Lewis Hamilton’s job used to end when the engine shut off. Now it apparently continues in a writers’ room. Speaking in Melbourne ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver told reporters “We are already working on the first script,” adding that his first sit-down with Jerry Bruckheimer and Joseph Kosinski happened in the back half of last year to kick around possible directions for the story. ewn
That’s the headline. The fine print is more interesting.
Development is not production
Hamilton didn’t break this news alone. Bruckheimer did most of the heavy lifting a month earlier. At the annual Academy Awards luncheon in Los Angeles, the producer told the BBC “We’re working on a sequel,” but wouldn’t commit to a timeline or say whether Brad Pitt returns as Sonny Hayes. Around the same time, Bruckheimer told PEOPLE the team was running story concepts past Hamilton to get his read, saying “We’re talking to Lewis Hamilton.” aol
So Hamilton is not a name on a poster here. He’s the authenticity filter. Ideas go through him before they go anywhere else.
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Now the skeptic’s footnote. By June, the language had softened. On stage at Cannes Lions with Apple’s Eddy Cue, Bruckheimer said the plan was to come back and “hopefully make another F1,” and the event report noted that no formal greenlight existed yet. “Working on a script” and “cameras rolling” are separated by budgets, calendars, and a lot of executives. Treat this as a car in the garage with the covers off, not one on the grid. Movieguide
Why Apple wants a second lap
The business case writes itself. According to Apple’s own release, the film opened wide on June 27, 2025, debuted at No. 1, cleared $629 million worldwide, and became the highest-grossing sports film ever made. Apple’s credits list Hamilton among the producers alongside Bruckheimer, Kosinski, and Pitt, with Ehren Kruger writing the screenplay from a story he developed with Kosinski. applemactech
Then there’s the part that matters more to anyone watching races in the States. Apple and Formula 1 signed a deal that makes Apple TV the exclusive home of every F1 race in the U.S. for five years starting in 2026, and Apple explicitly tied that partnership to the movie’s success. The first film was a two-hour recruitment ad for a sport Apple didn’t broadcast yet. A sequel would be an advertisement for a product Apple now owns outright in its biggest market. That’s not cynicism. It’s just how the math works. apple
The film also has hardware. Skywalker Sound’s team shared the Best Sound Oscar at the 98th Academy Awards with production sound mixer Gareth John. A sequel has a tough benchmark to clear. skysound
The part nobody’s talking about: the car
The trick behind the first film was mechanical. It wasn’t CGI. As F1 detailed, Mercedes’ Applied Science division built F1-style bodywork that bolted onto Formula 2 chassis stretched and widened with spacers to approach F1 proportions. The fleet included two cars with real Mecachrome F2 engines, two running older GP3-era V6s, and one fully electric chassis built so the crew could film in the pit lane, where running a gasoline race engine wasn’t workable. formula1formula1
The APXGP car displayed at the Red Bull Ring is listed on a 2018 Dallara F2 chassis with a 3.4-liter Mecachrome turbo V6 rated at 620 horsepower. That’s a genuine race car, which is why the onboard footage felt so real. redbullring
Here’s the problem. Those bodies were shaped to blend in with the 2022–2025 ground-effect grid, and that grid no longer exists. The FIA’s 2026 rules cut 30 kg from the cars, split power roughly evenly between combustion and electric, and added moving front and rear wings. Silverstone’s breakdown puts the wheelbase cut at 20 cm, from 3.6 m to 3.4 m, with overall width down from 2 m to 1.9 m. formula1silverstone
If the sequel embeds at real Grands Prix again, an APXGP car in 2022-spec clothing would stand out like a stock-car body at a Formula E race. Expect new bodywork. Expect a rethink of how far to stretch the underlying chassis now that real cars are shorter. And expect someone to have to fake the active aero convincingly, because moving wing flaps are exactly what eagle-eyed fans will freeze-frame. Even the sound team’s work changes when half the car’s shove comes from a battery.
Timeline reality check
The first film was shot across the 2023 and 2024 seasons at real race weekends, including the British Grand Prix. Because the filming schedule follows the F1 calendar, a script still being developed in 2026 makes a 2027 shoot the optimistic case. The real calendar will depend on whether Apple formally commits and on how quickly the car can be re-engineered. My estimate is that nothing reaches theaters before 2028 at the earliest. aol
What it means for you
If you watch F1 on Apple TV in the U.S., expect the sequel’s production to show up in your broadcast as behind-the-scenes content. Apple built this partnership to connect the two.
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If you collect movie cars, keep in mind that a screen-used APXGP chassis is an F2-derived race car, not a fiberglass prop. That means race-engine rebuild intervals, specialist parts sourcing, and agreed-value collector or track coverage. Standard auto policies generally won’t cover a car that isn’t street-legal. Budget accordingly before you fall in love at an auction.
Hamilton, for his part, told reporters he now knows what to expect from the process after going through it once. That familiarity matters, because the hardest part of this sequel won’t be the story. It’ll be building a fake race car convincing enough to fool a 2026 grid.
Images Via: Wikipedia
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