There’s a roar beyond the grandstands—something atavistic, something mean and mad and on the prowl. Those of us standing on the pit wall of Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit snap our heads expectantly in the direction of the sound, holding our collective breath for a T-Rex to emerge, or for Brad Pitt’s F1 car to come screaming down the start-finish straight.
Whaaaa! There it is, sliding around the track’s final turn and onto the stretch. And in three…two…one, Pitt’s car rockets by with the speed and power of a fighter jet, belching flames out of its tail as it thunders through turn one and disappears from view.
Our hair blown back, I hear someone say, “I will never get sick of that sound.”
For those wondering: Yes, Brad Pitt is really driving the car in this movie. In fact, Brad Pitt and Damson Idris really driving the car has become, in some ways, the point of the movie—or at least the emotional nucleus during production.





• x010 GQ Photoshoot.