The premiere, held at Silverstone Circuit in the UK, was already a major spectacle. The film F1, directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), stars Brad Pitt as a retired F1 driver coaching a rising star, with real-life F1 teams involved in production. But as dramatic as the film is, it was a musical moment at the after-party that stole the show.
“We wanted to do something that celebrated both speed and soul,” Sheeran said later. “Brad had been humming this tune on set for weeks, and I said, ‘You know what? Let’s sing it together.’”
According to insiders, Ed Sheeran originally wrote “Drive” as a tribute to freedom, obsession, and the strange loneliness that lives inside ambition — themes that echo perfectly with the F1 film. He played it for Pitt during a private visit to the set last year, and to everyone’s surprise, Pitt not only loved it — he asked to learn it.
“He said, ‘Man, this song feels like what my character’s going through,’” Ed recalled. “And then I caught him singing it under his breath between takes.”
The performance at the premiere was not planned for press. The two had rehearsed just once the night before in a hotel room with nothing but an unplugged acoustic guitar and a bottle of bourbon between them.
When they took the stage, Pitt seemed nervous — joking to the crowd, “If I screw this up, blame Ferrari.” But once the chorus hit, his voice — gravelly, imperfect, but oddly moving — melted into Sheeran’s harmony with a kind of chemistry no one expected.
“You drive like you’re running from something / But I’m just trying to keep up with you…”
The crowd included F1 stars Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, both visibly stunned. Hamilton later posted, “Was not emotionally prepared for Brad Pitt and Ed Sheeran to make me cry at a racetrack.”
For a film about velocity, adrenaline, and the brutality of competition, the most unforgettable moment of the night came from a soft ballad shared between two men from different worlds — a rockstar and a movie icon, telling the same story in two voices.
“We didn’t do it to impress,” Ed said. “We did it because it meant something.”
No official release date for “Drive” has been announced yet, but fans are already begging for a studio version — with Pitt’s vocals included.
And if the F1 premiere taught us anything, it’s this: sometimes, the most powerful thing at 200 miles per hour… is when everything slows down long enough for a song to land.
