“You Feel Like Aladdin”: George Russell Used Disney References to Get Brad Pitt Ready for Spa Francorchamps

After Silverstone, Brad Pitt and the crew of the ‘F1’ movie have arrived at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium for yet another filming schedule. Given how iconic yet thrilling the Eau Rouge and Raidillon section is for professional drivers, Pitt and Co. may feel quite intimidated filming scenes at that corner. George Russell revealed on ‘The Fast and the Curious’ podcast that he has shared his driving experience through Eau Rouge-Raidillon with Pitt.

When the hosts asked him to give a point of view of driving through Eau Rouge, Russell told them what he told Pitt. “I said [to Brad Pitt] you’ll enjoy it [Eau Rouge] but then I said it’s like a roller coaster,” Russell recalled.

The 26-year-old highlighted how the car compresses down while driving through the first bit and the driver can feel like being scraped on the floor. Then he added,

“And then as you go up through Eau Rouge, you know, suddenly you feel lifted like you’re on the flying carpet… you feel like Aladdin a little bit as you go through Eau Rouge and the car lifts up and you’re floating through and then you grip and you go on all in the space of about a second, so it’s pretty cool”.

However, this is not the first time Pitt’s crew are filming at Spa. They were present at several of the races last year including Belgium. But, they got footage from actual cars like Alpine to have some racing footage of Eau Rouge and Raidillon, to edit it in post-production and make the car seem like an APX GP car.

Whether Pitt and his co-star Damson Idris and the professional drivers they have for filming do some laps for filming this time around would be interesting to see. Meanwhile, the hosts were curious to know what Pitt is like and Russell told them that he has become a big F1 fan during the preparation of the movie along with Mercedes.

Mercedes helped Brad Pitt in preparing him for the F1 movie

Russell explained how Pitt follows the sport closely as he is a big fan, but also because of the movie he has grown to appreciate the sport even more. He said,

“He’s a massive F1 fan, he’s following everything and obviously, there’s a lot going on with the new movie, so that’s super exciting. But he really wants to be here and be doing it I think. He’s really enjoying the driving side”.

Other than Spa and Silverstone, Pitt and Idris have also driven on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit and the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. What’s interesting is that Mercedes played a significant role in helping Pitt and Co. prepare for the upcoming F1 movie. The team provided extensive support, including driving lessons at Silverstone and Paul Ricard to familiarize them with the F1 cars.

Mercedes also helped modify F2 cars to look like current F1 machines, which will be used in the movie. The Brackley-based squad also provided designs for the pit garage and pit wall to ensure a high level of realism in the movie’s set-up.