Damson Idris’ introduction to Formula 1 began in a acquainted manner for most sports activities followers — taking part in the F1 online game along with his brothers.
The British actor’s love for the game didn’t take the following step till 2018, when he attended his first race (the Hungarian Grand Prix, which he recollects Lewis Hamilton received). From there, he turned “hooked,” he stated in an unique interview with The Athletic, and started watching the races extra regularly. Little did he know that he’d someday work intently with the person who stood on the highest of the rostrum.
Idris carried on along with his performing profession and fandom, however 4 years later, Idris caught wind of the Jerry Bruckheimer and Joseph Kosinski mission — the eventual blockbuster success “F1 The Movie.” Idris “locked in,” his ardour for the game turning into extra private and evolving by his function as rookie driver Joshua Pearce.
“Before the project, my focus really was on the drivers. I didn’t really know too much about the intricacies of the sport and just how much detail and how much of a team effort it is for each team,” Idris defined. “And then after filming the movie is when I really understood that it really takes a village to pull this off, and I just found a deeper respect for the sport, really.
“Before, (I thought) it was (just) Lewis Hamilton, and he builds the car and he fixes it and he pushes it to the starting line. No, it’s a team effort. I really love the sport because of that.”
The F1 film, which additionally starred Brad Pitt and was co-produced by Hamilton, knocked the worldwide field workplace numbers off the charts and scooped up a number of awards. On Sunday, the movie is up for 4 Oscar nominations. It is the most recent improvement in F1’s “fashiontainment” period, as the popular culture motion continues to overlap with sport. And it opened the doorways for Idris to develop nearer ties to F1.
Damson Idris seems in a nonetheless from his F1 2026 launch video. (Courtesy F1)
Idris turning into F1’s latest world ambassador is a bodily reminder of how a lot the head of motorsport has modified within the final six years. A brilliant tone rang in Idris’ voice when he shared his journey to this second, his sentences quickening with pleasure. It’s not laborious to see why F1 needed him, given his real ardour and his standing on the intersection of leisure, style and tradition. The first mission in his new function with F1 got here within the type of the “All to Drive For” marketing campaign video, which featured Idris and the drivers.
“The alignment is very organic, not only because I did the movie, but just because, as Damson, I’m always going to go to Formula 1 races for the rest of my life, because I love Formula 1,” Idris stated. “So if I could partner with them and push the sport in a direction where people from different areas in the world are able to get into the sport and also be inspired, then I think that’s a job well done.
“It’s obviously huge in Europe. They’re still catching over in the States. They’re still catching over in Africa and other regions. And I want to be a part of that bridge that connects the sport to those areas.”
Idris needed to be all in for the film function, too. After wrapping up his final main mission, a tv sequence known as “Snowfall,” Idris stated he was eager to play a sportsperson, and the audition course of for “F1 The Movie” was in contrast to something he had skilled. He was put in varied automobiles, such as the F3000 and JP-LM two-seater, to evaluate his driving capacity and drift work. In “F1 The Movie,” he and Pitt did their very own driving scenes, educated by professionals and former drivers.
“I let everyone know that, yeah, I was not only excited, but I was also mature,” Idris stated, “and that’s what they were looking for, because they knew it was going to be a daunting process to get me and Brad in these cars to a level where we were comfortable to go from track to track and drive in front of hundreds of thousands of people.”
But that was simply the driving audition. He additionally wanted to endure the performing audition course of as effectively, which got here within the type of a workshop with Bruckheimer, Kosinski and Lucy Bevan, the casting director.
“We spoke about Joshua and just what it’d be to be a rookie,” Idris stated. “I really immersed myself privately in the sport. I shamelessly binged ‘Drive to Survive.’ I know you’re not allowed to say that out loud. I was following all the races. I was driving privately in California. I was doing a bunch of sim work. I was really trying to live the life of a driver as much as I could, so I could really relate and understand the sport as much as possible.”
By April 2023, the general public knew Idris would star within the movie alongside Pitt, and Idris was immersing himself on the earth and life of an F1 driver to study extra about his character. It prolonged past coaching to consuming habits as effectively. He began at round 85 kg (187 kilos) and ended up being 77 kg (roughly 170 kilos) when the movie was accomplished. “That was special,” he says now, joking.
Brad Pitt and Damson Idris look on within the paddock throughout previews for the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
The driving escalated as time went on, as they underwent a five-month intense coaching program throughout completely different disciplines, tracks and automobiles. It started at Rockingham and ultimately escalated to Silverstone, Budapest and Circuit of the Americas. The Texas circuit, Idris stated, was “the first time that I really felt one with the car and maybe to my own detriment.”
Craig Dolby, a stunt driver and an extra sequence choreographer for the film, advised The Athletic final yr in regards to the 360-spin Idris endured whereas driving the Formula 2 automobile, which Dolby watched unfold in his mirrors. Idris created a hole to Dolby and tried to shut in, solely to lose his grip when he acquired in Dolby’s wash.
The immersion prolonged past the observe, with Idris doing related workouts within the gymnasium, such as specializing in his neck, and consuming cleanly. He stated, “I tried to transform myself as much as possible, because it wasn’t only about the physicality of it, really. It was about the mind, too. I knew that if I had mentally prepared for this stuff, alongside physically preparing, it was going to bring me closer to feeling like a Formula 1 driver.”
And the precise F1 drivers started investing time into the mission, too, even when it was merely popping by to look at or providing phrases of knowledge. Idris stated Hamilton “was instrumental in the state of mind of a driver and the eagerness to want to go quicker.” And George Russell was among the many drivers who would go by the set, one second in Budapest protruding to Idris to at the present time. After Idris had a spin at Turn 2, Russell primarily stated to the actor, “Oh, don’t worry, mate. Turn 2’s a tricky one to get, right?”
Idris says committing to the world of F1 made him a higher actor for the movie and made him recognize the game he’d grown to like. He acknowledged how competing in F1 was a lifelong course of and dream for these rivals. Idris stated, “I could never, ever think that I’d ever come anywhere near to that level of focus. But even if I could pull off 5 percent of it for a movie, that would have been enough, and I think we did a great job at that.”
Once they wrapped filming for the F1 film, Idris flew to Cape Town, South Africa, for his subsequent film, “Children of Bone and Blood.” Like the F1 movie, it required a strict gymnasium routine.
But now that filming is completed? “I’m back to eating donuts,” Idris stated. “It’s great to be an actor.”
F1 has grown into a cultural phenomenon that resonates throughout generations and industries as the game’s reputation blossoms worldwide. Case in level: The drivers have gotten superstars like Idris and Pitt. As Idris stated, the drivers have at all times been stars, nevertheless it’s risen to a new degree lately — although it’s essential that the automobiles and driving stay the highest precedence.
But he reckons F1 is reaching a reinvention level, much like what the NFL, the NBA and soccer have gone by, and he’s hoping to be a part of the bridge that connects F1 with completely different industries, such as style and leisure.
“People of all ages, people of all backgrounds, are not only trying to consume the sport, but get into the sport,” Idris stated. “Different types of drivers, different types of teams. I think it’s just going to make it more exciting. This thing needs to be for everyone. It needs to be global. That’s how we save humanity, and that’s how we really have empathy for one another, and we’re all able to come together and enjoy something together.”
