Cowan: F1 The Movie with Brad Pitt should help grow sport even more

Montreal Gazette

15 hours ago

Motorsports
While Lewis Hamilton was working his way up the motorsports ladder before becoming a Formula One driver at age 22, he made some extra money on the side as a driving coach.
'I had some pretty bad drivers along the way,' Hamilton recalled Thursday during a drivers' news conference ahead of Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve (2 p.m., CTV, TSN, RDS). 'Just didn't know where they were on track.'
Hamilton, now 40 and a seven-time F1 driving champion with seven victories at the Canadian Grand Prix, went back to being a driving coach for F1 The Movie, which will open in Canadian theatres on June 27. His student was Brad Pitt, one of the stars of the movie. The 61-year-old actor immediately impressed Hamilton behind the wheel.
'I remember on the days that I got to work with Brad, we were at Silverstone,' said Hamilton, who is an executive producer for the movie. 'We actually did a track day together in L.A. I got to drive and he drove, and straight away I already knew — you could sense he kind of knew where the lines were. He had a bit of a feel for it already. It wasn't completely alien.'
In the movie, Pitt plays driver Sunny Hayes as he returns to motorsport with the fictional APXGP team, which is struggling, and becomes embroiled in a rivalry with rookie driver and teammate Joshua Pearce, played by actor Damson Idris.
The movie is an Apple Original Films production and cost more than US$200 million to make. Jerry Bruckheimer, owner of the NHL's Seattle Kraken, is the producer and the director is Joseph Kosinski. It was made in collaboration with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and filmed on actual F1 race weekends over the last two years with a goal of making it the most authentic racing movie ever. Pitt and Idris drive Formula Two cars in the movie.
'I don't think any sport has been so immersive in the sense of filming on race weekends,' Hamilton said. 'That's been a real amazing opportunity for Joe and for Jerry. I think they did such a great job in how they approached it. We barely knew — even though they had a whole team here — we were all so focused on our jobs, but it was never disruptive to any of us. I think they captured some really great footage.
'We had a bit of a preview for the drivers in Monaco, which was really amazing for us,' Hamilton added. 'For me, it was nerve-racking because it's a four-year project and you want everyone to love it. Just before we watched it, Jerry said: 'Look, just remember, we tried to make it as authentic as possible, but this is also Hollywood. So it's the best combination we could find of both.''
The popularity of F1 across North America was given a big boost in 2019 when Drive to Survive premièred on Netflix, providing viewers with a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the sport. Drive to Survive now has seven seasons, with the latest looking back on last year's F1 season with McLaren-Mercedes winning the team championship and Red Bull's Max Verstappen winning the drivers' championship, including his third straight victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The success of Drive to Survive led to other sports and teams making behind-the-scenes productions with a goal of attracting more fans.
Last year, the Canadiens had an eight-part series on Crave titled The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens. The Netflix series Full Swing, which focuses on the PGA Tour and is now in its third season, is fantastic, and I also really enjoyed The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox, which focuses on Boston's 2024 MLB season. If you're an NBA fan — and even if you're not — you will probably enjoy Starting 5, which follows Jimmy Butler, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, Domantas Sabonis and Jayson Tatum throughout the 2023-24 season. I learned a lot about thoroughbred horse racing by watching Race for the Crown, a six-part Netflix series that follows horse owners and jockeys during the 2024 Triple Crown season and is quite fascinating.
'We'll see how it grows the sport even more,' Kick Sauber driver Nico Hülkenberg said about F1 The Movie. 'It was interesting and nice to get a glimpse already (in Monaco) or to see it. I think the public is going to like it. I think they've captured more angles of the industry, of what teams and drivers do — how much goes into it, especially preparation time and between races. Personally, I liked it. It was pretty cool.'
Hamilton was impressed with the hard work actors Pitt and Idris put in while learning what it takes to be an F1 driver and make their portrayals as realistic as possible.
'They were both super open-minded and really dove deep into what it takes to be a racing driver, which was really cool to see,' Hamilton said. 'Through that process, it was amazing to speak to Brad and see his shock. He's kind of like, 'Jeez. What are our bodies going through?' — especially when he got to Formula 2. He'd text me after the test, like, 'My appreciation for what you drivers do is even higher than it already was.' So I hope that reflects in the driving in the race.'
I'm looking forward to watching it.