Esteemed actor and lead of the upcoming Formula 1 movie Brad Pitt made a cameo in Lando Norris' honest and defeatist post-race interview at the British Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver saw his dreams of a home win at Silverstone slip through his fingers after pitting a lap late in drying conditions and fitting what seemed to be the sub-optimal tire compound.
Prior to the final round of pit stops, Norris had overcome several rivals and tricky weather conditions to lead the race at the Northamptonshire circuit and looked the likely winner before McLaren's strategists made the wrong calls under pressure as Red Bull and Mercedes' race operations thrived.
Lewis Hamilton took the glory on this occasion with a classy drive, one week after Norris saw another golden victory chance disappear when contact with Max Verstappen in Austria caused the Brit to retire from the race.
Brad Pitt makes cameo in Lando Norris interview
In the end, after his and the team's late strategy blunder, Norris came home in P3, undercut by Hamilton and eventually overtaken by Verstappen, who finished P2.
Having been in command for a large period of the race, Norris rightly felt like it was another opportunity for a race victory that had narrowly escaped his grasp, and the McLaren man cut a downbeat figure when talking to the media post-race.
"Lewis was on it, he won the race. It's not the wrong call but we're terrible on soft tyres as a team. Just because of the car balance and how it works," Norris told Sky Sports.
"We've always been bad on that kind of tyre, Mercedes have always been very good so I almost had no chance of beating them. I expected to come out ahead of the Mercedes, I didn't, but even if I came out ahead I wouldn't have won the race because we were too slow.
"So... I don't know. I know [it's a podium] but I'm fed up of just saying I should have done better and I should have done this and could have done that, or whatever."
However, during his interview, Brad Pitt made a surprise appearance in the background, heading into the media pen in full race driver attire as though he himself had completed 52 laps around the Silverstone circuit.
Presumably, Pitt was filming for the upcoming F1 movie, which now has an official name ('F1'), release date (June 27, 2025 in the US) and trailer.
Nevertheless, it was an awkward and surprising moment as the McLaren man reflected brutally on his rotten luck.