Jake Archibald), not the GT Academy final, and in his Formula Three car at Brands Hatch on May 18, 2013 (Mark Seymour), not the film. Caroline Street in Cardiff is from April 7, 2010 (mattbuck); the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 (Evan-Amos) and the Logitech Driving Force GT wheel (Gordonrox24, 2011) are not his; the GT Academy Nissan 350Z at Goodwood is a fan’s photo from July 2008 (Brian Snelson), not his car; Silverstone is seen from a SkySat satellite on July 2, 2018 (Planet Labs, Inc.); the Dubai Autodrome finish line is from November 2006 (Curtis Palmer); and the Nissan GT-R used in filming Gran Turismo was photographed on display on June 2, 2023 (TaurusEmerald), a photo of the car, not a film still.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Beethoven, Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, CC0); Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68: IV. Adagio - Piu andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, CC0).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
.jpg){kind=link}
_(9344193155).jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
_-_Dallara_F312_Volkswagen_(9255750423).jpg){kind=link}