After the immense success of the Netflix series Drive to Survive, the F1 world will soon come to the big screen with a much-anticipated movie starring Brad Pitt. The Hollywood actor will accompany Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff in the $140,000,000 production. With the Mercedes top dogs serving as the movie’s co-producers, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner thinks his team will be the villains in the movie.
The upcoming movie stars Brad Pitt as a retired F1 racer who comes out of retirement to mentor a young driver as his teammate. Reports suggest British actor Damson Idris will play the young driver. Having identified Joe Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick fame) as the film’s director. Hamilton and Co are busy working on the scripts, with reports suggesting they will do most of the filming during the 2023 season.
While the movie has no final title yet, the working title of the movie is ‘Apex,’ which is also the name of Pitt’s team in the film. The movie will see Pitt drive a modified F2 car, which the actor has already logged over a thousand kilometers. However, as filming continues, the Red Bull team boss believes they will be shown in a bad light, though he is happy for F1 to be getting the exposure.
Christian Horner claims Red Bull will be the bad guys in the upcoming F1 movie
Talking to ESPN, the Red Bull boss said it was great that the movie was taking F1 to the big screen. He also thought that given the Mercedes camp’s heavy involvement in the film, they would show his team in poor light.
“With Toto and Lewis as executive producers, I’m sure we’re going to be portrayed as the bad guys and the villains! But it is great for the sport, it’s great for Formula 1, and the interest in the sport is just amazing.”
The reason behind the Briton’s statement could very well be the fierce rivalry between Red Bull and Mercedes, which was intense during the 2021 season. The rivalry, however, has been ongoing for over a decade.
Red Bull VS Mercedes: A decade-old rivalry
The Milton Keynes-based outfit dominated the grid with Sebastian Vettel at the helm from 2010 to 2013. With the onset of the hybrid era in 2014, Mercedes took over the reins from the energy drinks team and continued to enjoy success until 2020. After an intense 2021 season that saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dramatically win the driver’s championship, the team has again taken over the F1 throne.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has insisted it would be “dishonest” to have a friendly relationship with Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff given the two team’s F1 rivalry.
Speaking in an upcoming Sky Sports documentary called Secrets of Success, when asked about his… pic.twitter.com/YIYCcHm894
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) June 28, 2023
With Red Bull crushing all their opponents this season, there is hardly any challenge for them. Mercedes have accepted Red Bull as their superior for this season, but they refuse to concede defeat against their fiercest rivals. When the new regulations kick in from the 2026 season, the Silver Arrows will look to take the battle to Red Bull yet again.
