crankandpiston spends an hour or two behind the scenes with Formula 1 driver Charles Pic during filming for a new Renault viral ad campaign at the marque’s Al Qiyada Showroom in Dubai, UAE.
Rather amazingly – and I know you’ll have spent just as much time as I have pondering this – the Renault Koleos has been with us in one form or another for nearly 12 years. Indeed, as a futuristically sculpted (and therefore inevitably to-be-changed) Concept model, the Koleos first broke cover at the Geneva Motor Show in 2000. But despite a follow-up appearance at the Paris Motor Show in 2006, it would be another two years before the compact crossover SUV finally hit production. Since then, the Renault has rolled off the Gallic conveyor belts in Korea, India and – as recently as last year – Russia.
Fascinating stuff, no? Of course, while the Koleos has been steadily going about its business following in the wheel tracks of the Scénic and the Megane (all of which share the same platform), up against the might of the Toyota Land Cruisers, Nissan Patrols and Chevrolet Trailblazers in the Middle East, the Koleos stood little chance of poking the Renault diamond above water.
Renault execs clearly felt the same way, and recently greenlit a viral ad campaign exclusive to the GCC. The star, as well as the four-cylinder Koleos, is Charles Pic, current Formula One driver for the Caterham F1 Team whose single seaters are powered by Renault engines.
We managed to grab a few quick words with Charles. Turns out, despite the rather knackering schedule of racing in the Chinese Grand Prix, a quick sojourn to Dubai for filming and then racing in the Bahrain Grand Prix, he was really enjoying the experience:
“It’s quite a long day,” Charles explains, “but everything seems to be going very well. It’s not always very easy to do this between races, because you first have to recover from the last race, and then you have to prepare for the next one. Sometimes there are other commitments, like today. But I’m very happy with the way today has gone, and yeah, I’m enjoying it.”
Now while it was tempting to ask the young Frenchman to walk us through a day on the set with producers DPPI Média and director Michel Poupineau, a call up from make-up and the end of the crew’s lunch break made this a bit difficult. But the garcons et femmes at Renault did invite crankandpiston to stay and let our inquisitive natures run wild about ‘the bizz’. Turns out there’s a few secret tricks of the trade…
