Did Lewis Hamilton backed F1 movie pay Williams for their service? James Vowles reveals

Williams team principal, James Vowles, has confirmed that there was a payment by the F1 the Movie team toward the Grove-based outfit. A few sequences of the Lewis Hamilton-backed (co-producer) movie were shot in the Williams wind tunnel.

F1 the Movie (in theaters from June 27) is a 2025 American sports drama film directed by the well-known Joseph Kosinski, and the screenplay has been written by Ehren Kruger. The cast for the movie is also star-studded, with Brad Pitt (APXGP driver) in the lead role.

The other top actors in the movie are Damson Idris (APXGP rookie driver), Kerry Condon (APXGP technical director), Tobias Menzies (member of APXGP board of directors), and Javier Bardem (APXGP team owner). In line with Kosniski and Co. using Williams' facilities for shooting a certain part of the film, James Vowles, while confirming a payment, said:

"They approached us, because they could have done a [film] set from what I understood, but actually wanted to replicate or be in exactly the environment. “It’s quite difficult for us nowadays to effectively extract everything that we need to [for Williams’ work in the wind tunnel], stop our programs and bring them in." Vowles via Times.

He further added:

"There’s a limited number of [wind tunnel] ‘fan on’ time, so you can work around that. It is disruptive, but it was for a really important project. There was a payment, but we didn’t make any money out of it."

The premiere of the F1 movie took place on June 16 at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. Among the various stars, including Lewis Hamilton and Brad Pitt, Williams' Carlos Sainz also amassed quite a few eyeballs during the marquee event.

Lewis Hamilton's take on being the F1 movie's co-producer

Brad Pitt and Lewis Hamilton - Source: Getty

Lewis Hamilton played a huge role in the development of the F1 movie from start to finish. The shooting started in 2023 at the British Grand Prix, and after that, it also took place at circuits like the Hungaroring, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Moza Circuit, Zandvoort, Suzuka, Las Vegas, and the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Lewis Hamilton's vast experience of how things are done in F1 played a key role in helping everyone associated with the film to portray the sport as realistically as possible. In line with his role as producer, the seven-time world champion recently said:

"Coming on board to this project as a producer has been such an incredible learning process for me, seeing what goes into making a feature film, and there’s been a lot of learning on the other side too as everyone has got to grips with Formula 1." Hamilton said via F1.

The buzz around the movie is mega, and huge crowds are expected in theatres from June 27 onwards.