Lewis Hamilton reveals the James Hunt inspiration behind F1 movie storyline

The James Hunt inspiration behind the F1 movie

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

With F1: The Movie finally being released in global theaters — with its official American release coming on June 27 — fans have finally had a chance to view the spectacle we’ve been hearing about for so long.

Filming for the F1 movie first kicked off in 2023 at the British Grand Prix, but a Hollywood strike put filming on hiatus until the very end of the year — at which point, the season was largely over.

Fans were able to pinpoint the F1: The Movie crew at various race tracks throughout the 2024 season, including Silverstone, Las Vegas, and Abu Dhabi, and now, they’ve been able to see those scenes come to life on the silver screen.

With Lewis Hamilton as an executive producer, naturally the Austrian Grand Prix weekend has kicked off with plenty of questions about the movie being directed at the seven-time World Champion.

More on the Brad Pitt F1 movie:

???? Brad Pitt F1 movie: Cast, release date, Lewis Hamilton involvement and more

???? Brad Pitt F1 movie: An insider’s complete guide to the F1 film

During a pre-weekend press conference, Lewis Hamilton told media, including PlanetF1.com, that he felt writer Ehren Kruger pulled from a wide variety of inspirations, particularly when it came to crafting the character of Sonny Hayes.

“I’m sure he was looking at people like James Hunt,” Hamilton explained.

“He wanted a really cool character. He was trying to look at the characters from back in the Senna days.

“I think he looked at a combination of many of those drivers, and I’ll say the James Hunt vibe was probably — I don’t know if that’s what he ultimately chose, but that’s the character I feel that resembles mostly to him: Very cool, calm, good-looking cat, and elder statesman within the team.”

While Hamilton was a key player in advising on the film, he was also critical in getting it off the ground. Producer and director Joseph Kosinski had just wrapped up filming Top Gun: Maverick — a movie that Hamilton had hoped to star in until it became clear his racing conflicts would interrupt the filming schedule — when he reached out to the seven-time World Champion about putting together a film about Formula 1.

“When we were working on the script, when we started talking about it four years ago, I mean, ultimately, Joe called me and told me that he was thinking about doing this movie, and he’s just finished off Maverick, and we were talking about me being in Maverick back then,” Hamilton explained to media in Austria.

“So to start talking about a movie, and then him asking me whether I thought this was a good idea, and then connecting him with Stefano [Domenicali] and Greg back then, Greg Maffei, and getting everybody in the room, and everybody talking about how we could progress this this cause.

“Then working on the story, I hadn’t really thought about the end result. Obviously when you’re reading a script, it’s hard to picture everything that you’re going to see that’s written out.

“To then finally be at the premiere, see how much everyone contributed to it, to see Apple really putting a huge amount behind this, both technically but also just all their efforts, and being in the middle of Times Square, having Brad up on the screen with a Formula 1 car and F1 logo, I’m like, ‘holy crap, this is absolutely insane.’

“That experience was great; for me, that was a moment I’ll never forget.

“And then to also be on stage with all the producers and also the cast, then sit and watch everybody’s reaction — that was really, really special, if I’m honest, because I’ve seen it so many times. I hadn’t seen it on IMAX but I’d seen it obviously, I’ve been on my laptop and watching every different section for so long, making comments as we were editing and improving it.

“I was literally like, ‘I’ve seen it already, so I’m gonna leave and go to dinner.’ But then I decided to stay, and I watched this whole thing with everybody. And to see everyone’s reactions through it was one of the coolest things.”

Motorsport-focused critics have pinpointed many of the inaccuracies within the film, but Hamilton has provided a counterpoint: The film draws heavily on inspiration from F1’s greatest characters. Hints of Hunt and Senna are clear throughout, while many action and crash scenes call back to events that have transpired in F1’s past.

F1: The Movie is out now in global theaters; it’ll be available in North America on June 27.