Following the announcement of Sebastian Vettel’s retirement from Formula One, Lewis Hamilton opined on the topic often creating the impression his own departure from the sport was not too far in the future.

Dawn Apollo Films was launched late October 2022 with two projects in the pipeline lined up with Apple TV+.

 

 

Hamilton has two Apple TV+ films in the pipeline

One of the two F1 based projects is set to star Brad Pitt who attended the US GP in Austin last season to familiarise himself with the sport. The second film will be one based on Lewis Hamilton’s life.

Hamilton announced he intends to “fully focus” on the new film and TV production company when he hangs up his racing boots.

“I’m very conscious of other great athletes who spend their whole lives as I have, focused on their sport, and when they come to the end they might not necessarily have had the right people around them to help structure the course ahead for them,” revealed Lewis.

 

 

Lewis wants to focus “fully focus” on Dawn Apollo films

“I’ve spoken to people who have said ‘look, when I stopped it all came crashing down, I wasn’t prepared to do other things, I hadn’t taken time to learn any other crafts, other skills, and I don’t know what my other passions are, so I didn’t really focus on trying to understand what those are and create pillars’.”

“So when I stop racing – which I don’t plan on doing for a while, I still feel I’m in a good place – I want it to be seamless.

“I want to be able to move on to fully focus on Dawn Apollo Films and to be able to jump in at a similar level to what I’ve been used to.”

 

 

Update on the Brad Pitt F1 movie

Hamilton has now provided an update on the progress of the Brad Pitt film where the Hollywood actor will play the lead role featuring an ageing F1 driver in his sunset years.

The film is expected to be the classic old hand versus young gun storyline and how respect develops between the two characters as they learn to understand each other.

“We’re going through a process right now of selecting the character that will be alongside Brad, which is exciting,” Hamilton explained to assembled media at the Mercedes W124 launch.

 

 

Lewis Hamilton involved in casting

Lewis is the executive producer which means he is more involved in the front end of the production, less so the day to day filming of the movie.

“Basically that’s the process of watching them. They will send in a video. We have recordings of them doing certain scenes, and we go through it. 

“I’ve sat in the office with Jerry [Bruckheimer, producer] and Joe [Kosinski, director] and Brad, and have been watching them and kind of giving our inputs and what we think.

 

 

Diverse people of colour and women to star

“My job, and I think responsibility, is to make sure it is diverse. I want to make the movie in terms of like having diversity and representation.

“I want it to be as F1 should be in the future, or should be now, but will be in the future. So I want to see female mechanics. I would love to see a female driver.”

So it appears that the film will become some all encompassing rainbow depiction of a world in harmony where all colours faiths, creeds and sexualities are represented.

 

 

F1 a representation of UK societal mix 

Then again it may be just a representation of how the Formula One world should look from Hamilton’s perspective.

The problem Hamilton fails to understand is Formula One is predominantly a UK based industry whose population as a whole has less than 15% non-white minorities.

Thesis the real reason the sport lacks the diversity of the English speaking United States of America, not because of racism.

 

 

F1’s physical nature has proven a barrier to women

Hamilton’s observation the Formula One should include a female driver is also clouded from the reality that it has been tried. Yet the sheer physicality of driving the world’s leading single seater prototype racing cars penalises the performance of a driver with less physical capability.

Sports like Athletics track and field clearly demonstrate men and women’s level of physical capabilities differ significantly and this is reflected in each of the disciplines records set by men and by women.

Formula One requires the drivers today to be extreme athletes.

The saving grace for Hamilton and his film is that Hollywood knows when to produce unicorns and rainbows and when like in Top Gun to represent human grit, extreme competition and testosterone as the name of the game.

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