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“This Barbie Is Charles”: Ahead of Margot Robbie’s Mega Release, Ferrari Driver Leclerc’s Miseries Unknowingly Promotes $100,000,000 Venture With $225 Collectible

Published 07/13/2023, 12:49 PM EDT

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Ferrari x Barbie – A collaboration that the people in the late 80s did not expect. There are a lot of commonalities between the 2 brands. As much as Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc is spoken about in the F1 world, Barbie is now being spoken about in the world of entertainment. The Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling feature film is set to hit the theatres on the 21st of July. And without being prompted to do so, Leclerc has unknowingly promoted the $100 million budget movie.

2019 was a landmark year for Ferrari and Barbie. For Ferrari, that was the year that Leclerc joined them, replacing Kimi Raikkonen. And for the Barbie movie, Margot Robbie was cast as the lead in the same year. Who knew that their paths would cross 4 years later without any voluntarily planned promotional activity? But here we are.

The first time Barbie and Ferrari collaborated was in 1986 to release a co-branded toy car. And that partnership was successful and so they continued doing it. In 2000, Barbie released a special limited edition doll that still can be seen on eBay listings for $225, dressed in the iconic red Ferrari color and the Ferrari logo as a diamante hairpiece. And that line was expanded a bit as well.

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Ahead of the release of the movie, one fan caught hold of two such dolls that were dressed in Ferrari outfits. One doll was wearing the race outfit that the Maranello team had back in the day and had a racing helmet in her hand. And the other doll was dressed in a Ferrari-branded jacket and skirt. But what caught the eyes of fans was the latter doll’s defective eyes. And thereon, the connection between the movie and Leclerc’s struggles started on Twitter.

If there had to be some promotion of the movie, the producers would have rather preferred none over such an unusual social media activity.

Fans Milk Charles Leclerc’s Misery as Barbie Suffers From Ferrari’s Substandard F1 Reputation

The last World Championship that Ferrari won was in 2008. After that, their story has been a demotivating one and one that is better not discussed. They have had world champion drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen in their car but to no avail. Their strategies during live races have been drawing mass criticism and Leclerc has been in the thick of that storm for the last 4 years. So for Margot Robbie, such a crossover of the sports and entertainment worlds might be interesting but definitely not ideal.

For all we know, this could be a planned promotion for Oppenheimer as well, with the atomic explosions leading to the doll losing her eyes. But, let’s avoid the far-reaching stuff and stick to what’s actually happening. Here is what the fans had to say about the crossover and the hilarious comparisons that were drawn between Leclerc and Ferrari, and that defective Barbie doll:

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With the Greta Gerwig directorial set to take the globe by awe in a week, they can just keep their fingers crossed that these comparisons don’t take to the masses and remain limited to F1 fans. And as for Leclerc, here too, he is as helpless and at Ferrari’s mercy as he is during any race weekend.

WATCH THIS STORY | Charles Leclerc Picked as the Perfect Replacement for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes Despite Disturbing “Issues” in His Head

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Written by:

Yash Kotak

590Articles

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Yash is a F1 writer at EssentiallySports. With a strong passion for communicating through written word and a keen interest in the world of motorsports, he thoroughly enjoys being a fan of F1 and covering it for other fans. Ever since he watched the 'INSIDE TRACKS' episode covering the 2018 German Grand Prix, he has fallen in love with the intriguingly complex world of F1.
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Edited by:

Aishwary Gaonkar