Explained: Involvement of Lewis Hamilton and every driver in Brad Pitt F1 movie

Every driver will feature somehow in the upcoming F1 movie featuring Brad Pitt.

Lewis Hamilton, of course, is an executive producer who helped add a sense of reality to the project.

Fresh details of his key involvement in the movie - which will be called ‘F1’ - have been described.

“He’s the first person I contacted three years ago,” director Joseph Kosinski said to Deadline.

“I knew for us to make it as authentic as possible, someone on the team who lives it day-in and day-out would be invaluable.

“Lewis has been an incredible partner; he jumps on Zooms with me between races to go through the script, line by line, turn by turn, you know, tire compound by tire compound, to make sure that we are getting all the details right.

“Beyond that, on a creative and story level, he also has input.”

The movie features F2 cars, modified to look like the newest era of F1 cars, built by Mercedes.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer added: “It really starts with Lewis.

“From Lewis, we got to Mercedes, from Mercedes, we got the car; if you approach it the right way it’s not as difficult as you think.

“Then we went to Stefano [Domenicali, Formula One Group CEO], we went to [FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem], we went to the principals of every team.

“We’ve met with all the drivers to tell them what we were doing. We met with just about everybody in Formula 1.”

Bruckheimer added: “The most important thing is you tell a great story and an emotional story, that’s always the priority, but going back to the first conversations with Lewis, he said that there has yet to be a film that really captures what it’s like to be in a Formula 1 car, so that’s been a goal, to put the audience in one of these incredible machines.”

Pitt plays the main character, Sonny Hayes, a veteran driver tempted back into the car to chase his dream.

The movie has shot scenes at multiple real-life F1 grands prix, including Silverstone last weekend and last year.

A year ago, Pitt drove on-track between genuine F1 sessions and in front of the crowd to shoot key scenes for the movie.

A week ago, he was notable for joining the F1 drivers to conduct post-race interviews. Pitt was acting while the other drivers were pouring their hearts out.

The real F1 drivers will, as a result, feature in the film.

“Yes, they’re all playing themselves,” Kosinski said.

“We’re just embedding into this world, so the drivers are who they are in these races [in the movie].

“We’re the eleventh team, we’re the back of the pack in an incredible field of teams.

“We see the drivers on the track and we’re hoping to see all of them off track as well.”

Bruckheimer added: “These drivers are picked because they’re phenomenal, for F1 they have got to be amazing, and they are charismatic and they’re good looking because they’re representing a brand.

“They’re like movie stars, it’s the same thing. There’re so many similarities to our world.

“What we have to do is give the audience the emotion. Look at Top Gun: Maverick with all the flying and all the great stuff Joe did — if we didn’t have that emotional story, they wouldn’t have lined up to see the movie, or have seen it two or three times. We’re going to try to do the same thing here.”

The movie - called ‘F1’ - will be released in June 2025.