Damson Idris talks F1 in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview.

Though Idris never had a problem with the fast speeds, getting the car started was the true challenge. “I was really good at driving at crazy speeds,” the actor says. “I was really good at driving around the track and doing all the crazy turns. The hardest thing for me was actually getting a car started. The clutch is a hand clutch.”

Idris adds, “Brad was just exquisite at it. But man, there was some sort of coordination that just was not clicking with me. Once I got it started, I was ready to fly.”

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Idris, 33, caught up with PEOPLE recently to discuss his fine jewelry line Didris. During the conversation, the British actor said the mentor-mentee-type relationship his character takes up with Pitt’s Formula 1 racer is “exactly the same” as the friendship they developed while making the film.

“It was a seamless dynamic between us. As soon as they’d yell ‘Cut,’ we both sat at our seats and giggled,” Idris recalls. “He’d be telling me stories of when he first met Prince and Sidney Poitier. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is just too iconic, you’re a walking monument.'” Read more.

• x004 F1 – Stills.