Will Brad Pitt really race an F1 car for his new movie? Not quite

Brad Pitt will do a Tom Cruise in his new Formula One movie — which is directed and produced by Maverick is the Top Gun in Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer — by driving a race car for real, on actual race weekends, starting at the 2023 British Grand Prix in July. And it sounds like Tom Cruise is pretty envious about it — the Top GunThe star, an incorrigible thrillseeker who has always been willing to help out with extra driving, offered his services.

But claims that Pitt will drive an actual F1 car for the film are overstated — according to reports, he’ll be behind the wheel of a slower mock-up. And he won’t be competing against other drivers on the track.

Kosinski and Bruckheimer revealed the plan for filming their movie during a panel at the F1 Accelerate Summit in Miami on Thursday, ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix. Will Buxton, panel host for the event, summarized some of the key points from their discussion. on Twitter, and was the one to claim that Pitt would be “driving an F1 car.”

Buxton said the film production was “creating an 11th team” for the movie in consultation with the Mercedes F1 team, which has designed and tested the car the film team will use. Filming will take place “on track and on event,” with the stars (Pitt included) in the cockpit driving, captured by compact camera rigs similar to those used to put viewers in the cockpit of fighter planes in Maverick is the Top Gun in Maverick. Lewis Hamilton, seven-times world champion and consultant producer for the film, has already been practicing with simulation equipment on a track.

The movie, which is still untitled, will have the same authenticity and excitement that the original made by filming at F1 races. MaverickA global smash. But Buxton’s comments — particularly that Pitt will drive actual F1 machinery — should be taken with a grain of salt. Variety confirms that Pitt is not racing other drivers and his car will likely be modified junior F2 car or F3 to make it look like a F1 monster.

It’s not surprising. Driving an F1 car in anger requires not only great skill and reflexes but an incredible level of strength and physical fitness; Pitt, at 59, has almost two decades on the oldest driver currently on the grid, the great Spanish champion Fernando Alonso, who’s 40. Hamilton is 37 and the majority of drivers are still in their twenties. It’s true that Cruise, at a similar age, endured the G-forces of an F-18 jet for Maverick, but even he, a skilled pilot, didn’t try to fly it at the same time.

There’s also no way that the actors and film crew will be allowed to interfere with the integrity of the race event itself, for both sporting and safety reasons. Racing licences for drivers are strictly regulated, and, at F1’s level, take years to acquire. It seems most likely that special filming sessions — possibly involving some of the actual F1 teams and drivers — will be scheduled around the rest of the race event.

“It will be quite invasive in terms of production, it’s something that we need to control in a way,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali told F1 investors a few weeks ago. “But it will be another way of showing that F1 never stops.”

Why all the trouble? Because the movie — which has been acquired by Apple, but will have a wide theatrical release before going to Apple TV Plus — presents a massive marketing opportunity for F1. Netflix’s documentary series Drive to SurviveThe sport has become more popular, particularly in America and among younger audiences. Liberty Media hopes the movie will help take F1 to the top.

In the movie, Pitt will play “a driver who comes out of retirement to compete alongside a rookie driver against the titans of the sport,” according to its official logline. The British actor Damson, who stars in the FX show “The FX Series,” will play his teammate. Snowfall.

Buxton said that Kosinski’s “biggest touchstone” for the new film is John Frankenheimer’s 1966 movie Grand Prix. The film used real footage of race events and cameos made by F1 stars. Phil Hill, a former world champion in F1, captured the footage while driving a modified car for the Monaco Grand Prix. James Garner drove some sections of the race. Kosinski and Bruckheimer “are determined to make the most accurate, most impressive race movie anyone has ever seen,” Buxton said.