Why the Las Vegas Grand Prix was most stressful ‘F1’ scene to film

Viva Las Vegas! But maybe pump the brakes for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The Formula One race, which features in a climactic sequence in F1: The Movie, turned out to be almost as stressful off screen for the filmmaking team as it was for the characters.

While the film crew often had advanced access to racetracks and were able to practice various shots and sequences, the nature of the Vegas Grand Prix left no room for such preparation.

“The Las Vegas track is not a permanent track,” director Joseph Kosinski tells Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a street track down the strip that is only up for a couple of nights, so it is very hard to get access to. We were not able to get any practice time on it.”

Because of that, stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris had to execute a harrowing race scene with zero test runs. “We got one 15-minute slot in the middle of the night,” explains Kosinski of their limited access. “It was freezing cold, so the tires were not getting any grip. And it’s the only circuit we drove on that has no safety area. It’s walls on both sides on a very, very fast track.”

There’s always a bit of magic when it comes to movie-making, but this particular segment of F1 pushed Kosinski’s nerves to the breaking point. “Brad and Damson [are] pulling onto that track and driving it for the first time in their lives on camera at speed to create that sequence,” he notes. “It was for me the most nerve-racking sequence in the film.”

To deal with these nerves, a lot of drivers have superstitions — as is the case with Pitt’s Sonny Hayes and his deck of playing cards. “There was one story of a driver who put different colored socks on by mistake and then won his first race, and then always did that for the rest of his career,” the director says. “We know there are drivers that have to get in the car on the left side only. They have a certain order that they put on their gloves or tighten their belts. There are all these rituals that drivers have.”

It wasn’t just Sonny who had his rituals; the longer Pitt worked on the film, the more he adopted his own as well. “It’s natural, especially when you’re doing something that could be so dangerous,” muses Kosinski. “Brad’s were certainly the order of doing things — things like tightening the belts, it had to be in a certain order, and if the mechanic leaned in and tightened it the wrong way, he’d have to start over. Everyone’s got their routines, and you find what works for you and you stick with it.”

That’s not to say there weren’t some other close calls, regardless. “Brad and Damson both proved themselves to be extremely skilled,” the director says. “We surrounded them with a team of professionals. The cars were FIA-approved cars, so they have the same crash structure as a Formula One car, so they’re very safe. But there were a couple moments when both Brad and Damson were pushing the cars to the limit and had some spins.

“They ended up just going into the gravel or into the grass,” Kosinski continues. “But still, it’s a little scary when you lose control like that.”

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Don’t worry, though, they got the shot. “The good thing for me is the cameras were rolling the whole time,” Kosinski says with a smile. “So I was able to use those sequences — and a couple of those spins that were unintentional, we put in the film.”

F1 is in theaters on Friday.