It's our first time seeing the fictional APXGP team on the grid.
Unless you've been living in a cave for the last year or so, you'll know about the highly-anticipated Formula 1 movie starring Brad Pitt under the guidance of executive producer Sir Lewis Hamilton. Filming on track commences this weekend at the British Grand Prix.
Brad Pitt and co-star Damson Idris (playing Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce, respectively) will be on track with actual F1 drivers, but not during the official Grand Prix. This movie is already getting unheard-of levels of access and participation, and a genuine race would be a step too far.
Alpine's boss spilled the tea at a pre-race event, revealing that the fictional APXGP (Apex Grand Prix?) team will be racing between practice sessions and participating in the installation lap. Otmar Szafnauer also confirmed the existence of an APXGP garage in the pit lane, and from images we've seen, we also know the fake team has gone the whole nine yards. In addition to all of the above, it will have a pit wall box and a hospitality suite.
Formula 1/Twitter Formula 1/Twitter
According to Szafnauer, the fake team will stay out of real teams' way, and vice versa. Alpine driver Pierre Gasly simply said he couldn't wait to overtake Brad Pitt. Rumor has it that other drivers aren't too happy about this because there's the potential for something to go seriously wrong, especially at a high-speed circuit like Silverstone. Remember, open-wheel racers depend on downforce to work correctly, and you need to reach a certain speed for downforce to work.
Still, Mercedes-Benz reportedly built F2-spec cars specifically for Pitt and Idris. These F2 cars have been tarted up to look like F1 cars, putting less pressure on the film stars. We're also 100% certain that the Mercedes geniuses took the stars' lack of skill into account, resulting in what may be the most accommodating open-wheeler ever to exist.
Hamilton also revealed that both drivers received proper training, likely starting with something less edgy like a road-legal Mercedes-AMG GT before being promoted to more hardcore machines.
CarBuzz
Up-close and personal with APXGP ??#F1 pic.twitter.com/o5AvJHykoM
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 6, 2023
The Formula 1 Twitter account shared the first images of the APXGP racer, and while the car is a fake, the sponsors are not. All the sponsors on the car are real, which means there's a lot of product placement money lying around. The most telling is the AMG logo, hinting that APXGP will be a Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains customer. This adds a bit of reality to the mix, as it is one of six confirmed power unit suppliers. Will the APXGP car perform better than the team that supplies its engines? Well, that's not hard to do these days.
The black-and-gold livery was obviously designed to stand out in a crowd, making it easier to identify our protagonists in a 22-car grid.
Little is known about the film, but a few hints have been dropped. Pitt will play Hayes, who APXGP lures out of retirement to help its new star driver, Pearce. We hope there's more flesh to the movie, as it sounds basically like Driven but with F1 cars.
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There are some treats in store for the more hardcore F1 fans, too. The McLaren F1 team is reviving its chrome livery for its home Grand Prix. Lando Norris' car will look particularly spiffy, giving the F1 star the extra boost he needs to fight at the front of the pack, and McLaren recently worked some serious magic on his car. We expect him to finish a bit higher than his stellar first outing with the upgraded car in Austria last week.
Williams will also be racing with a special livery to celebrate its 800th Grand Prix. The British team is officially only on race number 799, thanks to the cancellation of the season's first Italian Grand Prix (Imola) earlier this year. The team is keeping this technicality from getting in the way and will celebrate at Silverstone and Budapest when it officially hits 800. The beautiful livery pays tribute to the team's founder, the late Sir Frank Williams, and the team's British roots.
As for the racing, Red Bull will be on the warpath. It hasn't won the British Grand Prix since 2012, and Max Verstappen will be on a mission to add Silverstone to the list of tracks he's dominated.
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Keyword: Brad Pitt Making His F1 Debut Is Just One Of The Many Exciting Things Happening At The British Grand Prix