See Brad Pitt hit 'speeds over 180 miles an hour' in high-octane “F1 ”trailer: 'That's not acting'

Brad Pitt has the need for speed in the first trailer for F1.

The upcoming racing movie, which sees the actor and his costar, Damson Idris (Snowfall), doing their own driving on the track, is directed by Top Gun: Maverick helmer Joseph Kosinski, who spoke to a select group of press ahead of the trailer's debut on Thursday.

"Watching Brad drive around at speeds over 180 miles an hour was really impressive to see because it's not something you can just learn overnight," he told reporters. "The dedication and the focus that Brad put into this process has been amazing to witness. This film has got it all: Brad Pitt, speed, thrills, an epic underdog story, drama, humor, and a little bit of romance."

Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, Formula One's "most promising phenom of the 1990s until he spectacularly crashed and burned," according to an official synopsis. "Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), owner of a struggling F1 team that is on the verge of collapse." As seen in the trailer, Cervantes convinces Hayes to return to the track for a last shot at glory, but conflict ensues when he's teamed with Idris' Joshua Pearce, a hotshot rookie intent on blazing his own trail.

Kosinski got interested in Formula One racing during COVID. The world's most popular yearly sporting series, F1 is the highest class of international racing, and its biggest star, British phenom Lewis Hamilton, worked closely with Kosinski to create the film. From helping to design the camera rigs on the real racecars used in the movie to personally training Pitt and Idris to drive at breakneck speeds, Hamilton was integral to making F1 feel as authentic as possible.

"We actually bought six F2 cars, real F2 race cars, and worked with Mercedes AMG, the Formula One team, and their engineers to build real race cars that could carry our camera equipment recorders and transmitters for making this film," Kosinski told reporters ahead of the trailer debut. "So every time you see Brad or Damson driving this movie, they're driving on their own in one of these real race cars on a real F1 track." The director even filmed the movie during actual F1 races, shooting the racing scenes between practice and qualifiers.

Getting the actors ready for the track "required months, literally months of training," the director reveals. "Lewis was really interested [in] seeing, did Brad know how to drive right? Because if Brad can't drive, this whole film wasn't going to work. And what Lewis was very happy to discover was that Brad had a lot of natural ability right from the start, and I don't know where he got that or if he was born with it — and he rides motorcycles, which I think has something to do with it — but he's just a very talented, naturally gifted driver, which for Lewis after that first meeting gave him a lot of confidence that we might have a shot at pulling this off."

Not only does F1 driving require immense skill in handling supercharged vehicles, but it also comes with intense physical demands. This is mostly due to the extreme g-forces generated by driving at such high speeds (up to 6.5gs) and the heat generated from the engine, which can make the cockpit as hot as 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus, the steering wheel and brake pedal require considerable strength to move. F1 drivers typically burn around 1,000 calories per hour and can experience heart rates of over 170 bpm.

"You have to be fearless, and when you see Brad driving, that's not acting," Kosinski notes. "He's really concentrating on keeping that car on the track and out of the wall during all those scenes. So that's something that you just can't fake, I think. I hope the audience feels that when they watch the movie."

F1 races into theaters on June 27.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly