F1 movie crew can get some filming done despite strike – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says work on a movie about Formula 1 racing which he is co-producing has not stopped entirely despite an “unprecedented” strike by writers and actors.

The film, which does not yet have a title, is based around a fictional F1 team called ‘APX GP’. Brad Pitt has been enlisted to play one of their drivers.

The crew and actors appeared during the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone. Garage space was set aside for the fictional team and filming was done between F1 sessions as well as on the grid before the race.

However America’s motion picture industry has been disrupted by strikes arranged by the Writers Guild of America union, which began in May, and the Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which followed earlier this month. Hamilton said some changes had to be made in order to allow work on the picture to progress.

“Firstly there has been the writers’ strike now so that definitely changed the way we had to work on the script,” he explained in response to a question from RaceFans. “And then there was the actors’ one. So it’s an unprecedented time, I think, for the industry.

“But [I’ve been] reading through it and speaking to everyone and trying to understand it more and more.”

Documents issued by the FIA indicated the APX GP garage installation seen at Silverstone will also be in place this weekend. Hamilton said they plan to do some filming at the Hungaroring.

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“Fortunately for us you can see the team is here, APX is here, and we’re still filming luckily with the drivers that we have. So hopefully we can continue to still get some important parts of the filming done.”

Hamilton said it was “really amazing to see” the positive reception the project has had since their first experience of filming alongside a live grand prix weekend at Silverstone.

“This sport, when you introduce something new, when you bring something new to them, everyone gets really nervous,” he said. “There’s all this push-back whether it’s within your team or wherever it might be.

“Now we’re seeing these changes, now people are starting to see the benefits, and I think it’s been really great to see all the teams embrace APX and the team that we have there. To see them on-track now it’s so cool.”

He said he was encouraged by his first impression of the footage they were able to gather from the two cars that were running at Silverstone.

“I’ve seen all these images from some of the filming with Brad, the different scenes that we had read through where I just had a vision of what it would look like. But now I’ve seen some of those scenes and it’s made me more and more excited about the end result.”

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