Hollywood star Brad Pitt test drives 2023 McLaren at Circuit of the Americas to celebrate release of F1 The Movie

News.com.au

3 days ago

Is there a new rookie driver in the McLaren fold Australia's championship leader Oscar Piastri needs to be looking over his shoulder at?
On the back of his starring role in the new F1 The Movie, Hollywood star Brad Pitt recently donned the papaya race suit – complete with the initials BP – for a private test of the 2023 McLaren challenger at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
McLaren has shared a suite of pictures of Pitt's day in the F1 car with the actor revealing he fell just short of his target speed of 200 mph on the main straight at the Texan Circuit.
The Oscar-winning actor took up an invitation from McLaren CEO Zak Brown to jump behind the wheel of the MCL60 to celebrate the global release of the film.
Pitt, who stars as veteran F1 driver Sonny Hayes in the new movie, spent the day with McLaren's British star Lando Norris and said the experience was an 'absolute high'.
'I got to hit 197 (miles per hour) this week. I really wanted to hit 200. You know, it hurts me a little bit – three miles per hour short on the straight,' Pitt said of his experience behind the wheel of the McLaren on the Beyond The Grid podcast.
'I've just never experienced anything that's just, more feeling of presence in my life. You're just so focused, but you're not white knuckling. You're in this sublime groove. It is really extraordinary.
'I try to explain this feeling of downforce, and I fail every time because you try to say like a rollercoaster, but that's not even right, because you feel the fulcrum point underneath you – you're in it.
'I was in an aerobatic plane once, and it's the closest thing, but still this thing. This is such a unique feeling and an absolute high. I'm still on a high, I really am. I'm just still on a high.
'And I can't thank Zak Brown and the team (enough). I spent the day with Lando (Norris) – just what a high, what a high.'
Pitt's efforts behind the wheel impressed Norris, who commented on a McLaren Instagram post, 'He nailed it tbf'.
McLaren revealed Pitt visited its headquarters in Woking last month for engineering meetings, seat fit and an intensive simulator session ahead of his F1 track debut in Austin.
The A-Lister underwent training to drive the modified F2 cars which feature in the movie, but Brown wanted to give him the opportunity to get a taste of a real F1 car.
'Putting Brad through his paces!' Brown wrote on his social media.
'Having seen what Sonny Hayes can do in the awesome new @F1movie, it was only right that Brad got to experience an F1 car for real.'