James Vowles has revealed that Williams received “a payment” for allowing the team’s wind tunnel to be used in the upcoming Brad Pitt F1 movie.

And it has emerged that the team had to demonstrate to the FIA that they were not gaining a competitive advantage by allowing access to the production team.

Williams receive ‘payment’ for use of wind tunnel in Brad Pitt F1 movie

The highly anticipated F1 film will be released next week with Pitt starring as main protagonist Sonny Hayes, a veteran racing driver who stages a stunning comeback.

It is hoped that the movie will capitalise on the success of Drive to Survive, the hit Netflix docuseries, by introducing Formula 1 to millions of new fans.

The production team have been a regular presence at F1 events over recent years, with filming taking place on real-life race weekends at such circuits as Silverstone, Las Vegas and the Yas Marina track in Abu Dhabi.

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The Williams wind tunnel is seen in the blockbuster with Vowles, who has emerged as a fan favourite since joining the Grove-based outfit from Mercedes in 2023, also making a cameo appearance.

And the Williams boss has revealed that the team received “a payment” for allowing the wind tunnel to be used in the film, admitting it proved slightly “disruptive” for the team.

According to the Times, he said: “They approached us, because they could have done a [film] set from what I understood, but actually wanted to replicate or be in exactly the environment.

“It’s quite difficult for us nowadays to effectively extract everything that we need to [for Williams’ work in the wind tunnel], stop our programs and bring them in.

“There’s a limited number of [wind tunnel] ‘fan on’ time, so you can work around that. It is disruptive, but it was for a really important project.

“There was a payment, but we didn’t make any money out of it.

“That’s not the purpose behind it, and nor would it be.

“Taking our own program out of the tunnel for four days is not the best thing that you can be doing in a competitive year.

“[But] I really do think this is an incredibly important milestone in our history and going forward, so I wanted to be a part of it in some form or another.”

The report adds that Williams were forced to prove to the FIA, F1’s governing body, that the team did not benefit from the use of their wind tunnel for the movie.

As a result, the scale model of the APXGP car driven by Pitt – effectively a modified F2 machine – was ‘significantly different’ to the Williams F1 car.

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The news of Williams’ payment comes after it emerged that Pitt, 61, drove a real-life McLaren F1 car at the United States Grand Prix venue in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.

As reported by PlanetF1.com, McLaren remained in North America after last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix to hold a TPC [Testing of Previous Car] test at the Circuit of The Americas.

Alex Dunne, the McLaren-backed F2 star, and Lando Norris split driving duties behind the wheel of the team’s 2023 car earlier this week.

Pitt took to the wheel on Thursday with McLaren posting an image to social media of the Hollywood star’s initials on a set of racing overalls.

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