Lewis Hamilton warns against rushing into making sequel to F1 The Movie

New York Times

7 hours ago

SILVERSTONE, UK — Lewis Hamilton has warned against rushing into making a sequel for the Formula One movie despite its box office success, saying it should be allowed to 'simmer for a while'.
Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton served as a producer on F1 The Movie, which starred Brad Pitt and was released last week worldwide.
Advertisement
Hamilton worked with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joe Kosinski, the team behind Top Gun: Maverick, to try and make the F1 film the most authentic racing movie ever made.
It has proved to be a commercial success, ranking as the No 1 movie worldwide and reportedly drawing in more than $140million in box office sales.
Earlier this week, Variety reported that a potential sequel was being mooted, having ranked as the most successful film made by Apple to date.
Asked by The Athletic if he'd spoken to Bruckheimer or Kosinski if there had been talks about a potential F1 sequel, Hamilton replied: 'Well if I had, I wouldn't be telling you right now, firstly!
'No, I saw someone talk about it, but it's like, we literally just finished it. So I think the last thing we want right now is a sequel.
'It's been four years in the making, it was a lot of work, particularly for like Joe. It's time away from your family, time away from your kids. And also, it needs to just simmer for a while. Let's enjoy it.
'I think the worst thing we probably could do is rush into doing a sequel. Most sequels are way worse. So we don't need to rush it.'
The F1 movie took more than two years to film, and led to Pitt and co-star Damson Idris training to be real-life racing drivers, while the F1 paddock opened its doors to allow filming to take place on-site at grand prix weekends.
It meant the real-life F1 grid heavily featured in the film, and there were a number of cameos for team principals including Mercedes' Toto Wolff, Ferrari chief Fred Vasseur and Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing.
Hamilton was heavily involved in the writing of the script and the editing process to help ensure the film was as authentic as possible.
The Ferrari driver said that if a sequel were to happen, they should 'really, really take our time in getting it even better,' and they should conduct an F1-style debrief.
Advertisement
'I think right now, which I don't know if they've ever done before, but I've asked them to do a debrief,' Hamilton said.
'So like, let's review what we did, what we could have done better. I don't know if they ever do that in the movie business.
'But it's something I've obviously learned from here, so I'm going to try and apply that to future programs that I do.'