Mercedes chief boasts how F1 legend Lewis Hamilton still helped them AFTER joining Ferrari

Hamilton walking past Bono touching his shoulder with a smile at the Chinese GP — Photo: © IMAGO

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes chief boasts how Lewis Hamilton still helped them AFTER joining Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton had a big hand in the F1 movie

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 9 May 2026 15:12

A Mercedes boss has revealed the impact that seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton had on the brand with his role within last year's F1 movie.

Hamilton earned a production credit for his role in the film, which starred the likes of Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and Kerry Condon.

It actually became Pitt's highest grossing film of his acting career, overtaking World War Z. But despite this, the film received mixed reviews from fans and drivers alike, with criticisms based around its authenticity and the lack of female representation within the storyline.

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Nevertheless, the impact it had in bringing F1 to a new audience was clear to see by the fact that IMAX signed a deal with the sport to show several 2026 races in cinemas in the US following the success of the film.

Now, Mercedes CEO Adam Chamberlain has praised the impact that the film has had, and continues to have, on the Mercedes brand, praising Hamilton for his role in furthering the Mercedes brand.

"Lewis Hamilton, we were fortunate he was still a Mercedes driver, he did a lot of the production," Chamberlain said at a press event.

"So the driving scenes are real. Obviously there are some flip outs which are helped by CGI and stuff but a lot of the driving is real because they did some takes and he said 'this isn't good enough, it doesn't look real'.

"So he drove and some other guys drove, and then he had the two English commentators because Lewis had said to the production team 'if Crofty and Martin Brundle aren't commentating, it's not F1', and so they had those two.

"And then you had cameos from a bunch of different people including Toto Wolff and because the car was using the Mercedes engine and the Mercedes cars are featured, it felt like a really integral piece. It felt authentic.

"It felt authentic and it felt really great to be part of the brand and it reinforced, out of good luck and timings, what a great position Mercedes has in Formula 1."

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Will there be an F1 movie sequel?

There has been talk of a potential sequel in the pipeline, with a recent interviewer putting to Kosinski that he had spoken to Apple CEO Tim Cook who had said that discussions had started for 'F2'.

Kosinski then replied: "We're in that stage of just kind of dreaming up what that next chapter for Sonny Hayes would be and for Apex GP.

"But, you know, based on the reaction from around the world to this movie, it's something that people wanna see and I'd be happy to go back and do it because we had so much fun making this one."

On top of this, producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently told BBC News that a sequel was being worked on, although it's highly unlikely that they will opt to title that sequel 'F2' given that refers to F1's feeder series.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Mercedes F1 movie