You wouldn’t know it from their screen work, but Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz are not car aficionados. 

“It’s funny having in mind that neither of us drive,” Bardem, 56, tells PEOPLE exclusively on the red carpet at the New York City premiere of his new racing movie F1 (in theaters June 27) on Monday, June 16. Cruz, 51, who has been married to Bardem since 2010, starred in last year’s Ferrari, about Enzo Ferrari, the Italian founder of the car manufacturer.

“She doesn’t drive,” the Spanish actor says of his wife and fellow Oscar winner. “I barely know how to drive.” 

When it comes to depictions of driving in their many movies, he adds, “I dunno where it comes from.”

Cruz, in fact, has gone on record as having “a fear of driving,” in an Elle cover story in January 2024 after the release of Ferrari. “My sister was run over by a car in front of me when I was eight or nine,” she explained at the time. “It’s a great trauma.”

F1 stars Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a retired Formula 1 racer returning to the racetrack at the behest of old friend Ruben Cervantes, played by Bardem, owner of the fictional F1 team APXGP. Playing other members of that crew are Damson Idris, Kerry Condon and Kim Bodnia. 

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For Pitt, 61, learning to drive F1 cars around the world — reaching speeds of 180 miles per hour — was “incredible,” he tells PEOPLE. “Every time I got in the car, these tracks are just like hallowed ground. Silverstone. Spa in Belgium was the most memorable. Abu Dhabi. We really got spoiled.”

Bardem opened up about how creating a “bromance” with Pitt on the F1 set was “not that difficult” during his Monday appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Calling Pitt “sweet” and “funny,” he praised the producer-star for “driving an F1 car for real… And he was always taking care of all of us and making sure that we got everything we needed.”

F1, directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, is in theaters June 27.