When F1: The Movie finally drops in 2025, audiences won’t just be watching another racing film—they’ll be living inside Formula 1 itself. That’s because Brad Pitt, director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), and F1 legend Lewis Hamilton took things to a whole new level. They didn’t shoot this movie on green screens or sound stages. Instead, they filmed live during real Formula 1 race weekends, on the exact same tracks as Max Verstappen and Lewis himself. And that’s only the beginning
Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a former F1 champion pulled back into the sport to mentor rookie sensation Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris. But the insane part? Pitt wasn’t acting from a studio chair. He was actually driving a real F2-modified car on tracks like Silverstone and Spa—sometimes just minutes before or after an actual Grand Prix practice session. According to director Kosinski, they had just 10 to 15-minute windows between real F1 sessions to capture all their shots. No do-overs. No CGI tricks. This is the most realistic racing film ever attempted.
Lewis Hamilton wasn’t just listed as a producer. He was deeply involved on set, helping with everything from driver training to script accuracy. Crew members said Lewis would walk up mid-scene and say, “Nope, that’s Turn 12, not Turn 16,” making sure every corner and gear shift was true to the sport. Hamilton made sure the film passed what he called the “smell test” for diehard fans—and helped the actors learn how F1 really works.
Damson Idris also went through serious training. He didn’t just hop in and pretend—he started in go-karts, worked up to F3, and eventually handled a real F2 car just like Pitt. “The first time I saw Brad in that cockpit I was like, wait… they’re really letting him drive that fast?” he joked. Pitt, meanwhile, took the role so seriously that Kosinski described him as a “naturally gifted driver.” The respect between the actors and real drivers on the grid was mutual—nobody phoned this in.
To make the film even more authentic, the crew followed the entire F1 calendar like an actual team. From the garages at Silverstone to the paddocks in Abu Dhabi, F1: The Movie had its own fake team—APXGP—with working pit crews, uniforms, and even hospitality units. Fans at real races were stunned to see Pitt and Idris rolling out of garages during live weekends. The line between fiction and reality was blurred like never before.
Even the sound is tuned for speed. Hans Zimmer, the legendary composer behind Interstellar and The Dark Knight, created a gritty electronic score meant to match the raw violence of a car at 200mph. He designed a specific “gunslinger” theme for Pitt’s character—showing the emotional weight of a man returning to a sport that nearly killed him. When all these elements collide, F1: The Movie becomes something we’ve never seen before: a film where real racing meets real acting, shot at real speed, in front of a real crowd.
