Hollywood

Brad Pitt reveals how he got into motor racing and his love for cars and motorcycles: “There’s that white trash side of the Ozarks”

A lifelong lover of motor racing, Pitt stars in the new film ‘F1: The Movie’, which is out in the U.S. this week.

Maja Smiejkowska

British journalist and translator who joined Diario AS in 2013. Focuses on soccer – chiefly the Premier League, LaLiga, the Champions League, the Liga MX and MLS. On occasion, also covers American sports, general news and entertainment. Fascinated by the language of sport – particularly the under-appreciated art of translating cliché-speak.

Update: Jun 26th, 2025 18:53 EDT

Ahead of the release of his new film F1: The Movie, Hollywood star Brad Pitt has looked back on the origins of his love for motor sport.

In an interview this week on the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Pitt described racing as a lifelong passion that led him to spend much of his career pursuing a role in a picture about the sport.

“Threading needle” in F1 film

“I had been trying to get a racing movie made for 20 years,” the two-time Oscar winner said. “In cars, in difference classes, in bikes, [the] Isle of Man [Tourist Trophy races] even. And for whatever reason, it just never came to fruition.”

Motor sport movies “are hard to do really well”, Pitt added.

“When we talk about this one,” he explained, "the most difficult thing of it was threading this needle between a faction of fans that revere this sport as the greatest thing on this earth, and people who don’t understand how the sport works but are going to enjoy the movie.”

The 61-year-old told Armchair Expert that he caught the speed-freak bug during his early life in Missouri.

“Driving in rain, driving on ice...”

“There is that white trash side of the Ozarks, that component,” Pitt said. “Growing up getting on a mini-bike and being at the lake in fast boats [...].

“And then driving too early and driving on dirt roads, driving in the rain, driving on the ice…”

“Don’t know where I go from here”

In F1: The Movie, which he also co-produces, Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a veteran driver who comes out of retirement to compete in the final nine races of the Formula 1 season for the fictional APX Grand Prix team.

Speaking to Formula 1’s official media team in December last year, the actor said the experience of making the film was “like nothing else”.

“I don’t know where I go from here,” he said. “I’ve got to do something nice and quiet. A drama or something. Because you can’t compete with just this experience.”

F1: The Movie - watch the official trailer:

When does F1: The Movie premiere in the U.S.?

A film directed by Joseph Kosinski, F1: The Movie is to be released in U.S. theaters on Friday, June 27, 2025.

Alongside Pitt, the picture stars Damson Idris as Joshua Pearce, a British rookie driver who is Hayes’ APX team-mate. The movie’s cast also includes Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem and Tobias Menzies.