Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has played his role in deciding who will co-star alongside Brad Pitt's in the new F1 movie.
Actors who auditioned for the part have gone through a gruelling selection process including auditions and several days of driving tests. Hollywood news site Deadline have reported that Damson Idris has been selected to co-star alongside Pitt in the as yet untitled film which will be set in the future.
The Apple films backed venture follows two-time Academy Award -winner Pitt as an F1 racer who comes out of retirement to mentor a younger driver as his teammate in a bid to have one final shot at glory.
The film is being created in collaboration with Hamilton's production company Dawn Apollo Films and it is understood filming will begin during race weekends at some point in 2023.
Hamilton has spoken about his input in the audition process helping fellow directors Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer in finding the right actor for the role.
“We're going through a process right now of selecting the character that will be alongside Brad, which is exciting,” Hamilton told Autosport earlier this year.
“Basically that's the process of watching (the auditions). We have recordings of them doing certain scenes and we got through it. I've have sat in the office with Jerry and Joe and Brad, and we've been watching them and kind of given our inputs and what we think.
“Right now, we’ve still got the script. We’ve gone through quite a few different iterations of it. We're still waiting for a new rewrite, and that's the whole process. But I was doing that throughout Christmas. I'm excited to get the next end of the script. I was talking to Brad last night about the characters that we have coming.”
Hamilton has already had film roles and continues to show an interest in making the transition to Hollywood once his career in F1 is over, having already featured in the Cars films and Zoolander 2 movies.
The Mercedes star is the only black driver on the grid and wants to make the film as diverse as possible and also challenge gender norms.
“My job and I think responsibility is to make sure it is diverse,” Hamilton told reporters. “In terms of like having diversity and representation, I want it to be as Formula 1 should be in the future or should be now, but will be in the future.
“So I want to see female mechanics, we would love to see a female driver. We haven’t got to that point just yet, but why not?"
