Largest exhibition

“It is the largest exhibition that the Caramulo Museum has ever mounted, dedicated to the passion of Formula 1 [F1]. It's called “Magic Formula”, because it really touches the hearts when we talk about Formula 1,” said Salvador Patrício Gouveia.

The exhibition opens to the public on 18 July at 10 am and can be visited until 18 October at the Caramulo Museum in Tondela, Viseu district – inaugurated in 1959 –whose space dedicated to cars has now been adapted.

"Everything was sealed in sunlight, with everything painted black, to allow for an immersive experience" for the visitor, who can also view the cars with background images of some drivers, said the Museum's director.

"These are pieces from museums, from collectors, from Lotus itself. We travelled the world with great logistics, large insurance policies, and a lot of investment to guarantee this unique collection of models," he stressed.

The exhibition "attempts to portray at least five decades of F1 and drivers, and other formulas, but above all, with cars from the golden age" of this top category of motorsport.

Also speaking to the Lusa news agency, the director of the Caramulo Museum highlighted that this exhibition includes about 30 cars, in an "absolutely unique collection in Portugal" accessible to the public.

Salvador Gouveia highlighted “the Lotus 97T, with which the Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna (1960-1994) achieved his first Formula 1 victory, at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix”, at the Estoril Autodrome, in the municipality of Cascais, district of Lisbon.

“It is a very significant car not only in the history of F1, but also in Portugal,” emphasised Salvador Patrício Gouveia.

Also part of the exhibition

Also part of the exhibition are Nelson Piquet's Lotus 100T; Nigel Mansell's Williams FW14; Ayrton Senna's Williams FW16; Jean Alesi's Benetton B196 and Jordan 199; Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Sauber C18 and Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F2005.

The exhibition includes “cars that were already in Portugal, but no one had ever seen them because they are in private collections” and, therefore, “it’s like an official presentation to the public, because they have never been seen before.”

“We also have a very large collection of original artefacts, such as costumes, helmets, trophies, gloves, and many pieces that came from outside Brazil,” he detailed.

History of F1 in Portugal

The exhibition integrates “the history of F1 in Portugal, and Portugal in F1,” that motorsport that began in 1950 and which featured the participation and prominence of Portuguese drivers, he added.

“Nicha Cabral, the first F1 driver in Portugal, in the 1960s, and also Pedro Matos Chaves, Pedro Lamy, and Tiago Monteiro, who are represented here with cars and other pieces alluding to their careers,” he emphasised.

Among the cars of Portuguese drivers, he mentioned Pedro Lamy's Lotus 107B and the Jordan EJ15 with which Tiago Monteiro achieved third place in the 2005 United States Grand Prix.

Logistical reason

For logistical reasons, the cars are not all concentrated in the Caramulo Museum, with a good portion located in the Caramulo Experience Centre, about a kilometre and a half away, which can be visited with the same ticket as the exhibition in the Museum.

In this space, in addition to most of the F1 cars being on display, "a few, from the Caramulo Museum's collection," it will also be possible to "live experiences" in interactive spaces.

"We will have simulators, some interactive kiosks with challenges for people to answer. Basically, it's a test to see if they could be F1 drivers and another [survey] into F1 culture," he indicated.

In October, Salvador Patrício Gouveia anticipated, "an F1 car will be on the street with the driver, a world champion who will go up the ramp" of Caramulo in that car.