Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed that Lewis Hamilton told Brad Pitt he was “much too old” to be a Formula One driver fighting for World Championships, a comment that left the Hollywood star “not impressed”. The exchange occurred during a dinner at Wolff's home in Oxford early in the production of the F1 film, which features Pitt as a veteran racer.
Wolff recounted the conversation at the Autosport Business Exchange New York, explaining that the initial script had Pitt's character, Sonny Hayes, competing for a World Championship. However, Hamilton's blunt assessment prompted a rewrite. “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 One driver,’” Wolff said.
Pitt was reportedly unimpressed by the remark, feeling he was in his prime to be an F1 driver. Nevertheless, the script was adapted to make his role more credible. In the finished film, Hayes returns to Grand Prix racing in his fifties, competing for the struggling fictional team APX GP alongside a rookie driver, Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris.
The film, on which Hamilton served as an executive producer, became the highest-grossing sports film of all time, earning £467 million ($628 million) worldwide. Wolff praised the movie as “good entertainment”, noting that F1 drivers and team principals who attended the Monaco premiere also enjoyed it. “There was nothing that was not to be liked,” he added.
