‘F1’ stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris drove at 180 miles-per-hour for the movie.
The 61-year-old actor and the ‘Snowfall’ star, 33, lead the film as two race drivers competing in Formula One, and director Joseph Kosinski has revealed Pitt was “really concentrating on keeping that car on the track” during all of the high-octane racing scenes.
Speaking at a recent Q+A event, Kosinski said: “[Pitt] just had that natural feel for grip in the car, and what we’re doing on this film is dangerous. So yeah, you have to be fearless, and when you see Brad driving, that’s not acting.
“He’s really concentrating on keeping that car on the track and out of the wall during all those scenes. So that’s something that you just can’t fake, I think. I hope the audience feels that when they watch the movie.”
The ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ filmmaker added Pitt and Idris had to undergo “months of training” to prepare for the racing scenes, which also involved learning the art of Formula One under the tutelage of seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton.
The director said: “Brad and Damson are both driving in this film and in order to get them into these race cars, it required months, literally months of training. But the first day was really fun.
“It was me, Brad and Lewis Hamilton at the track together, all of us jumping in cars and driving each other around in sports cars, which was one of those things, I’ll never forget having Lewis Hamilton as your driving instructor.
“But what we learned and what Lewis was really interested was seeing did Brad know how to drive right? Because if Brad can’t drive, this whole film wasn’t going to work.”
Kosinski explained Hamilton found Pitt was a “very talented, naturally gifted driver” when they first took to the track together.
The director said: “And what Lewis was very happy to discover was that Brad had a lot of just natural ability right from the start.
“And I don’t know where he got that or if he was born with it, and he rides motorcycles, which I think has something to do with it, but he’s just a very talented, naturally gifted driver, which for Lewis after that first meeting gave him a lot of confidence that we might have a shot at pulling this off.”
‘F1’ – which also stars Javier Bardem and Kerry Condon – follows retired racer Sonny Hayes (Pitt) who returns to the track with his rookie APXGP teammate Joshua Pearce (Idris) to take on the new titans of the sport.
Kosinski concluded Hamilton was “instrumental” in the development of ‘F1’ in all of its production stages, and emphasised the team “couldn’t have made this film without him”.
The director said: “Lewis was instrumental in not only the technical aspects obviously, but in the real kind of formulative stage of the movie, formulating this narrative. We tell the story of Sonny Hayes, who’s kind of a veteran racer, and then Joshua Pearce, who’s a rookie. Lewis has been both.
“He’s been the rookie almost winning his first season in Formula One and now with Seven World Championships. He’s kind of seen it all.
“So his perspective on shaping the narrative of these two characters and kind of giving me real insight into what it is that drives him, what makes these guys want to do this day in day out, it was really, really helpful. We couldn’t have made this film without him.”