Lewis Hamilton poked fun at F1 movie star Damson Idris with the British actor revealing a brutal joke about the speed he showed behind the wheel during filming. The 33-year-old, along with co-star Brad Pitt, used a modified Formula Two car to film scenes for the project. Idris, who had no open-wheel racing experience before embarking on the project, benefited from the presence of Hamilton in the production meetings.

The seven-time world champion was brought on board as a producer with the goal of keeping the movie as authentic and realistic as possible. Unfortunately for Idris, he also used him as a punchline for some jokes. “Well, Lewis was one of the producers on the film, but also he just teases me a lot,” he revealed in an interview with The Shop x Nike. “And I said ‘Yeah man, I spun out at Silverstone’. Silverstone is a British track.

“So I spun in the car, and Lewis was like – this is before he hit the podium at Silverstone – Lewis was like ‘Man, I’m driving really slow man, but you know when I’m driving slow I just remember: I could be driving as slow as Damson’.”

Despite the brutal jokes, Idris only has positive stories to tell from his time working alongside Hamilton on the F1 movie project. In an interview with Extra, he discussed the support and backing that the Ferrari star offered him, and the boost that his presence had on the staff executing the film.

“I mean, Lewis… we’d sit in a trailer and we would just go over the script, from the beginning to the end, and he would kind of call BS on the sequences that wouldn’t happen in real life. But above all things, it was really just a sense of encouragement from Lewis.

“Anytime he came on set, there would be whispers, like ‘Oh, Lewis is here!’ Everyone would be really excited, you know. And he would come up to me and he’d congratulate me and encourage me to keep going, and that fuelled me throughout the whole process of filming.

“He understood that what me and Brad were pulling off was unlike ever done before. Only 20 drivers get to feel what we felt, you know? So Lewis being there and being full of so much passion was just great and encouraging throughout the filming of this.”

Hamilton and Idris enjoyed the fruits of their labour at the film’s premiere in New York earlier this week. A staged F1 grid was set up in Times Square, and a huge cohort of drivers, including Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, made the trip after the Canadian Grand Prix to experience the event.