Why Brad Pitt's F1 movie was told ‘no' at Daytona — for the sake of authenticity

New York Times

3 days ago

Standing in a room before two of the biggest names in Hollywood, David Pettit would've been excused had he questioned himself about the job he had been tasked with.
Most people in his position would've been as they spoke to producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski.
The team behind the blockbuster hit 'Top Gun: Maverick' had reached out to Daytona International Speedway (DIS) and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), one of the preeminent sports car series in the world, about a new movie they were working on centered around Formula One and starring Brad Pitt. For the opening scenes of the then-untitled film, since named 'F1 The Movie,' filmmakers wanted to shoot at Daytona to depict Pitt's character competing in the prestigious Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona sports car endurance race.
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With both Daytona and IMSA owned by the France family (who also own NASCAR), coming to an agreement was fairly straightforward, allowing filmmakers nearly unfettered access to DIS and including actual footage of the race in the movie. But there needed to be a point person to shepherd the production crew, helping them get every shot they wanted, pushing the limits to, and maybe even beyond, what they were allowed.
This person was Pettit, IMSA's senior vice president of marketing and business operations. And as he stood before Bruckheimer, Kosinski and others during a rooftop lunch at NASCAR headquarters across the street from the Daytona speedway, he delivered a clear message.
''My job is to help you break rules, to give you what you need,'' Pettit said.
From that forward, the team behind 'F1: The Movie' was off to begin producing what would become the opening minutes of the film that establishes Pitt's character, 'Sonny Hayes,' as a former F1 driver who since washing out of the circuit has become a nomadic professional driver in various series around the globe.
An integral part of the storyline was to show that, despite being older and past his prime, Hayes still possessed the ability to race at the highest level. To plausibly demonstrate this, it was decided that Hayes should win the Rolex 24 (called the Daytona 24 in the movie), which is realistic as many former F1 exports regularly compete in and win the IMSA-sanctioned race.
Similar to how they immersed themselves in the F1 paddock while filming scenes set in that world, the production team did the same at Daytona over several weeks in January 2024. They encamped at the track prior to the Roar Before the 24 practice sessions and stayed through the 24-hour race, with DIS providing space in its massive infield to accommodate production setup.
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'It was probably the size of two football fields that we had to turn over to the movie production team,' said Frank Kelleher, president, Daytona International Speedway. 'And we all learned really quickly the men and the women that were working for Jerry Bruckheimer and with this production, you had a lot of similarities to the motorsports community — highly educated people, highly motivated people, people that understand work is not done until the job is complete and the product is perfect. They worked a lot of hours. There was a lot of just harmony and collaboration with them. They lived on the property, and it was a labor of love working with that crew.
'They were in awe of the World Center of Racing. They were blown away by just the symphony between competition, the drivers, the fans, the operation of it all, and they blended it right in with everyone involved in the sport.'
The producers had a few asks of Pettit and IMSA. 'They're like, 'Well, OK, first thing we want is we want to win the race,' Pettit said. He didn't shut that idea down — in fact, Pettit told them that if they entered as a legitimate competitor — straight-up, with no favoritism — with enough funding, they could field multiple competitive cars and have a real shot at winning.
Instead, the producers pivoted to another request: whether they could have a dedicated car in the Rolex 24 with the sole purpose of filming race action. This would be achieved by having the car intermittently return to the garage to change out different filming components, then rejoin the race.
For the integrity of the race, IMSA said no. But they did offer an alternative.
Series officials suggested partnering with a team entered in the race, with that team carrying multiple cameras to capture the race footage producers were seeking, plus allowing for wider shots of the car speeding around the 3.570-mile road course. Wright Motorsports, which fields a Porsche in IMSA's GTD class — the same make and class Hayes was to drive for in the movie — was selected. That car also had special livery that mirrored what Hayes raced in the film, and the team's pit equipment, uniforms, hauler, and even its garage stall bore branding for 'Chip Heart Racing' — the team Hayes drives for.
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This produced many of the moments during the opening scenes depicting Hayes competing in the race — though, in actuality, Pitt's laps behind the wheel of the No. 120 Porsche never occurred in the race itself. (That entry, co-driven by Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer, Jan Heylen and Frederic Makowiecki, finished 26th overall in the 59-car field.)
The track did make some accommodations to the competition schedule, notably extending an evening practice by 30 minutes so the crew could shoot a pit stop sequence featuring Pitt driving out of his pit stall.
'That sequence is actually in the movie,' Pettit said. 'We gave them a dedicated pit box next to the real team, so all the equipment was there and everything, so they could then stage it and then do a pit stop with Brad Pitt. And when you see that car coming out, it's actually Brad Pitt driving the car. He did a pretty impressive part of making that happen.'
Additional scenes were filmed during quiet days at the track, often in the small hours of the night. This allowed the production to fully utilize DIS's circuit by running stunt vehicles and shooting other moments that couldn't be filmed amid the actual race.
One such sequence punctuates the message Pettit delivered when this all came together. Kosinski wanted to go to the top of the DIS's scoring tower to see the fireworks that are traditionally shot off at 10 p.m. on the Saturday night of the race, a visual he wanted to incorporate into the movie.
But feeling this was a 'normal shoot you'd see on any broadcast,' Pettit suggested an outside-the-box idea. Plopping Kosinski into a golf cart shortly before launch, he drove Kosinski to the staging area, where he then asked the fire marshal how close they could get. And as the fireworks rocketed up into the sky, Pettit brought the broadcast on his phone so that Kosinski could compare. Quickly, the director recognized how he had to frame this shot.
'We got to be down there with the smoke when the cars are coming through it, and the director says, 'Yeah, that's the shot I want.' He was pointing at the track,' Pettit said. 'And in the movie, you'll see the two cars coming through fireworks and everything. And that was all re-staged, so to speak. But that's because he was there. We put him in a place that most people don't go. I've never been to that place before myself, let alone putting somebody there.'
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In every aspect of filming, whether on the F1 side or the IMSA side, filmmakers stressed the importance of 'authenticity.' Their movie would offer a real encapsulation of what motorsports is like, as best they could, while still making a compelling Hollywood film. Kelleher understood this key tenet. So he pushed back when the production crew insisted on filming a particular shot inside Daytona's victory lane — one of the few instances he put his foot down,
In the movie, Hayes wins the 'Daytona 24,' necessitating that producers have a scene of Hayes celebrating the accomplishment. They wanted to shoot the scene on the morning of the Sunday of the Rolex 24, while the race was still happening. This was not something the track could agree to due to a litany of 'operational reasons,' something Kelleher explained to the producers by using their desire for authenticity to accentuate his point.
Kelleher recalled how the filmmakers opened their pitch by detailing the uphill battles they'd faced with the FIA, F1's governing body, and the complexities of working within F1, and 'how they built trust throughout the last two years.' The filmmakers pointed to a moment in the film where Hayes appears on the grid at Silverstone beside Lewis Hamilton, a shot captured during the actual F1 pre-race. That, they said, was the level of authenticity they were bringing. That's when they told him they wanted to film their victory lane scene during the Rolex 24.
'So, I paused, and I repeated back the majority of the story,' Kelleher said, 'and I said, 'So you describe the challenge of FIA. You describe the challenge of Formula One, and yet here you are successfully shattering glass and doing what you were told 'no' (to). And they're like, 'Exactly.' And I said, 'I'm going to be the first guy to tell you 'no.'''
All the producers laughed, feeling as if Kelleher was joking with them. He wasn't. His reasoning was sound.
Kelleher reminded them just how often they'd emphasized authenticity — 'I said, 'You must have said the word authenticity 10 times,'' he recalled. He laid it out plainly to the filmmakers: Brad Pitt's character races in the GTD class, which is the last of the four classes to head into victory lane. By the time that car arrives, Kelleher told them, 'Victory lane is already covered in champagne and confetti. When you look out at the photographers and the people working cameras, they are sweaty. It is humid. They're covered in confetti and champagne.
'So, about the time your car rolls in victory lane, victory lane is alive and breathing. You do not want to be the first car rolling into victory lane and doing a victory lane shot. Because if you want to be authentic, the motorsports fan is going to watch that scene and go, 'Wait a minute. There's no way that car would roll in and victory lane would be that clean and pristine.''
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Kelleher then made an astute recommendation, coming from someone with institutional knowledge, having witnessed many celebrations in DIS's victory lane.
'I said, 'Let's celebrate the authentic (overall) race winning car,'' he said, 'and then we will roll in your car and we'll do the shoot.''
When it was all said and done and filming in victory lane had concluded, the filmmakers acknowledged Kelleher was correct. His preferred way of shooting the scene was the most real way to do it. It offered the very authenticity they sought.
This was solidified after filming had finished on that Sunday, when Kelleher received a word from a producer to meet them near victory lane. Once there, Pitt greeted him and his family. The actor then thanked Kelleher for his suggestion, underscoring the close collaboration that existed between DIS, IMSA and the production crew during the duration 'F1: The Movie' spent at the track.
'I'm like, 'Holy s—, that's Brad Pitt, everyone act cool,'' Kelleher said. 'And then Brad Pitt reaches his hand out and he's like, 'Oh man, I can't thank you enough. I can't believe you let us shoot that shot during your actual victory lane celebration. Thank you.''
Top photos: Brad Pitt and Wright Motorsports' 2024 car at Daytona.,