1 week Ago By Jamie Woodhouse
The involvement of Mercedes in the upcoming ‘ F1 ‘ movie led to Red Bull growing concerned that they would be portrayed as the bad guys. That is the claim made by Jerry Bruckheimer, co-producer of the film, which has been set for a UK release date of 25 June 2025. The movie, which has been co-produced by seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton , will feature Brad Pitt as a racing driver who comes out of retirement to mentor his rookie team-mate Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris, as team-mates at the fictional ‘APXGP’ team.
However, while the team may not be a real-life F1 entrant, it has been present in the F1 paddock with filming taking place during F1 race weekends, with Mercedes creating the modified Formula 2 cars used by APXGP. That created a long-lasting mission to allay Red Bull fears amid wider concerns from Mercedes’ F1 rivals. “The interesting part is that, since we teamed up with Mercedes, the other teams said, ‘Wait a second, this movie is going to be about Mercedes and we’re going to look bad’,” said Bruckheimer while speaking at the 2024 Investor Day event.
“Red Bull said, ‘We’re going to be the villains’. It took us three years to convince them that they weren’t going to be the villains and we finally got to a place where all the teams are really leaning into us to really help us.” 👉 Brad Pitt F1 movie: Cast, release date, Lewis Hamilton involvement and more 👉 The tone-deaf Brad Pitt line that marred gorgeous F1 movie trailer As for the global premiere of the film, Bruckheimer teased some rather grand plans.
“I think we’re going to show it to the drivers and to the F1 teams in Monaco and then we’ll have premieres in New York, London and a bunch of other cities,” said Bruckheimer. “Brad is really invested in this movie. He doesn’t like to do press but I think we’ll take him on a world tour where he’ll be glad to show his efforts in driving and acting in this movie.
” Speaking to F1 TV at the British Grand Prix, Bruckheimer offered some insight into Hamilton’s role in the film, while the seven-time World Champion dished out praise for Pitt’s driving skills. “Three years ago, we came to visit Stefano [Domenicali, F1 president] and Mohammed [Ben Sulayem, FIA president] and this whole wonderful organisation of F1, and fortunately they blessed us and said, ‘come on in, join us and see what you can do’,” Bruckheimer recalled. “Lewis Hamilton – who is one of our producers on the movie – is keeping us honest so we get the racing right, and it’s been a phenomenal weekend for us.
“We have 14 cameras we can put on the car, the cameras are smaller than the cameras we used in Top Gun. “They also are mobile, they can move and turn which we’ve never had before, so technology’s advanced so much, and they’re IMAX quality which is even better. “That’s Brad driving – three months of training, working with the best stunt drivers.
Lewis even said, ‘look, you’re doing really well’, and that’s quite a compliment.” Read next: Mercedes announce special Lewis Hamilton livery plans for final race together.
