Brad Pitt is the main character of the upcoming Formula 1 film, F1: The Movie. In an interview with Will Buxton, he explained how he learned to drive the specific type of car needed for the racing scenes. When Buxton asked Pitt how he learned to drive an F2 car so late in life, Pitt quipped, "You have to ask some of the professionals if they'll call it driving.”
How Pitt learned to drive
While some actual Formula 1 and 2 drivers may not see what he did as driving, both Pitt and Buxton consider it real racing.
Pitt said that he did not start racing with a car at first. He said, “I started up as a kid, dirt bikes and a little bit of a white trash bone, and back then we had three wheelers and quads and up on two wheels, and so it didn't feel that different other than I was just amazed."
Even though Pitt has done plenty of stunts in his career, he admitted, ”When you first experience downforce, like even in this, it's shocking. It took my breath away."
“When you go as fast as you think you can and then the moment you go faster than you think you can and it sticks.”
One piece of advice that Pitt was given was "They keep saying trust the car, so in my head I go trust the car and take it in, and it was just harrowing, you are just trying to keep your head [straight]."
He then added another thing was was shocking to him; the braking speed.
"The brakes on these things that you can go down [the track at] 180 and then with 75 yards get it down to 50-40 miles an hour [was] shocking to me the first time I experienced it.“