“F1 The Movie” is a movie about Formula 1 racing. In this interview, Damzan Idris explains that making the film and getting to experience racing helped change his life.
Formula One is the highest level of professional race car driving. It’s a world championship where teams race specialized cars on tracks around the globe.
Michael Jordan is a famous basketball superstar known for being intensely competitive. The guest uses him as a metaphor for the kind of rivalry and focus he’s describing.
Silverstone is a major race track in the UK that hosts Formula 1. It’s the kind of track drivers learn so well that they can almost “see” the corners and remember which gear they use.
Before a Formula 1 race, there’s a meeting where the officials explain what’s going on for that specific event. Drivers learn the rules and any safety or procedure changes before they go out.
The race director is the person in charge of how the race runs. They coordinate the officials and make sure the race follows the rules and safety procedures.
When a driver says they go “flat,” they mean they keep the gas pedal fully down through the corner. That usually takes a lot of confidence that the car will grip the road.
“Formula Driving” means the special way you drive race cars like the ones used in Formula 1. It’s about being very precise with braking, turning, and keeping the tires working well.
A Formula 2 car is a high-level race car used in a series that’s like a training ground for Formula 1. Drivers use it to learn how to race at very high speed in a single-seater.
“Cap the speed” means they limit how fast the car is allowed to go. It’s a safety/learning setting so you can practice without pushing full speed immediately.
“Limit the revs” means they keep the engine from spinning as fast as it normally could. That usually makes the car less powerful and easier to drive while you’re learning.
In racing, braking is more than just hitting the brakes. It’s about slowing down at the right time and in the right way so the car stays stable for the next part of the track.
The McLaren F1 is a supercar that’s famous for being built like a race car. It has a special three-seat setup and is known for being extremely fast and rare.
Person
Ifsack Brown
This sounds like “Zak Brown,” a prominent McLaren motorsport leader. Here, they’re joking about him offering someone a ride in a McLaren F1.
Paul Ricard is a well-known race track in France. It’s the kind of circuit where big racing series test and compete, so it matters when someone says they first went there.
In racing talk, a “screamer” means an engine that sounds extremely loud and high-pitched. They’re describing the kind of engine note you’d hear from older, high-revving Formula One cars.
A V8 is an engine with eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. In older Formula One cars, V8 engines were common, and they’re known for a distinctive sound.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most successful Formula One drivers in history. Here, the guest says he gave them the most advice.
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Playing Joshua Pierce in F1 The Movie, the Oscar winning highest grossing sports film
of all time, was a watershed moment for Damzan Idris.
It really has changed my life.
This movie just kind of catapulted me in this rocket ship and I think the roles I take have
to be roles that give me the same feeling that F1 gave me and being able to brag at
family Christmas dinners that I'm a Formula One racer to my two-year-old niece.
Yeah, yeah, Uncle Damzan's a racer, you didn't know?
He's clearly a passionate F1 fan and an admirer of one of the sport's greatest.
It's more history for Hamilton!
Lewis Hamilton wins a Grand Prix for Ferrari!
Sent him a text when he won at Barcelona and I was like, get it!
And he was like, oh man, everything's crazy, damn, so he calls me damn, son!
He has that Michael Jordan thing.
It's him against him.
Hello and welcome to F1 Beyond the Grid with me Tom Clarkson and F1 The Movie star Damzan
Idris.
A year on from the movie's release, Damzan reflects on what it was like to immerse himself
in the world of Formula One and live the life of an F1 driver, both of which he loved.
He talks about racing in the F2 cars they use for the film, how he and co-star Brad Pitt
compared against each other on track and the dramatic moment during filming, which showed
him what it feels like to be a real racer.
Damzan, how are you?
I'm amazing.
So, so happy to be here and especially happy to be with you.
Oh man, it's mutual.
Look, we're actually at Silverstone and I'm guessing this place was a second home for
you guys during the filming of the movie, is that right?
Yeah, 100%.
Even walking into this room was nostalgic because this is the first time I met all the
drivers before the race briefing, the FIA race briefing, which was something that was
new to me.
I didn't know that all the drivers even sit near each other ever and they were talking
about the different rules that could be in that particular race and the suggestions to
make the race better and I was watching all of them collaborate and making the sport better
and I was really shocked but also just admired.
Every Friday evening of every Grand Prix, they get together with the race director.
So cool.
I was about to raise my hand at one point and be like, who's this kid sitting next to
Brad Pitt?
When you think of Silverstone, right?
If you close your eyes, you did so many laps around here.
Can you visualize this racetrack?
Okay, I'm going down the street.
I'm going to do a right, a fast right that I usually do flat.
I think we're in cops here.
Yeah, going.
All right.
It's a slow.
I'm going right down to second gear.
Now I'm going round.
Now I'm around second gear still go, okay, I'm straight, straight down at back underneath
the ton.
All right.
Boom.
Then there's another.
No.
Okay.
Now it's maggots and beckots.
Right?
Or am I still wrong?
Do you know what?
I misled you actually.
You weren't in cops.
You were going through Abbey.
Yes.
Yeah.
You were going through Abbey.
Then farm.
I think I crashed.
I think you got it.
It's the point.
You know your way around.
It was so much fun.
I mean, we did it so many times, so many laps.
How many laps do you reckon you've done so far?
I could never tell you.
We trained for about five months.
Hundreds?
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah, hundreds.
Yeah.
Me going quicker than Brad.
Do you know, I did hear that actually.
No, no.
He's quicker than me.
He's quicker than me.
He's better in every way.
We're speaking almost bang on a year after the release of the movie.
I mean, it was a huge success.
Right.
Just how do you reflect on the whole experience?
It's crazy because yeah, I saw about last week it was a year.
One, time flies ridiculously.
But two, it really has changed my life, I think.
You know, I was kind of the young actor that was on Snowfall.
And then this movie just kind of catapulted me in this rocket ship.
And it's really made me respect the business that I'm in even more.
And just to see how when a movie of that magnitude is successful,
how the domino effect on other movies and how other people take risks
at creating blockbusters that are really saving the movie business.
And it's the reason why people want to go to cinema, big movies.
That's something I know now.
You know, that gives the leeway for how smaller movies to exist.
So that's one thing on the business side.
But on the second side, I think the roles I take have to be roles
that give me the same feeling that F1 gave me,
taking on a new trade, a new skill,
and being able to brag at family Christmas dinners
that I'm a Formula One racer to my two-year-old niece,
who's the only person that's going to believe me.
The best driver in the family, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll go Damson's a racer, you didn't know?
I read a great quote actually.
Damson had to become a Formula One driver,
because he had to find that $73 million, right?
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah, it's always just...
It all comes from Franklin.
Everything I do, even in my normal life now,
is like people are like, oh, yeah, he's on a boat.
He's got that $73 million.
Glorious, yeah.
But there's more Joshua Pierce as well now, right?
There's talks that there's not much I could say,
but there are exciting conversations that are happening.
But at the forefront, the main goal is to make the sport
and the fans proud.
And I think the first movie did that.
I mean, I know people who watched it 19 times.
And the brilliance of F1, the movie, I think,
was for the first time in a long time,
unlike Toy Story, which I watched alone
in Cardiff the other day.
I'm loved.
It was a movie that you could take your whole family to.
You can go with your grandparents, your kids,
your parents, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever the case may be.
And we don't often get that with movies.
So I think that's why it was so successful,
because the whole family can go and watch it,
and it's 10, 20 seats that you've bought,
and you're all enjoying it.
And that is a core memory as well.
I had that when I was younger,
when I watched movies with my parents.
But now, it's a horror movie.
It's not that they shouldn't exist,
but I think movies like F1 are very important.
When did you last watch F1?
When you're on a plane.
I might just watch it one more time.
Oh, yes, yeah, on a plane.
Yeah, the last time I watched it was on a plane,
because I wanted to see how it changed.
See if they took some of the curse words out or whatever.
And I loved it.
Absolutely loved it.
I always get goosebumps at the exact same moment,
and it's when Brad, a spoiler,
is in Vegas, and he's driving angry.
And the sound, Hans Zimmer takes all the noise out,
and you just hear the car.
And then you can hear the announcer,
hey, he's a tax from the inside, and then, boom, crash.
Every time, it's goosebumps.
That, and go head to head with Lewis.
That's pretty cool.
Can we talk more about the driving, right?
Because I know Brad had done some track days.
Had you had any prior experience of race tracks in any form?
No.
Carting?
Badly, in my land.
And Burgess Pop.
No, no, no.
I drove kind of M3s, MGT turbos,
20 miles per hour, road humps, south-east London,
and Porsches.
I loved fast cars because of my three older brothers.
You're a car guy?
Yeah, yeah.
My three older brothers were the ones who always had great cars,
R8s and stuff.
To this day, I don't know how they afforded it.
But I would learn about cars because of them.
So as I became an actor, I always made sure that I had a car
that I loved that had a bit of speed.
So I understood speed, but just the technicalities
of Formula Driving, I mean, it's just out of this world.
And it really was deep end stuff for me.
But it was the most fun, and I miss it so much.
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I think a lot of people watching this, listening to this,
are going to think, I'd love to be a racing driver.
For someone who'd had no prior experience,
just how difficult is it to go and suddenly get in a Formula 2 car?
This isn't an old banger, is it?
This is a serious racing car.
They gave us the freedom to start slow and get quicker and quicker.
I remember they would cap the speed.
Or limit the revs.
Exactly.
I think we were at about 60 at first, which means we were walking.
It was them rocking them.
That's where we started.
Then when we finally came to Silverstone,
we started getting all the way up until about 180.
The good thing for me was I was always good in the fast corners.
Like I said, flat through cops.
Genuinely, that's what I've been told.
Flat.
They know.
The streets know.
They were there.
The data proves it, right?
The data proves it.
Braking wasn't so good though.
Through Val and everything.
It was just those slow corners that Brad would get me on.
I remember he was really good in the slow corners.
I'd go through fast and make detours, go into the stands.
That was really my experience from road driving into Formula driving.
Again, I was a sponge.
The most important thing was safety, of course.
It was a step by step.
We just got more confident.
By the time we got to Abu Dhabi,
we really felt like,
oh wow, we can come last against the boys on the track, yeah.
Did you ever feel fear?
Hmm, once.
I felt fear in Austin, Texas once.
I was driving behind, I believe it was Luciana Bachetta.
No, maybe it was Craig Dolby.
Just so people know.
They were the stunt drivers.
Yes, they were the stunt drivers.
And I was getting really close.
Really close.
And I think around turn 13, I was in fifth.
I should have been fourth.
But I was close.
I'm like, I'm finally going to beat him.
I'm finally going to get...
Oh, radio silent, everyone.
It was, Dabbs, no, you're okay.
I'm like, whoa!
So excited.
And everyone was like, now you're a real racer.
That was, again, fear in the spin, of course.
But it was such an exhilarating feeling.
And I'm not promoting it, but at the same time,
I could see, I got as close as possible
to seeing how these guys pushed themselves
for those seconds, the tenth of a second,
the way they pushed themselves and the risks that they take.
And it just made me even more respectful.
Did you have a favorite racetrack?
Austin, Texas.
That's two.
Silverstone's first.
It's got to be first.
It's home.
Austin, Texas is second.
Because I think they said at Cody,
I think they incorporated all the different races,
like the best parts of everything on that racetrack.
That's absolutely true.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So the, you know, sector one, as we call it,
Austin is sort of the maggots,
packets, complexes from Silverstone.
So there's a long right hander there.
Do you remember that?
That's a sort of reverse of a corner in Istanbul.
So, yeah.
And I think Brad did a Clarence car out there, right?
He drove the McLaren F1 car, yeah.
Yeah, and he told me he hit 198 seats.
And he was gutted that he didn't get to 200, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What would you give?
We know what I'd get to.
That was an Ifsack Brown.
Yeah.
If you're watching, Zach,
Ifsack Brown offered you a ride in that car,
would you take it?
Oh, and a heartbeat.
And a heartbeat.
I'd clean a car for them.
Yeah.
I wouldn't get in it.
I'd just clean it.
Listen, that's a beast.
That's a real beast.
And the first Formula One car we got in was in,
I believe it was France, and it was an old Alpin.
Down at Paul Ricard, right?
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah.
That's actually the first race track that we really went on.
And I remember it was wet, and I was such a chicken.
And the noise.
Of course, that's an old screamer, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
Sort of V8, I think.
Spaceship.
And I tried to push it down the street,
and right when I was...
No!
But now, I think I'd be a bit more confident.
Drivers, the current grid.
Which of those guys offered you the most advice?
Was it Lewis?
Lewis Hamilton?
Oh, 100%.
Yeah, yeah.
Definitely not.
What was the best bit of advice Lewis gave you?
Damps and stop driving so slow.
Well, I tell you, I mean, those that know, you know, the cars,
the quicker you go, the safer it is.
More grip they produce.
Exactly.
So, you know, if you're being a bit of a chicken,
then, you know, you're going to run into some troubles
with those engines, the ones we had anyway.
But again, Lewis was just so, you know, so supportive.
He was always coming by set,
and everyone was always so excited when he came.
And any advice on the sort of the actual technicalities
of driving?
It was that.
It was, yeah, stop driving so slow.
More of the right foot, less of the left.
Yeah, exactly.
That was really it.
But the stunt drivers we had as well were just remarkable.
I mean, just constantly being around those guys,
going and having a Nando's every Friday
and just asking them every question under the sun was really brilliant.
I believe you got to know Lewis quite well during the whole process, right?
The more you speak to Lewis, right?
Do you understand why he's had the level of success that he has?
Yeah.
He has that thing, man.
He has that Michael Jordan thing, you know,
that it's him against him.
You know, he's not in competition with anyone else.
He's really focused, and he cares.
He cares about legacy.
I can see it because I see those remnants in other fields.
Talk about Michael Jordan.
Talk about Lionel Messi, Christian Ronaldo.
Talk about actors like Daniel Day Lewis, you know,
those people who just absolutely wholeheartedly commit to their craft
are always going to excel other everyone else.
And that's what Lewis does.
I was telling you earlier, I sent him a text when he won at Barcelona,
and I was like, get it! Let's go!
And he was like, oh man, everything's crazy.
Damn, so he calls me damn, son.
But yeah, he's always just so excited about the thing that he loves,
you know, despite how long he's been doing it.
And he's really got his mojo back this year, it feels.
In every conversation you have with him, just the way,
you know, there were some moments last year where he was thinking, come on.
And he loves the car now.
He loves the team.
I think he's a really natural fit for Ferrari as well.
He's so passionate.
On the one hand, he's the sort of the cold-blooded racer, right?
But he's actually an incredibly passionate guy, which is so Ferrari, right?
The incredible, passionate guy who's on a scooter.
A lot of time on a scooter.
The first time, because I met Lewis through the fashion industry.
So that's how I met him at the Fashion Awards.
It's the first time I met him.
And then remember the first race I went to was at Budapest.
And I thought, like, he was, you know, he was a mate.
Oh, we had that great night out at the fashion event.
So now I'm in his world.
So I'm going to say hello.
Headphones.
And I was like, oh, he's in the zone.
And that's when I realized this is not a joke for him.
No, this is really, really serious.
And this is why he's excelled, as I said.
He's so great.
I guess you get the two sides, right?
You saw the fashion event you were at.
You saw the laid-back Lewis.
And then suddenly, yeah, he's almost like he flicks a switch
as he goes through the turnstiles, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
It's a switch I don't have.
I'm nuts all the time.
Tell me more about the fashion thing, because you've got your own jewellery.
Yes, yes.
Didgerus.
Line, is that right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I made it as homage for my mother.
So my mom bought and sold gold in her 20s.
And her dream was kind of deferred.
You know, she raised six kids by herself, and I was the baby.
So I said, you know, as I excel, I want to be a part of something
that is not only about legacy, but paying homage to her.
And yeah, today she steals all the pieces.
And the brand is doing amazingly.
And yeah, so we're existing in the space and it's baby steps,
but I'm really excited for what's to come.
I love it.
And I've learned that again from people like Lewis.
Yeah.
Because he's massively into it, isn't he?
Yeah, create their own brands.
So at the minute, that's a side hustle.
Yeah.
But sort of watch this back, right?
No, it seems definitely a side hustle.
Act as a side hustle, yeah.
Jewelry and Formula One, that's my main.
No, but you see the pin, look.
You're an ambassador for Formula One now.
It's great.
So we're seeing you around a lot more races.
Yeah, yeah.
So for a guy who's first race, I think you said was Budapest 2018.
Yep.
Are you now like full on passionate F1 nut?
Yeah.
Yeah, 100%.
I used to be, you know, the guy that was very embarrassing.
I watched Drive to Survive.
No shade, Drive to Survive.
But now I'm like, OK, I'm locked in now, you know?
And because I kind of had that kind of inside scoop
from doing a movie, I mean, it took us two years to film it.
We're just really, really excited.
I am of the direction that the sport's going in
from a sense of lifestyle and fashion, entertainment culture.
And I want to be a part of that
and I want to bring more people to it.
And those are the conversations that we speak about.
And that's why I've got the pin.
But isn't it great to be at Silverstone?
Half a million people coming here.
You feel like you're more than just a motor race now, don't you?
Yeah, 100%.
And even just walking down the pad...
I mean, it's still on people's minds.
And everyone...
Joshua!
The people...
All the kids...
Do people call you Joshua or all the kids?
Yeah, they say, Daddy is Joshua, you know?
Josh has got braids now.
But yeah, Daddy is Joshua.
It's really cool.
I love to create characters that people can not only relate to
but, you know, are stuck in their heads
and they can bring it into life too.
That's why I know I did a good job.
From an acting point of view,
just go back to the filming of the movie, right?
Because you did so much of the movie at Grand Prix itself, right?
Did it feel like a movie set?
Or did it feel more like a sort of theatre?
Yeah.
Which one? The laughter?
Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Live acting, kind of.
100%.
I did not feel like I was acting.
We were fully, fully immersed.
And just the way the world of Formula One embraced the film,
from race to race, we just became a part of everything.
It was...
We were at our day job.
And I think that made things so much easier.
It's a lot easier than being on a green screen
and having to fake everything.
You know, we were really here.
Yeah.
The fans right there and me, you know,
spinning on Turn 2 in Budapest.
You know, thank God there's no fans around that bit.
Hang on.
This is new.
So you're spawning Budapest.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I've had a couple.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Turn 1 got around in nicely.
Turn 2.
Perhaps came out.
I was like, it wasn't me.
It was Brad.
No, Craig was in the car then, right?
Craig was in the car.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, Larry's.
Well, on the topic of a sequel,
obviously the fans would want it.
There's nothing official.
But if it was offered, would you be up for it?
No.
No.
I'm playing.
I had 100% in a heartbeat.
Just for the experience to get in the cars again alone.
You reckon you'd get quicker?
Drive on the tracks.
Oh, come on.
Have to get quick.
That would be so embarrassing.
That's when you've slowed down.
That would be amazing.
This time I'd definitely take the advice of doing the
espresso shots a bit more often.
Get a couple more seconds.
Well, no, they do say that, actually.
That the driver's knocked back a double espresso before.
Probably because it's.
I've been watching.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No more.
No more banana peanut butter smoothies from me.
Yeah.
I'm going to shed the weight even more.
I went down to 77 kg for the first film and I was like.
Is that well, is that well below what you normally are?
Yeah.
I was like 83 kg.
I went on to 77 because they're like, you know, D the
drivers are and now you're a bit tall.
So, you know, you're like up there.
We're like George and everyone was like, okay, cool.
I can't get the height down.
So fix these pedals and I'm going to lose a bit.
Wait.
And it really helped.
You know, one of the things I loved about the Apex F1 team,
right?
In fact, I think Lewis even came up with a quote about it
saying that that for him was the perfect F1 team.
Just in terms of diversity, everyone.
I don't.
But, you know, you got the old guy, you got the young guy,
you've got everything going on.
And of course, Kerry condon.
When you're on set, how did it feel just working with such
a.
Diverse.
Yeah.
There's just like a glimpse of the direction that the
sport's going in, you know, and, and bringing more people
to the sport, bringing more people to every category of
everything is the reality of, I mean, even if we just even
speak about England, you know, not to get too political,
but when you walk out on the street, you know, and then
when you watch us play in the World Carpool or wherever and
it cuts to different people watching in bars and stuff,
that diversity exists.
And I love it that Formula One is following suit and I love
it that F1, the movie was able to be not the start of it,
but to further put, you know, a spotlight on that because
one is important and two is just fun to be around different
people with different experiences and different cultures
and all, you know, paying homage and showing love to the
thing that we love, which is Formula One.
Yeah.
And it's, it feel that, you know, Apex is, is showing the
way forward in so many ways.
And in fact, of course, we've got the 11th team for real.
I know, right?
Cadillac are here.
Same.
You kind of proved, oh, there is room in the pit lane.
Yeah.
But I mean, if we do the next movie, now there's 12th.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's, that's a lot.
Yeah.
But it's exciting.
Very, very exciting.
I love the directions going in.
Great.
Well, Damsen, thank you so much for your time.
It's been brilliant to catch up.
I love your enthusiasm for F1.
It's, you know, it just shines through.
Thanks for your time.
Good to talk.
Cheers.
What a guy.
Damsen's enthusiasm for life and for Formula One is infectious.
I love catching up with him again.
Brad Pitt came on the pod last year and I've wanted to get
Damsen on ever since.
And amid the laughs, he gave some fascinating insight into
what it was like to be part of F1, the movie.
Damsen, many thanks for your time.
And I hope to see you again soon.
And don't forget that you can watch F1, the movie with
Damsen and Brad Pitt on Apple TV right now.
And why not check out our episode with Brad himself.
It's on the F1 Beyond the Grid podcast feed and the F1 YouTube channel.
And speaking of other podcasts, F1 Nations preview of this weekend's
Belgian Grand Prix with Jolien Palmer, James Hinchcliff and myself is out now.
We discussed the biggest threats to Kimmy Antonelli's hopes of becoming
world champion this year.
And 1996 world champion Damon Hill joins Christian Hugel
on the latest episode of F1 Explains to answer your questions about
Formula One.
That's also on the F1 Nation feed right now.
Thanks very much for listening.
I will, of course, be back next week with another great guest
from the world of Formula One.
F1 Beyond the Grid is produced by Formula One and AudioBoom Studios.
Until next time, keep it flat out.
About this episode
Damson Idris talks about how playing Joshua Pierce in F1 The Movie became “a watershed moment for Damzan Idris” and “really has changed my life.” He describes racing in the F2 cars used for filming, getting immersed at real Grand Prix events, and why the movie’s family-friendly appeal helped it land. The conversation also pivots to his path into F1 fandom, favorite tracks like Silverstone and Austin, and the advice he credits to Lewis Hamilton—“stop driving so slow.”
Damson Idris describes playing Formula 1 rookie Joshua Pearce in F1: The Movie - the Oscar-winning, highest-grossing sports film of all time - as a life-changing moment. Speaking to Tom Clarkson a year since its release, Damson talks about racing in the F2 cars they used for the film, how he and co-star Brad Pitt compared against each other on track and what it was like to immerse himself in the world of Formula 1.
Damson also tells Tom about his relationship with Lewis Hamilton and why he believes the seven-time World Champion ‘has that Michael Jordan thing’. You’ll also hear about a dramatic moment during filming that showed Damson what it’s truly like to be a Formula 1 driver pushing to the limit.
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