Thai cabinet approves bid for grand prix in Bangkok
Thailand has moved a step closer to hosting a grand prix after the country's cabinet approved a bid to host a street race in Bangkok.The approval of the funding for the race was a necessary step before Thailand could move forward with talks on a contract with Formula 1.Thai government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub told a news conference that the bid for a race from 2028-32 is worth 40bn Thai baht (£907m).The plan is to build a 3.54-mile circuit on a route around the Chatuchak Park area north east of the city centre.The Thai government hopes the F1 race will help promote tourism, which is a key driver of the country's economy."In the next two-three years, Thailand will have world-class competition, which we never thought would happen in Thailand," Jirayu said.
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NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Brad Pitt's new 'F1' movie brings 'immersive' Formula 1 thrills to Hollywood
MONTREAL — When they began working together on the new 'F1' movie, Formula 1 living legend Lewis Hamilton was pleasantly surprised to see that Brad Pitt knew what he was doing behind the wheel of a race car. 'He had a bit of a feel for it already. It wasn't completely alien. I worked as a driver coach when I was a kid just to make a bit of money on the side, and I had some pretty bad drivers along the way!' Hamilton, a seven-time world champion who races for Ferrari and is a producer for the movie, told NBC News at a media briefing ahead of Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix. 'Straight away you could see he had a concept of a driving line.' Hollywood has made lots of movies about racing and Formula 1. But 'F1 The Movie' — an Apple Original Films film that's being released theatrically by Warner Bros. on June 27 — gives viewers something they've never seen before: a big-budget production filmed alongside racing real drivers and real teams, melding authentic F1 luminaries into the cast while filming at Grand Prix weekends. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski hosted a screening Thursday in Montreal for F1 insiders and reporters, including NBC News, before the race weekend and a glitzy red carpet launch event Monday in New York. The movie comes at a time of a lucrative relationship between Hollywood and Formula 1. The sport's popularity has soared in the United States over the last five years, and F1 executives hope the first-of-its-kind movie will help the international series penetrate deeper into its top-priority market. Pitt plays protagonist Sonny Hayes, a fictional F1 driver whose promising young career was cut short after a horrific crash in the 1990s but who makes the unlikeliest of comebacks decades later with the fictional APXGP team. It's a story of adventure, heartbreak and the insatiable pursuit of glory, with the thrills and dangers of Formula 1 captured by one of America's most famous actors. The character is a daredevil who embodies elements of real-life drivers Max Verstappen and James Hunt, bringing a high racing IQ and a knack for bending the rules to his advantage. He's enlisted in a desperation move by a former F1 teammate-turned-team owner, played by Javier Bardem, to drive alongside a young rookie, portrayed by Damson Idris, who is desperate to prove himself in a car that's too weak to compete for wins. Their team may soon cease to exist if it can't turn things around soon. Pitt was 'super open-minded and really dove deep into what it takes to be a racing driver, which was really cool to see," Hamilton said. Hamilton described it as the most 'immersive' film ever made about racing, or perhaps any other sport, 'in the sense of filming on race weekends.' The movie also includes tantalizing on-track visuals and a plot line that taps into the strategic mischief and chess moves that make the sport exciting. And there are crashes. Lots of them, including fiery ones. Pitt 'did all his own driving,' Bruckheimer said in an interview, having trained for three months — first in a Formula 3 car before he graduated to the faster machinery. 'The saddest day for Brad is when he had to step out of the car and we wrapped the movie. I was more relieved than anybody else that everyone was safe,' he said. And because it's Hollywood, Pitt's character is part of a romantic plot with Kerry Condon's character, Kate McKenna, his technical director, who's tasked with building him a winning car. 'Our ambition was to make an authentic racing film,' said Kosinski, who has also helmed films like 'Top Gun: Maverick.' 'And we want it to be a film that works not only for experts like you all who live and breathe this world every day, but we also want it to be a film that plays to people who don't know anything about Formula 1 or other sports. The most important thing, of course, being that we just tell a great story about redemption and friendship and teamwork in this incredible sport.' However, F1 junkies are likely to be able to spot some things that couldn't — or wouldn't — happen in real life. Pitt's F1 car in the movie, clearly slimmer than the real F1 cars he's racing, is a Formula 2 car, for example. A driver also wouldn't be conversing with his team boss in the pit lane mid-race through his helmet and the deafening noise. Plus, there are only so many shenanigans F1 will tolerate from one driver trying to finagle the race outcome. 'We wanted to find how far can you push it so that you can get right to the edge,' Kosinski said, adding that they consulted with Hamilton about how to strike that balance. But the scenes that racing die-hards may question are part of the bargain struck to make the movie palatable to a wider audience, serving as important ingredients in the plot. 'What we're trying to do with this movie is, first of all, entertain audiences,' Bruckheimer said. 'That's the key. It's not a documentary; it's a movie. Hopefully you will be moved by it emotionally.' Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali told reporters in Montreal that it requires 'very F1 eyes' to think the movie glamorizes rule-breaking. 'If you look to the audience that will watch the movie, this will be perceived as racing action, authentic fighting,' he said. 'And that's what will come out. I'm pretty sure of it.' Still, there's plenty of realistic dialogue for avid F1 fans to feast on. On Hamilton's advice, Sky Sports commentators David Croft and Martin Brundle, the voices of F1 for British and American fans, are also the announcers in the movie. Croft told NBC News he and Brundle spent 19 hours filming their scenes. His favorite part? Working with Kosinski, Croft said, 'a director I've held in such high regard for many years and who it was a real privilege to be working with to create what hopefully the audience will see as a truly authentic F1 movie.' The script includes talk of oversteer and understeer, using 'DRS' to go faster and sacrificing straight line speed for better cornering. Pitt's character casually drops a reference to 'Eau Rouge,' and there's a storyline involving the late Ayrton Senna from the 1990s — all of which Formula 1 experts will appreciate. 'It's threading a needle,' Kosinski said of appealing to both casual viewers and hard-core Formula 1 fans. Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue said that when the movie was screened in the United States, 'very few people' said they had ever seen a Formula 1 race. 'When we finish and we ask how many of you would like to go see a race now, literally every single hand goes up,' he said. 'And so we think there's a huge, huge opportunity to grow the sport all over the world with this movie. And I think it will do that.' Hollywood is seeking to tap into that potential by aggressively promoting the movie all over TV and at F1 races. 'We'll see how it grows the sport even more, but it was obviously interesting and nice to get a glimpse already or to see it,' said Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg, who joined F1 in 2010, long before the U.S. boom. '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.' After years of stagnating with American audiences, F1 unlocked something special by personalizing the sport to reach new, casual fans. It found a way to transcend the technical side, using social media to make the human faces and drivers accessible to regular audiences. F1's commercial side and its teams became relentless content-creation factories seeking online engagement. That connection, elevated by Netflix's popular 'Drive to Survive' series, attracted a newer, younger and more female audience. 'It's one of the biggest movies we'll see in probably this decade,' said Peter Crolla, a Haas F1 veteran who was recently hired to be team manager for the new GM-backed Cadillac F1 team next year. 'They have put every ounce of energy they could have done into it. It's the level of detail they've gone to [in] the desire to make it as realistic and to integrate themselves into the sport as they have done. By the end of 2024 we didn't even feel there was an F1 movie being filmed. It was like it was literally an 11th team.' Hamilton fondly recalled some of his conversations with Pitt as Pitt was training to drive a real race car for the movie, feeling the G-forces jolt through his body. '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?'" Hamilton said. "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.'
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
F1 Q&A: Should McLaren have allowed Norris to pass team-mate Piastri?
George Russell grabbed Mercedes' first win of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix but the main story of the race was the McLaren Norris and Oscar Piastri collided after the Briton misjudged the gap as he attempted to pass his Verstappen finished second and rookie Kimi Antonelli claimed his first Formula 1 podium with Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions after the race in Montreal. Do you think McLaren should have issued team orders in the race and allowed Lando Norris past Oscar Piastri to go after Kimi Antonelli? - KeeganMcLaren have made their approach to handling their two drivers abundantly clear over the past two seasons - they allow them to say the only time that will change is when one of them is not in contention for the championship and the other is, in which case - as last year - one may be told that circumstances could arise in which they are asked to support the only restrictions McLaren put on them are what they would describe as their guiding principles - give the other car space and, as team principal Andrea Stella put it after their crash together on Sunday in Canada: "There should be no contact between two McLarens."The sort of situation described in the question is not unusual in in McLaren's specific situation this year, with both drivers competing for the championship, and each other's main rival, it's hard to see how it could work without causing problems and undermining the message they're trying to give to the would also run counter to the team's ethos. Culture, to which everyone buys in, is central to Stella's management. This season Piastri is in another league compared to his team-mate. The incident in Canada was a direct result of Lando making yet another mistake. McLaren need to prioritise Oscar for the rest of the season, surely? - AnonTo describe Piastri as "in another league" from Norris this year is a bit of a stretch, to say the no doubt Piastri has had a better season than Norris so far, and been the more convincing of the two McLaren drivers. Hence his advantage in the championship and in their head-to-head stats in both races and in terms of outright performance, there is little between the two, and they are more or less swapping the position of the faster McLaren driver each key this year so far is that Piastri is delivering his best on a more consistent basis than Norris. The Australian is beating Norris, not only on the weekends when he is quicker, but also on some of the weekends when the Briton looks like he probably is, because of the errors he is was a case in point. Had Norris strung his qualifying together, he would probably have been ahead of Piastri on the grid, in which case he would likely have finished ahead of him as same could have been said of Saudi Arabia and Miami. In Jeddah, Norris crashed in qualifying, trying too hard. In Miami, he qualified ahead but tangled with Verstappen on the first lap, allowing Piastri is no doubting Norris' speed, but it's also undeniable that he is making too many mistakes this season. He knows it; the team know it. And they're trying to help him with course, the question is, why is this happening? Is he feeling the pressure from Piastri? Of being in the best car and this being his best chance of a world title so far in his career? A combination of both, and perhaps other factors as well?Whatever it is, he certainly needs to get out of the headspace he is in and find a way to get into a place where things flow more naturally for him. Where, essentially, he is not for the question of prioritising Piastri, that goes back to the first answer. Other than in specific circumstances, that's not how McLaren go racing, and it's hard to see a strong argument for it at the McLaren is not the fastest car every weekend. But it is consistently the fastest car so far this year. Their drivers are one and two in the championship, and relatively comfortably so. What would be the argument for them to prioritise Piastri in those circumstances? Canada looks like a win for Max Verstappen. Whilst there's chaos around him, can his consistency win him the title? - EdVerstappen certainly had a good weekend in Canada. He probably maximised his result with second place behind Mercedes' George Russell, and he gained points on both McLaren drivers. With one or two exceptions, he is having another excellent let's not forget that it's only two weeks since there was "chaos" around Verstappen, too, after his collision with George Russell in and their drivers certainly consider Verstappen a threat for the title, even if he has said a few things that suggest he does not think it is a realistic prospect against the McLaren this year, at least the way the competitive picture stands at the Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have a handy points advantage over Verstappen, despite the Briton's mistake in not easy to win the championship in a car that is not consistently the fastest on the grid. Verstappen could yet do it, but he is certainly not the favourite and the odds are stacked against him, however brilliant he is. Why do Red Bull lodge so many protests? It was yellow flags and now it's a safety car infringement - ShaunRed Bull's protest against George Russell in Canada was their second in five races against the same Miami, they protested against Russell with the argument that he had not slowed sufficiently for yellow Montreal, it was on the basis that he had driven erratically behind the safety car and engaged in unsportsmanlike stewards' report said Red Bull argued that Russell had braked unnecessarily heavily behind the safety car, which led to Verstappen passing him. Overtaking under the safety car is not unsportsmanlike aspect of the protest was about Russell pointing out that Verstappen had overtaken him in those to the stewards' report: "Red Bull suggested that (Russell) complained about the overtake on his team radio knowing that it would be overheard by race control and in the hope that (Verstappen) would be investigated."Horner mentioned that the protest would also include a claim that Russell had left too large a gap behind the safety car. But that was not in the case Red Bull put forward, according to the stewards' Bull withdrew that because Russell was correctly following the yellow-flag delta times on his dashboard, which meant he could not keep the required 10 car lengths to the safety said the regulations were "pretty binary, pretty clear". But the stewards rejected the protest outright as "not founded", and accepted Russell's said of Sunday's protest: "It's certainly not personal to George."F1 is an extreme environment which is all about going right up to the edge of the rules to try to gain a competitive Bull's credo is to push to the absolute limit in every possible area, and that includes having no compunction about trying to use the stewards and the FIA to their benefit in whatever way they feel they all their rivals are comfortable going quite as far as Red Bull do in such situations. On next year's calendar, Montreal and Miami are grouped together apparently to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from travel. But with a two-week break between the races, won't almost all team personnel and cargo fly back to Europe after Miami, defeating the purpose of the change? - JacobF1 has been pushing for a while to get Miami and Montreal to run consecutively in the calendar and they have finally managed it for next idea is to reduce carbon emissions. And while it's true that most personnel will fly back to Europe between the two races, plenty of equipment will be able to be sent directly from one to the other, which will bring transport same applies to the gaps between the long-haul races at the beginning of the course, it's not a realistic prospect for F1 personnel to engage in a nine-month-long world tour in which they simply go from one race venue to the next. People have private lives, and work needs to be done at the teams' factories as F1 is taking its responsibilities to the environment seriously. Next year's new engine regulations feature 100% sustainable fuel and engines with a much larger hybrid when it comes to emissions, every measure taken to reduce them helps.
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
Thai cabinet approves bid for grand prix in Bangkok
Thailand has moved a step closer to hosting a grand prix after the country's cabinet approved a bid to host a street race in approval of the funding for the race was a necessary step before Thailand could move forward with talks on a contract with Formula government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub told a news conference that the bid for a race from 2028-32 is worth 40bn Thai baht (£907m).The plan is to build a 3.54-mile circuit on a route around the Chatuchak Park area north east of the city Thai government hopes the F1 race will help promote tourism, which is a key driver of the country's economy."In the next two-three years, Thailand will have world-class competition, which we never thought would happen in Thailand," Jirayu said.
