Lewis Hamilton produced and Brad Pitt starrer movie ‘F1’ is all set to make a Pitt stop next year in July. The first-of-its-kind movie is breaking barriers in all ways possible. What are the ingredients of a solid sports movie? A good storyline, great depiction, decent character actors, and a REALISTIC screenplay. The last bit is where the seven-time world champion driver, Lewis Hamilton, plays the most crucial role. If the developments around the $300 million venture are considered, this is as real as it gets for a movie based on Formula 1. But what did Hamilton do?

Lewis Hamilton and his boss Toto Wolff’s ingenuity helped overcome the biggest shortcoming

What shortcoming? Joseph Kosinski said, “They all complain that racing movies aren’t fast enough because usually when they build these cars, they’re movie cars. You know, they look right, but they aren’t real race cars.” To combat this, Toto Wolff stepped in to give a piece of genius advice. For the readers’ information, the movie has the actor driving real Formula cars, though not F1 cars.

How did they devise this realistic strategy? It is because of the co-producer, Toto Wolff. He told Joseph Kosinski that they should build a Formula 2 car to make it look like a Formula 1 car. Mercedes and its design team and aerodynamicists helped develop a custom body that resembles the latest generation of Formula 1 cars. These cars are built specifically for this movie. To add to this, Hamilton’s calling out of the ‘b*llshit’ also helped the movie’s attempt to be closer to reality.

When the Esquire magazine asked Hamilton, “What types of things in the screenplay made you call b*llshit?” He said, “It would just be racing scenarios. Technical jargon engineers would talk. But particularly racing scenarios and sequences between overtakes and pit stops and strategies and all those sorts of things. There may have been a crash that was like the car hits the wall and flips and lands on the wheels and keeps going, and that doesn’t happen in Formula 1.” But the question remains. What are the other steps that Hamilton took to breathe life into the upcoming F1 movie?

How did Lewis Hamilton prepare Brad Pitt and Damson Idris for the movie?

This high-octane drama, which aims to blend intensity and glamour, has also bent our reality. The movie has gone miles ahead in convincing people that it is as real as it gets. Do you know why? It is because the creators have supposedly ‘given’ life to the characters, teams, and other fictional aspects of the Apple Studios’ produced movie. The APXGP team has an X (formerly known as Twitter)  handle and even an Instagram account of its own.

To add to that altered timeline experience, the fictional characters (Joshua Pearce played by Damson and Sonny Hayes played by Brad) also have their accounts where they post updates after their ‘races’ and about their team dynamics. The team account also follows suit. As we all know, the movie was shot during several live races, such as Silverstone. The actors rubbed the shoulders and front wings of their cars with real drivers to add to the real-life depiction.

But what was the pre-race preparation that went into it? Hamilton was asked, “When you were prepping for the movie, did you ever get out on the track with Brad Pitt to check out his driving? If so, how’d he do?” It is understood that the movie’s actors, Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, trained for almost three months before getting into the movie-making vehicles. T

hey started in Formula 3 cars before moving up to Formula 2 cars. Hamilton also shed light on how he prepared them for it. He said, “Yeah. We went to a track in L.A. I took him out and sat in the passenger seat, and he drove. I used to be a driving coach when I was younger. It was a way of making some money part-time whilst I was racing. So I’ve sat with God knows how many non-racing drivers. You can tell immediately the good ones, the bad ones. Straight away he was on it. You could tell he has it. He has it in his DNA. He’s just not been able to hone in on it like we have. But he’s got big potential.”

The level of preparation that has gone into the movie is no less than that of organizing an event like the Olympics. The movie F1 will be released next year. Until then; we will keep bringing you all the latest updates. Stay tuned.