Lewis Hamilton has been credited with playing the decisive role behind the Brad Pitt movie that F1 bosses hope will help make giant strides into America.

Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a returning driver, taking on Damson Idris’s younger Joshua Pearce. It is the chief aim of F1 owners Liberty Media, an American conglomerate, that the movie builds on Drive To Survive among the sport’s traditionally reluctant marketplace.

Joseph Kosinski, who was behind Top Gun: Maverick, and directed the latest potential blockbuster, revealed ahead of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix: ‘Lewis was the first person I reached out to.