Brad Pitt drives F1 car for the first time at priv...

Brad Pitt might play a System 1 driver in his upcoming summer blockbuster, however he’s by no means gotten behind the wheel of an actual F1 automotive – till now. McLaren held a personal check on the Circuit of the Americas earlier this week, permitting the A-lister to take one in all its earlier vehicles for a drive, the crew confirmed to Motorsport.com.

The reigning constructors’ champions hinted on the check on social media, sharing a picture of driver overalls carrying Pitt’s initials, with the caption, “It’s a Sonny day in Austin.”

The Hollywood heavyweight, who stars as fictional ex-racer Sonny Hayes in the F1 movie, travelled to Texas after the film’s glitzy New York City premiere on Monday evening.

McLaren racer Lando Norris additionally flew to america Grand Prix venue after the star-studded occasion within the Large Apple, whereas Oscar Piastri skipped the film premiere altogether and headed straight to the Lone Star State for the TPC check. Pitt is believed to have taken to the monitor within the McLaren MCL60, the crew’s 2023 automotive, after Norris confirmed him the ropes.

It’s curious that his first F1 outing happened with McLaren fairly than Mercedes, because the Silver Arrows was the F1 crew most closely concerned within the movie’s manufacturing. Within the movie, Pitt and his co-star, Damson Idris, drive F2 vehicles that have been modified by the German crew.

Mercedes was closely concerned in all facets of the film – by the use of co-producer Lewis Hamilton – with a number of workers members incomes off-screen credit, and Toto Wolff making an on-screen look. 
The fictional APX GP car even carries a swath of Mercedes’ real-life sponsors, together with IWC and Tommy Hilfiger (although the clothes model has since been changed by Adidas as a Mercedes sponsor).

After all, Hamilton headed to Ferrari within the midst of the film’s manufacturing, but it surely’s clear Pitt has nonetheless maintained a robust relationship with the likes of Wolff and George Russell.

Again in 2023, earlier than cameras had even began rolling on the British Grand Prix, the Mercedes crew principal revealed he had been concerned “early on” and even despatched Pitt to driving faculty in France to work his method up from System 4 equipment.

“We additionally tried to be useful with the garages and the pit wall, all of it, and provides them the designs so that they could possibly be as life like as potential,” he mentioned of the crew’s involvement in serving to get APX GP get race-ready.

“I spoke to the director [Joe Kosinski] a couple of weeks in the past and mentioned, ‘The place are you?’ anticipating him to inform me he is in Hollywood – however he mentioned ‘I am in my house in Brackley,’ so it is not all nice being a film director,” Wolff joked.