Finishing fifth and still standing on the Formula 1 podium provided an unusual end to George Russell’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
On the other side of the podium was Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who recovered from 19th on the grid on Sunday night to finish third behind Lando Norris and Carlos Carlos Sainz then took the podium.
Between Russell and Leclerc, wearing black and white racing suits, is veteran racing driver Sonny Hayes from APXGP.
Hayes is the fictional character played by Brad Pitt in “F1,” a film produced by Warner Bros. and Apple that has been integrated into the F1 world for the past two seasons. APXGP is Pitt’s fictional team owned by Javier Bardem’s character, which has a full garage setup and lines up Mercedes-designed cars on the starting line during races, the sport We have been working hard to make this the most realistic racing movie ever made.
A second podium ceremony was held after Sunday’s race in Abu Dhabi to capture some of the scenes, all in front of fans who were told to remain in their seats after the race. , for a chance to see it in the movie.
Abu Dhabi marks the end of live filming for F1. The project will be released in North America on June 27 next year and in the rest of the world on June 25, and is now steadily approaching completion.
“We’ll be here the rest of the week editing, and then we’ll go into the editing room,” “F1” producer Jerry Bruckheimer told a select media roundtable on Sunday. said, including Competitor. “About two-thirds of the film has been cut. This will be the last game we have to play together and we will think about it.
This immersion in the world of F1 gave Bruckheimer and director Joe Kosinski (who previously collaborated on Top Gun: Maverick) the perfect opportunity to make the film as close to real life as possible. The trailer debuted ahead of July’s British Grand Prix, featuring some of the current drivers and team principals, and giving a taste of what the in-car footage will look like. Similar to the fighter jets in “Top Gun: Maverick,” many of the shots in “F1” try to bring the audience as close as possible to the experience of driving an F1 car.
Brad Pitt’s character talks to Lewis Hamilton at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. (Professional lens/American Sipa)
Bruckheimer said the input of the drivers – especially the film’s producer Lewis Hamilton – was crucial.
“They are very open about their experiences, their experiences coming into F1,[even their]superstitions,” Bruckheimer explained. “We took a little bit of what a driver does with this superstition, and that’s in Brad’s character as well.
“Lewis keeps us honest. Lewis looked at every play and said, ‘You’re not going to be in second gear in this round, you’re going to be in first gear.’ “He walked in and he could hear the engine and the gear shifting and stuff like that.
“One of the big things we’re doing is we want the games to be real,” added Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services. “Lewis was a huge help. It’s always about the story because that’s what the story is, but we wanted the racing scenes to be really legitimate and authentic and I think that’s what we captured. Lewis did a great job on that.
Pitt and Damson Idris (who plays Hayes’ young teammate Joshua Pearce) underwent extensive training and testing to drive the APXGP cars used in the film, which are enlarged versions of the F2 cars. Pete and Idris were on hand in Abu Dhabi to film the final round and even took some of the team’s end-of-year photos in the pit lane on Thursday. The Paddock accepts projects that are filmed in a vibrant sporting environment.
One of the consequences of operating during a Grand Prix weekend, especially in front of fans, is that footage inevitably ends up online. Scenes have emerged of the podium in Abu Dhabi or of Pitt celebrating with a Mexican flag in front of Foro Sol Stadium in Mexico. But both Bruckheimer and Cue are satisfied that nothing happened that gave away core details of the plot.
“If you’re on a movie set and you see a clip, you have no idea what’s going on,” Cue said. “It’s not like it was shot in sequence, right? These little things… I saw on YouTube the thing about Brad passing out in Vegas, but you don’t know what the context was or the context before that. In fact, I think it all helps.
In particular, the nature of the scene in which Pitt “passed out” on the crash pad on the main straight of Las Vegas last month, Cue felt didn’t push the film’s dramatic elements too far.
“I saw a man walking out of the fire in a real Formula One car,” he said, referring to Romain Grosjean’s crash in Bahrain in 2020. “I think passing out is very real.” The producer said that everything in “F1” draws inspiration or reference from moments in the history of the sport, whether it is a crash scene or a track scene.
“Many of the events in the film are based on real events,” Bruckheimer said. “Everything Brad does on the track, the little tricks he does, are things drivers have done for decades in various races. Because he doesn’t have the fastest car, he’s not the fastest driver. He had to use smart strategies to keep up with the other riders.
Brad Pitt, who played Sonny Hayes, paid tribute to Damson Idris, who played Joshua Pearce, after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. (American Sipa)
On-location filming in Abu Dhabi was delayed later than originally planned due to last year’s actors and writers’ strike in Hollywood. But Bruckheimer said there was never a time when the program was in danger.
“We were very lucky because we hired the entire second unit of photography, the second unit of directors,” he said. “So when the two strikes happened, we didn’t need a scriptwriter. We didn’t need actors. Our director, Joe Kosinski, shot the entire second set during the strike. So when we When we came back, we just had to shoot the actors and we were lucky enough to be able to work it out that way.
Cue said that while it “delayed things a little bit,” there was “never any question about it” and it even felt like the added time would be beneficial. “You could say having more time always helps,” Cue said. “For example, we were able to come here twice and we were able to shoot more than we would have otherwise.”
Just as Netflix’s Drive to Survive documentary series helped attract a younger, more mainstream audience when it debuted in 2019, the sport is hoping F1 can have the same impact. Bruckheimer believes the desire of the paddock and the wider sport has led to this collaborative effort over the past two years.
“The fans are great, they really are,” Bruckheimer said. “They embraced us and were very nice to Brad and the movie itself, they tweeted about the movie. They’ve realized the impact the movie has had on the movement.
“There are certain markets that drivers haven’t been exposed to yet. I mean, these guys are rock stars, let’s face it, they’re the 20 best drivers in the world. Not only will they be exposed to Road to Survival 》audience and reach everyone.
