Brad Pitt ‘driving deaf’ at Silverstone as F1 movie mishap revealed

Brad Pitt and Co had little margin for error when it came to filming F1 the movie, with tight time slots allocated at race weekends.

The last thing he needed then was to head out on track in front of 100,000 fans with a communications system which had just gone down, but it turns out that is exactly what had happened at Silverstone 2023.

Brad Pitt ‘driving deaf’ in Silverstone filming

F1: the movie was released in theatres on June 25 internationally and June 27 in the United States.

It proved a huge hit with a debut weekend box office total of $144 million, making it the most successful Apple Original film in history, plus the most successful film launch in Brad Pitt’s illustrious career.

A revolutionary aspect of F1 the movie was the fact that filming took place within the real-life Formula 1 action, APXGP acting as an unofficial 11th team, with tight filming slots coming in at under 10 minutes at the track.

One key filming location was the 2023 British Grand Prix, and Pitt reflected on the experience during a Beyond the Grid podcast appearance.

“It’s nutty, but it brings like an energy to the film itself,” said Pitt when the filming slots were brought up. “It was like a race to make sure we got these scenes.

“We’re going to shoot it on the grid. If we’ve embedded ourselves in the race weekend, we have to prove ourselves, that we will not cock up the program and slow down the race in any way, and we won’t be in anyone’s way.

“And so, Damson [Idris] and I do the national anthem. We turn around, we find ourselves walking with Carlos [Sainz], which was cool as sh*t, and like these little accidents that happen.

“And then we get to the back of the grid, and we get two takes for this scene with Tobias [Menzies] and Javier [Bardem].”

Not all of those accidents while filming were so cool, though.

In the movie, Pitt is portraying veteran racer ‘Sonny Hayes’, while Damson Idris plays the role of team-mate ‘Joshua Pearce’.

Pitt revealed that both of them were coached through the driving – British racer Luciano Bacheta in Pitt’s corner – while fellow British driver Craig Dolby was with Idris.

However, Pitt was left to go it alone at Silverstone 2023 when the comms went down.

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“But the day before, the very first thing we put on film was going out, taking the cars out on our own, in front of the 100,000 fans on quali day,” Pitt continued, “and that got my attention.

“Oh, my God. I was sitting in the car for a half hour, just sweating my balls off, waiting to go, just like talking myself through it, because this was make or break. And again, you know, we want to keep the car on the track, but we want to get as much aggression in it as we can.

“And I go out, I mean, we’ve rehearsed this, we’ve talked it through, we know what we’re going to do, and I get out, and my comms go down, and I’m driving deaf, and I can’t communicate with Luch [Luciano Bacheta] at all.

“And somehow, you know, doing it enough, we just, like, winged it. And he knows enough to, like, watch out for me. He’s so proficient that we were alright in the end.”

Read next: How many penalty points would F1 movie star Sonny Hayes have got in real life?