the other ferrari

An eyewear frame is more than something worn. It shapes how the world is seen and, more subtly, how one moves through it. 

For ic! berlin that relationship among design, engineering and innovation has been at the heart of the brand since its conception in Berlin in 1996, when Ralph Anderl, Philipp Haffmans and Harald Gottschling set out to challenge the conventions of eyewear. Today, that same approach has led the brand into a new chapter through its partnership with Audi Revolut F1® Team. As the team’s official eyewear partner, ic! berlin has launched the Racing Edition capsule, featuring two sunglasses inspired by Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.

To experience the partnership beyond the frame itself, Schön! travelled first to Neuburg, home to the engine manufacturing, before continuing to Monza, where engineering meets the energy and spectacle of a race weekend. The journey offered a chance to explore the thinking behind the collaboration, and the shared values that connect two brands working in very different industries.
The connection between ic! berlin and Audi Revolut F1® Team is rooted in more than shared German heritage. Both brands work where weight, materials, and fine technical details make a massive difference, and neither identity is limited to pure utility. As Managing Director Davide Lunghi notes, ic! berlin is “a designer brand with strong fashion affinities and strong sport affinities; not a fashion brand, and not a sports brand.” That distinction is central to understanding the brand’s evolution.

Instead of traditional construction, they turned to cold-rolled stainless steel, minimalist architecture and a screwless hinge that would become one of the brand’s defining signatures. 

Laser-cut from a single sheet of 0.5 mm stainless spring steel, Jack was the very first ic! berlin model. Built on the ambition of maximum durability with minimal material, it set the standard for all their glasses that followed. At the time, the ic! berlin frame was designed almost like a technical tool. As Lunghi recalls, the early design was “the eyewear of the surgeon, the designer, the architect.” Precise, lightweight, and functional, it spoke to a clientele drawn to engineering excellence as much as aesthetics.

Three decades later, that original thinking remains intact, even as the brand’s creative vocabulary has expanded. More sculptural proportions and expressive silhouettes have brought a fashion-forward dimension, particularly for women, while materials including acetate and carbon fibre have opened new possibilities. FLEXARBON®, for instance, carries the pursuit of lightness into a material closely associated with the automotive world, while gold and bronze finishes are integrated directly into the stainless-steel construction rather than simply applied as ornament.

Around 80 percent of production continues to take place in Berlin, where frames are handcrafted in the brand’s manufactory. Now part of the Marcolin Group, ic! berlin has become an internationally recognised design name without losing its connection to its origins. 

The brand’s production philosophy remains remarkably close to the one that defined Jack: precision, durability and functionality. Perhaps the strongest proof is found in those who have worn ic! berlin frames for decades, returning not to replace them, but to have them repaired. Good engineering, after all, should be built to endure.

That ethos provides a natural introduction to the Racing Edition. The accompanying campaign, “From 0.5 mm to 300 km/h,” draws a direct line between the two worlds: from the precision of thin stainless steel at the foundation of an ic! berlin frame to the extraordinary speeds of a race car.

The Racing Edition reflects that balance. The silhouettes take on a more dynamic, race-inspired character, while the construction remains distinctly ic! berlin – lightweight, resilient and considered down to the smallest detail. Rather than simply borrowing visual cues from motorsport, the collaboration finds its common ground in a shared approach to performance: understanding how every material, proportion and component can contribute to the whole.

The first stop, Neuburg, offered a closer look at how that approach translates from concept into motion. Home to the engine manufacturing, the Audi driving experience puts performance and control directly in the driver’s hands. Moving across the lineup – from the R8 and RS e-tron GT to the RS 5 – is an ongoing study in power, weight, grip, and balance. On the track, every input creates an instant reaction: braking drives weight forward, acceleration shifts it back, and cornering loads the tyres with physical force. Mastering the track isn’t just about speed; it demands rhythm, anticipation, and restraint. 

The journey continues to Monza, where that same discipline takes on an entirely different scale. Friday at the historic circuit carries an energy of its own. Engines echo across the track, cars flash through the corners and the paddock moves between intense preparation and the spectacle surrounding it. 

Within the Audi Revolut F1® Team garage, every detail has a purpose. Tyres are prepared and heated for their operating window, engineers work through streams of data, and mechanics move with an efficiency developed through repetition and experience. Every decision, adjustment and movement contributes to the car’s performance when it finally leaves the garage.

From a VIP balcony, the circuit reveals another perspective. The cars become flashes of colour and sound, while the vast operation behind them unfolds almost invisibly. What appears to be a few laps of racing is supported by an extraordinary network of people, technology and decisions.

And somewhere between the quiet mechanics of an eyewear hinge and the velocity of a race car, the logic of the partnership becomes clear. ic! berlin and Audi Revolut F1® Team may belong to different industries, but both understand that the most sophisticated design rarely announces everything that went into it. It is felt in the lightness of a frame, the response of a car, the confidence of a movement and the ability of every element to perform precisely as intended. From a 0.5 mm sheet of steel to a race car travelling beyond 300 km/h, the scale may change dramatically, but the principle remains the same: to make performance look effortless.

photography. courtesy of ic! berlin and Audi Revolut F1® Team
words. Clara La Rosa

Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II.

West Sussex rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as the Cotswolds or Cornwall when British luxury travel comes up, and yet it may well have a stronger claim to the title than either. Driving somewhere without having to think about the route, the traffic or whether your car is going to complain halfway up a country lane becomes such a freeing sensation in these environments. Instead of looking at the road, you get to enjoy the changing landscape: the colourful hills and hedgerows take over the decorating, transforming the journey into just as much a part of the experience as the destination itself.

Schön! alive spent a full day immersed in Sussex, travelling in style with Rolls-Royce across some of the county’s most distinctive corners: starting at the marque’s Home of British carmaker in Goodwood, breaking for lunch at Chalk at Wiston Estate, continuing into the countryside for an overnight stay at Gravetye Manor and finishing among contemporary art and woodland at Goodwood Art Foundation.

With the harshest British summer ever beginning to fade, the parched, sun-bleached fields lining the road only added to the drama of our vehicle’s arrival. Driving the latest Black Badge Cullinan Series II in a velvety shade of maroon, the first stop was perhaps the least obvious place to think of as a tourist attraction – though it’s certainly one of the county’s more compelling destinations if cars, design and craftsmanship rank highly on your list.

While exploring the Whispers lounge, a private waiting and hosting space for VIP clients, it quickly became clear that this pocket of Sussex runs considerably deeper into automotive history than the factory gates suggest. Henry Royce himself lived in the area and something of that legacy still lingers in how the headquarters carries itself. The architecture sits within carefully maintained landscaping, with geometric planting and honeycomb-inspired detailing echoing the marque’s own design language.

Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan Series II.

The Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood is the sole place where every car is designed, engineered and hand-built, with more than 2,500 people working across the global headquarters and Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence. Production here has followed an unusually considered rhythm since Goodwood began building cars in 2003, starting with the ‘Phantom’ before the ‘Ghost’ arrived in 2009, with further models following since. Around 6,000 cars are now sold globally every year, with each commissioned individually instead of being mass produced.

Clients visiting the headquarters get direct access to the design team, and the stories that emerge from those conversations say plenty about what personalisation actually means here. The Bespoke team has recreated colours drawn from flower petals, lipstick shades and other deeply personal references. One particularly memorable commission was inspired by a client’s golden retriever, Bailey, whose portrait was worked directly into the car’s interior.

Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II.

Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan Series II.

‘Black Badge’, the brand’s darker, more expressive sub-series introduced in 2016, now accounts for roughly 40 per cent of client requests. Its interiors carry their own nod to Sussex too: the Placed Perforation pattern found across the seating takes its abstract form from the shifting clouds above Goodwood at twilight, a pattern that can contain up to 107,000 individual perforations.

The site itself continues to evolve, with a 40,000 square metre extension currently in development and due to become operational in 2029, while an internal link road already connects the existing premises to the new area under construction.

From there, the road points towards the South Downs and lunch at Chalk, the restaurant at Wiston Estate. Set at the foot of the Downs, Chalk draws its food directly from the surrounding landscape, working with produce from the Estate, neighbouring farms and the Sussex coast. It currently holds its place in the Michelin Guide 2026 and was named Restaurant of the Year at the 2025–26 Beautiful South Awards, with its Estate Menu shifting alongside the seasons.

After the precision engineering of Rolls-Royce, the drive towards Gravetye Manor introduces a very different register of luxury. Roads curl between fields and woodland, buildings thin out and the landscape feels increasingly removed from everyday life.

Gravetye Manor.

Gravetye Manor, an Elizabethan house sitting on the Kent, Surrey and Sussex borders, has spent decades building a reputation few English country hotels can match. In October 2024, it became one of the first UK properties to receive Two Michelin Keys, alongside its existing Michelin star, four Red Stars and four Rosettes – an award recognising architecture and design, service, character, value and the hotel’s relationship with its surroundings.

The house sits within nearly a thousand acres of woodland, framed by 35 acres of formal gardens shaped by William Robinson, one of the most influential figures in English horticulture. “The house is very old, but it’s set in this beautiful Sussex landscape. We’ve got just under a thousand acres all around the hotel, so you really feel like you’re leaving the everyday behind,” says Celine Leslie, the hotel’s Director of Sales and Marketing. “What we try to create is an oasis of peace and tranquility here, where the pace is slower and you just take the time to enjoy the finer things in life.”

Gravetye Manor.
Room Photography by Sarah Frances Kelley.

The setting is gorgeous, but the food has enough personality to hold its own. The elliptical kitchen garden supplies much of the produce for the restaurant, alongside orchards, glasshouses, a Peach House and poly tunnels. Ingredients grown on the property, paired with produce sourced from Sussex producers, give the menu a strong sense of place.

Dinner began with homemade mushroom and jalapeño brioche, followed by tomato tea with kitchen-garden herbs and a plate of red and black radishes with perilla and baby shallots. A variation of garden beetroots came with Sussex Slipcote, pistachio, lovage and iced horseradish, alongside a kitchen-garden courgettes with tempura and basil. Dessert continued the theme, with an elderflower sherbet, whipped Islands chocolate with maraschino cherries and tonka bean. Sussex wine also remains central to the experience. Leslie points to local producers including Ridgeview, Nyetimber, Rathfinny and Kingscote, noting that the county’s still wines are becoming increasingly compelling alongside its better-known sparkling bottles. A glass of Sussex Bacchus provided the perfect accompaniment to dinner.

The following morning, the route circled back towards Goodwood for a more immersive adventure. Goodwood Art Foundation occupies seventy acres on the Estate, where contemporary art sits among woodland, meadow and carefully shaped gardens. Its programme is built around three pillars – art, landscape and learning – making it the perfect spot for families, art aficionados and tourists alike.

The grounds, known as Schwarzman Gardens, were reimagined by landscape designer Dan Pearson using a naturalistic approach that responds to the edge of the South Downs. Artworks are presented across the galleries and landscape, with the programme changing throughout the year and giving each new work a completely different relationship to its setting.

left.
Yayoi Kusama, ‘Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart’ (2023) at Goodwood Art Foundation. Photography by Maria Bell / Courtesy Goodwood Art Foundation. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy David Zwirner, Ota Fine Arts, and Victoria Miro
right.
Café 24 at Goodwood Art Foundation, designed by Studio Downie Architects. Photography by Gennaro Costanzo.

The current summer programme includes Nancy Holt, Eva Rothschild, Yayoi Kusama, Lee Ufan and Hélio Oiticica. Rothschild’s ‘The Machine Stops’, a new tapestry created with West Dean College’s Tapestry Studio, brings geometric colour into the softer surroundings; meanwhile Oiticica’s ‘Magic Square #3’ pushes the idea of art as an active experience further still, inviting visitors to walk through vivid planes of colour.

Among the most instantly recognisable works is Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart,’ placed directly within the Sussex landscape. Most people travel specifically to see the sculpture and the visual contrast with nature is part of its appeal: Kusama’s work has appeared in botanical gardens and wilderness settings around the world, but seeing one of her enormous pumpkins surrounded by Sussex woodland gives it an entirely different character.

Hélio Oiticica, ‘Magic Square #3’ Installed at Goodwood Art Foundation, UK © César and Claudio Oiticica. Photography by Maria Bell.

Lunch at 24, the Foundation’s restaurant, continues the same conversation with the landscape. Designed by Studio Downie and set among the trees, the dining room opens towards woodland views and a terrace, with a menu drawing on seasonal and foraged ingredients alongside produce from Goodwood’s organic Home Farm. Artist Polly Apfelbaum’s ceramics and works on paper are also installed throughout the space, giving lunch its own artistic layer.

West Sussex may not shout about luxury in the way some British destinations do, but perhaps that is part of its charm. The best of it is tucked away in the landscape, connected by country roads that make the journey feel like part of the whole experience. After two days of gardens, art, good food and exquisite wine, getting back into the Rolls-Royce and putting on the music for the drive home felt like a pretty good way to end things.

Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II.

photography. courtesy of Rolls-Royce, Sarah Frances Kelley, Maria Bell
words. Gennaro Costanzo

Ella Lloyd by Simon Lipman.

Welsh driver Ella Lloyd is part of a new generation of female drivers reshaping the pathway into professional motorsport. Now competing in F1 Academy as a member of the McLaren Driver Development Programme, Lloyd is gaining experience across some of the sport’s most competitive and technically demanding environments. Ahead of the upcoming Zandvoort round, she finds herself at an important stage in that progression, with the final races of the season providing another opportunity to prove herself on the single-seater ladder.

Within just a few years, Lloyd has progressed into F4 and F1 Academy, securing her first F1 Academy victory in Jeddah and most recently taking a podium at Silverstone, her home race.

Ella Lloyd by Simon Lipman.

Ahead of Zandvoort, Lloyd spoke about her unconventional journey into racing and the experiences that have brought her from Wales to the F1 Academy grid and McLaren’s Driver Development Programme, offering a closer look at the person and career behind one of motorsport’s emerging young talents. 
  You come from a background of ski racing and show jumping rather than traditional karting. What first sparked your passion for motorsport, and what made you believe racing was the path you wanted to pursue?

I’ve always been around cars and motorsport. My dad did rallying, as did my brother, and my mum also got her rally licence, so it was always part of my life in some way. I made the transition to cars in 2022, when I went for a test in a Tatuus Junior at Blyton Park. The team manager wanted me to race the following season, so we thought, “Why not? Let’s give it a go.” It all happened quite quickly from there. I’ve always loved cars, but actually driving one is completely different. Being able to push it around a track at high speed and feel that adrenaline was something I really loved, and it made me realise that racing was something I wanted to pursue. 

What skills from your previous sport shaped your approach behind the wheel? 

Show jumping and ski racing are quite different from motorsport, but I learned a lot from both that translated well into racing and made the switch easier and quicker. With show jumping, you develop a real feel for what the horse is doing underneath you, which is quite similar to feeling what the car is doing beneath you through the seat. Ski racing also taught me to adapt quickly to changing conditions. The surface is never quite the same – you can go from ice to powder, just as we can go from dry to wet or somewhere in between on track. Even during testing at the start of the year, when it can be cold and icy, you have to constantly adjust. That ability to adapt has helped me a lot as a driver.

Joining McLaren is something many young drivers dream of. When you received that opportunity, did it feel like a defining moment? What did it mean to you personally?

It meant everything. I’d only been racing for three years, so being scouted by McLaren at that stage was quite unbelievable – I honestly didn’t expect it to happen. My goal had always been to compete in F1 Academy, and if I could have chosen a team, McLaren would have been my first choice. To be able to join the team and have their support while competing in F1 Academy means a lot to me.

Ella Lloyd by Simon Lipman.

As part of the Driver Development Programme, you’re surrounded by one of the biggest teams in motorsport and exposed to the standard of Formula 1. What have you learned through the programme that has had the biggest impact on your day-to-day development?

I have a lot of support from McLaren and the DDP team, but I also have access to the wider Formula 1 team. If I need advice or help, I can always reach out to them. There’s a lot that goes into the programme, from fitness — because these cars are really physical — to media training and preparing for all kinds of interviews, including the more difficult questions. I’ve also had some amazing opportunities through McLaren, including driving the Formula E car. That was my first experience in Formula E, during the first female test, and it was such a different experience from driving an F4 car. I’ve been really lucky to have all of these opportunities so early in my career. 

What surprised you most about the Formula E car?

The power was probably what shocked me most. It’s electric, has so much more power, and feels completely different from anything I’d driven before. Since the power is instant, it was a real shock when I first got in, especially as it is a lot heavier than what I am used to. It was very different to drive, but such a good experience. The car was incredibly fast, and although it took a bit of getting used to, I loved every minute of it.

You’ve seen F1 drivers like Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri operate at the highest level. What have you learned from their approach to preparation, feedback and performance that you’re applying to your own career?

Ella Lloyd by Simon Lipman.

I haven’t spent too much time with Lando and Oscar on race weekends or behind the scenes, so it’s difficult to say exactly. From watching them, one thing I’ve noticed is that whether you’ve had a good weekend or a bad one, you have to reset for the next race. You can’t assume the next one will be good just because the last one was, or dwell on it if it was bad. They seem to do that really well — they stay level-headed and keep working hard for the next one. That’s something I try to take into my own racing.

You secured a podium at Silverstone, your home race. Does racing at home bring extra pressure, or extra motivation?

Not pressure — definitely motivation. You have so many fans there, and there were so many Welsh people as well, which was amazing. Silverstone is one of the most iconic Grands Prix of the year. I think there were over 500,000 people there, so the atmosphere was incredible. I raced there last year too, but this year felt even more meaningful. To get a podium on home soil, or at least the closest I’m going to get to home, was amazing. Standing on that podium in front of everyone and seeing the support throughout the weekend made it even more memorable. It’s always a great feeling to be on the podium, wherever you are, but having so many people there cheering you on made it even better.

As a female driver in a traditionally male-dominated sport, what’s the biggest mental challenge and do you feel a responsibility to inspire the next generation of women entering motorsport?

It is quite a male-dominated sport, but F1 Academy is doing an amazing job of inspiring the younger generation of women to get into motorsport — not just as drivers, but also on the engineering and mechanics side.

Personally, it doesn’t really bother me. We’re all in the same car, and ultimately it’s about what you can achieve as a driver. Out on track, nobody wants to be overtaken, so you’ve got to get your elbows out, which I do. It’s not about proving anyone wrong; it’s about showing that you’re there to fight and to win.

I see myself as the same as everyone else — I’m just a person driving a car. As long as I can fight at the front and put in the same lap times as everyone else, I’m happy. If I can inspire other young women along the way, then that’s a bonus.

Looking ahead, what’s the next step you’re working towards, and what does success at the highest level look like for you?

We’ve got three rounds left of F1 Academy, so I want to keep working hard and achieve the best results I can. I’m not sure what next year will look like yet, but I’d like to keep moving up the single-seater ladder and continue building a career in motorsport. For now, I’m focused on finishing this season as strongly as possible, and hopefully that will allow me to take the next step next year.

photography. courtesy of Simon Lipman
words + production. Clara La Rosa