Tom Cruise's Love For Formula 1: A Story From The Cockpit To The Paddock

Tom Cruise's link with motorsport goes back well beyond his role as a racing driver in Days of Thunder. In the late 1980s, his The Colour of Money co-star Paul Newman helped him try professional racing. He competed in sports cars for Newman/Sharp Racing but quickly hung up his helmet after gaining a reputation for aggressive driving.

His day in a Formula 1 car came in 2011. Ahead of the first United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas, Red Bull Racing let him test one of their cars during a break from post-production on a Mission Impossible film. At Willow Springs in Southern California, David Coulthard offered guidance while a 12-person crew prepared the car. After a few passenger laps to learn the circuit, Cruise took the 850-horsepower machine out alone. He completed 24 laps and cut around 11 seconds from his first lap to his last.

In 2025, he joined Brad Pitt on the red carpet at the European premiere of F1 The Movie and later praised the team behind it online. At the 2022 British Grand Prix, he visited Silverstone on his 60th birthday weekend and was spotted in the garage, on the grid and with the Hamilton family. He returned for the 2023 Miami Grand Prix alongside Shakira and even helped Mercedes with pit stop practice.

With Digger arriving in cinemas, Cruise's enthusiasm for F1 over more than a decade is clear.