‘F1’ Director Joseph Kosinski Reveals ‘Scariest’ Day Filming with Brad Pitt (Exclusive)

F1 director Joseph Kosinski can still recall the “scariest” day he spent filming with Brad Pitt behind the wheel of a high-octane race car.

Centered on former Formula 1 driver Sonny Hayes (Pitt) as he makes a career comeback and fights to save his new team, F1 includes scenes of Pitt driving during portions of the actual Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend in November 2024.

“The scariest part was definitely Las Vegas,” Kosinski told PEOPLE at a special screening of F1 on Sunday, Oct. 12, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, Calif. “That race — it’s at night, it’s cold, the tires don’t have a lot of grip, and Brad did not have the opportunity to practice that track at all before the shoot because it only exists those three days out of the year.”

The filmmaker, 51, also sat for a Q&A alongside Pitt, 61, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, 82, producer and 7-time F1 world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton, 40, and actors Damson Idris, 34, and Sarah Niles, 38.

Along with the F1 drivers competing in the race, Pitt faced track temperatures hovering around 57 degrees Fahrenheit — practically “arctic” by F1 standards.

A street circuit race, the Las Vegas GP takes place on the Las Vegas strip and doesn’t have run-off areas found on many other circuits. As a result, drivers often find themselves racing close to — and sometimes crashing into — the track’s barriers.

“I would say Vegas was really where I was crossing my fingers because again, it was so cold and the tires don’t have a lot of grip, and if he made one mistake, he’d be in the wall,” Kosinski says.

“It was by far the most dangerous thing we did,” the director adds. “But [Pitt] came through with flying colors, even though [his character] crashes in the film. On the shoot day, he was great.”

The Top Gun: Maverick director continues, “Luckily, Brad and Damson actually had a lot of natural talent, so we had a lot to work with. They were really, really good drivers, and you can see that when you see the film.”

Pitt was “so well trained” and had done “thousands of laps” over his years of prepping for the movie, that Kosinski says he “felt really good with [Pitt’s] performance out on the track and knew he had control of the car.”

Kosinski adds, “I never felt like we were being irresponsible.”‘

By the last day, Pitt “was really sad to get out of the car,” recalls the director, who rolled the cameras just a bit longer for his star. “We let him do a few more laps at the end of the last take just because I knew he loved it. I think it was emotional for him to say goodbye to this character because he really loved playing him.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

As for the possibility of a sequel to F1, the director tells PEOPLE, “Based on the reception of the film, I would love to see what adventures Sonny Hayes is going on to next, and I think the audience would too. So we’re actually gonna start talking about that very soon, start kind of coming up with, ‘What could that next chapter of his story be?'”

F1 will make its global streaming debut on Apple TV on Dec. 12.