The yet unnamed movie from Apple Studios, directed by Joseph Kosinski from Top Gun: Maverick and co-directed by seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, had the first of its major details revealed on Thursday ahead of the 2023 British GP, including its drivers and the car and livery that will be used.
Photo Credit: F1
The team will be called ‘APXGP’, and will sport a gold and black livery – reminiscent of the old Lotus’ from back in the day, and more recently the ill-fated Rich Energy Haas – and its two drivers will be Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce – the former played by Brad Pitt and the latter by Damson Idris.
The car is a prototype, a modified version of a Formula 2 car with some hints towards an F1 machine, developed and created with help from Mercedes and Carlin. The team is set to have a full set-up as if it were an actual 11th team on the grid around the Silverstone pit lane, with two garages and even a pit wall on the edge of the Hamilton straight.
Filming will take place in between competitive sessions during the weekend, in a private track session featuring the APXGP car alone on track – which will prove somewhat of a challenge, given F1 will be supported by both of its junior categories of F2 and F3 around the legendary British circuit, leaving little time of free track across the three days.
After this, the film creators will add in scenes from the actual F1 event, in what they bid to be the most authentic F1 racing movie to date. This is supported by their co-director Lewis Hamilton, as the Mercedes F1 driver is giving a helping hand when it comes to the script to make sure it is as close to what a real F1 scenario can be.
Of what is known so far, the story would be centred around Sonny Hayes (Pitt), an old and retired driver who comes out of retirement and has to compete against his young hotshot team-mate Joshua Pearce (Idris).
