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Top Gun: Maverick dropped audiences’ jaws, as it took them inside the cockpit of fighter jets with Tom Cruise and its cast. Now, director Joseph Kosinski is building on the movie’s impressive technology with F1. The Brad Pitt-led movie has the actor playing a former Formula One driver who returns to the profession after years of being away from it. During the production, the filmmakers not only closely collaborated with Formula One and its teams, but Kosinski called upon the expertise of Lewis Hamilton. And it sounds like he was critical to the production.
Lewis Hamilton has been hailed as the best Formula One driver the circuit has ever seen, earning over one hundred wins throughout his career thus far. He not only serves as a producer on F1 and appears as himself in the film, but he’s also being credited as a key name in the making of what is quickly becoming one of the most exciting entries on the 2025 movie schedule. Joseph Kosinski recently opened up about the process of recruiting the racing icon for the film:
He’s the first person I contacted three years ago. I knew for us to make it as authentic as possible, someone on the team who lives it day-in and day-out would be invaluable. Lewis has been an incredible partner; he jumps on Zooms with me between races to go through the script, line by line, turn by turn, you know, tire compound by tire compound, to make sure that we are getting all the details right. Beyond that, on a creative and story level, he also has input.
It sounds like Formula One fans can expect a detailed (and accurate) look at the driving world, thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s creative input. It’s possible that this link-up was due to a collaboration that almost happened several years back. A good friend of Tom Cruise’s since 2015, Hamilton was even offered a role in Top Gun: Maverick. However, he chose to turn it down because he felt underprepared to act and didn’t have the time to devote to the training required. So, while the Oblivion helmer didn’t get to direct the Formula Champion in a fighter jet, they were able to work quite closely on this racing epic.
During his joint Deadline interview alongside Joseph Kosinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who is also from the Maverick team, shared his own thoughts on making the upcoming movie with Formula One. And he had high praise for the 39-year-old English racer that the creative team consulted with:
It really starts with Lewis. From Lewis, we got to Mercedes, from Mercedes, we got the car; if you approach it the right way it’s not as difficult as you think. Then we went to Stefano [Domenicali, Formula One Group CEO], we went to [FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem], we went to the Principals of every team. We’ve met with all the drivers to tell them what we were doing. We met with just about everybody in Formula 1.
F1 was made very much in partnership with Formula One, with Joseph Kosinski also adding that during production, “we’re the eleventh team.” Brad Pitt and co-star Damson Idris trained for the flick for three months, driving cars, first in Formula Three before moving to Formula Two over the course of their preparation. Apparently, Lewis Hamilton was rather impressed with the actors’ abilities as well, calling the pair “natural athletes” that he was “really impressed with.” Check out the first F1 trailer below:
The film tells the story of Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a former Formula One driver who was big in the ’90s before a major accident forced him to retire from the sport. But, when team owner and friend Ruben (Javier Bardem) asks Hayes to come out of retirement to train Damson Idris’ Joshua Pierce, he jumps back into the game. Also among the cast is Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies Kim Bodnia and Shea Wingham. Also, most recently, it was confirmed that Bridgerton fan-favorite Simone Ashley was cast in a role.
So far, what’s been shown of F1 looks absolutely incredible. And, after hearing Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer’s thoughts, one would think that the production truly benefited from Lewis Hamilton’s insights. It’ll be exciting to see the finished production when it hits theaters on June 27, 2025!