Brad Pitt racing in F1? Everything we know about unusual movie arrangement

Brad Pitt will be racing on an F1 track this year as he films a Formula 1-focused film. Here’s all we know about the unusual arrangement.

Brad Pitt will be behind the wheel of a car on F1 racing weekends this year. That’s the news ESPN dropped on Thursday to the shock of many racing fans.

“Brad Pitt will be driving an actual F1 car alongside the rest of the grid at Silverstone as part of the new movie that’s in production,” ESPN tweeted. “Directors Jerry Bruckheimer and Joseph Kosinski will enter an ’11th team’ to film on track for the rest of the season.”

Needless to say, there were a million questions about what that would entail. After all, Formula 1 cars are awesome pieces of machinery that require a great deal of skill and training to handle.

Is F1 really going to have Pitt driving alongside the professionals like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton?

What is the Brad Pitt F1 movie?

Pitt is working on a racing movie focused around F1 with “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer.

F1 broadcaster Will Buxton tweeted that “[Kosinski] and [Bruckheimer] are determined to make the most accurate, most impressive race movie anyone has ever seen. Oh. And Tom Cruise has already offered to do some extra driving if they need him.”

Will Brad Pitt be driving an F1 car?

The assertion that Pitt would be behind an actual F1 car seems to be a bit of a stretch. So does the idea that he’d be driving alongside the actual racers.

“Brad Pitt will be filming on track at Silverstone, yes, but in an F2 car not an F1 car and never on track with other cars,” Andrew Benson of BBC Sport tweeted.

That makes a whole lot more sense since putting him on track in an actual F1 car or during live action would be a safety hazard of epic proportions.

It looks more likely that Pitt will take to the track between sessions, filming the necessary footage as Formula 1 bounces around to different locations so that the movie truly has the feel of real F1 tracks.

Buxton revealed that Mercedes designed the car and that the actors like Pitt have been testing “in sim and real life.”

What is Lewis Hamilton’s connection to Brad Pitt’s F1 movie?

Lewis Hamilton is a producer on the film, per ESPN.

According to Buxon, the Mercedes driver is “in daily communication and is advising on storyline and script to ensure it’s the most accurate racing film ever made.”

So the movie will be shot at active F1 sites with one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport giving his input on the storyline and script.