F1 driver Lewis Hamilton is “devastated” about the casualty in his latest race, because he accidentally ran over a groundhog.
During an early lap of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Sunday, the legendary British driver was told he hit an animal, and he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it since.
“I got a good start [to the race], held position… so I was feeling optimistic,” Hamilton, who is vegan, told Sky Sports. “Then, and I didn’t see it happen, but I heard I hit a groundhog, so that’s devastating.”
The Ferrari driver — who is also a producer in the upcoming F1 movie starring Brad Pitt — was more concerned about what happened to the groundhog than how it impacted his performance in the race, or how it damaged his car.
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“I love animals, and that’s so, so sad,” he said. “That’s horrible. That’s never happened to me here before. But the floor, the right side, there’s a hole in it, and all the vanes are all gone.”
Due to brake issues and the incident with the groundhog, Hamilton’s position dropped from fifth place to seventh, but he ultimately finished in sixth.
“Given that [moment with the groundhog] and we had a brake issue halfway through as well… it just went from one thing to another,” Hamilton said. “So I’m happy I could just finish.”
Hamilton isn’t the first driver to hit a groundhog at Montreal’s racetrack. According to ESPN, multiple other incidents involving groundhogs have occurred in the past, including Anthony Davidson in 2007 and Romain Grosjean in 2018. Both drivers sustained major damage to their cars as a result.
In addition to providing his racing expertise as a producer on the upcoming F1 movie from writer-director Joseph Kosinski about an aging fictional driver (played by Pitt) who comes out of retirement, Hamilton also reportedly appears onscreen in a cameo playing himself.
Before filming began, Hamilton said he tested Pitt’s driving skills at a racetrack.
“I really wanted to see, ‘Can you actually drive?'” Hamilton told Reuters. “He already had the knack. [Then] he really went in deep [with training].”
Filmmaker Kosinski first met F1 superstar Hamilton when they discussed the driver’s potential involvement with the director’s previous movie, Top Gun: Maverick. Then, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Kosinski got hooked on the Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive, which follows teams over the course of the Formula One season.
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“I was fascinated by this notion that your teammate can be your biggest enemy,” the director previously told Entertainment Weekly. “Everyone’s always comparing who’s faster. To me, that seemed very ripe for drama. So, I dropped Lewis an email and said, ‘Hey, I’d love to make a movie in this world. Would you be interested in helping me?’ And he said he would.”
Kosinski also made sure to get the Formula One racing community on board to support and appear in the film.
“We had a scene where every single team came out with all their mechanics, and they pretended like everyone was repairing their cars on the pit while we were shooting,” Kosinski told EW. “We shot at every race. We had a garage on the pit lane next to their garages. We would not have been able to make this movie without them. It certainly wouldn’t look the way it does without their participation.”
F1 races into theaters June 27.