F1 film reveals 'three-year' Red Bull fight over 'villain' fears

The producer of the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt has claimed that Red Bull feared it would be portrayed as the "villains."

Jerry Bruckheimer is co-producing the film, along with Joseph Kosinski, after the two collaborated on Top Gun: Maverick, with Lewis Hamilton also serving as a producer and technical advisor. 

The film features a driver in Pitt being lured out of retirement to assist with the development of a young racer, played by Damson Idris, for the fiction APXGP team, with Mercedes providing technical support.

The cars used are based around F2 machinery but feature F1 bodywork, with filming taking place at multiple grands prix across the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Pitt and Idris' characters, Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce, take part in some of the formation lap at the 2023 British Grand Prix.

Speaking at the Liberty Media investor day alongside outgoing CEO Greg Maffei, Bruckheimer revealed Red Bull's initial fear.

"The interesting part is that, since we teamed up with Mercedes, the other teams said, 'Wait a second, this movie is going to be about Mercedes and we’re going to look bad," he explained.

"Red Bull said, 'We’re going to be the villains'.

"It took us three years to convince them that they weren’t going to be the villains and we finally got to a place where all the teams are leaning into us to help us."

The veteran director also gave a simple answer as to why the film was entitled F1, describing that "the great racing movies were Le Mans and Grand Prix, and now there's going to be F1."