Brad Pitt was “not impressed” by Lewis Hamilton F1 Movie remark
A comment by Lewis Hamilton during the early stages of the F1 Movie project did not go down well with Brad Pitt.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed that Brad Pitt was “not impressed” when Lewis Hamilton told the Hollywood star he was “much too old” to play an F1 driver.
Pitt, 61, starred as Sonny Hayes, a former F1 driver who returns to the sport to help the struggling APXGP team and rookie teammate Joshua Pearce (played by co-star Damson Idris).
Seven-time world champion Hamilton acted as a producer on the Apple Original Films motion picture and was involved from the early stages of the film in a bid to add authenticity to the project.
Hamilton’s former team boss Wolff has now admitted that the 40-year-old Briton prompted an early rewrite with concerns he raised about Pitt’s age.
Speaking at the Autosport Business Exchange New York, Wolff explained that he and his wife Susie hosted a dinner at his Oxford home for F1 Movie director Joseph Kosinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Pitt and Hamilton.
Toto Wolff spills the beans on dinner chat
“I’m seeing lots of people who have a big media profile, but there was one dinner that we organised with Joe, who is the director, and Jerry Bruckheimer, Lewis, Brad Pitt, Susie and I,” Wolff said ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix.
"We had dinner at our place in Oxford, and suddenly the door opens and there’s Brad Pitt in the driveway and he says, ‘Thank you for having me for dinner.’ So that was a bit of a surreal experience.
"The initial concept was him being a driver and fighting for a world championship, and then Lewis said, ‘That’s not going to go; you’re much too old for a Formula 1 driver,’ and Brad was not impressed by it.
"He felt that he was in his prime to be a Formula 1 driver. How they adapted the script was fantastic because it was credible. His role was credible.”
Wolff went on to praise the impact of the film, which received mixed reviews from movie critics but proved to be a theatrical hit.
The F1 Movie passed $560m globally to become the summer’s biggest movie, and one of the most successful films of 2025.
It has also become Pitt’s highest-grossing film of all time.
“We looked at, all of the F1 drivers and the team principals, we looked at it at the premiere in Monaco around the grand prix, and we liked it. There was nothing that was not to be liked,” Wolff added.
"It’s good entertainment, and the revenue that the movie has been generating is phenomenal.”
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