Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise backed out of starring in Ford v Ferrari together

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise opted out of starring in Ford v Ferrari after the Mission: Impossible star realised he wouldn't be "driving much".

The 61-year-old actor has been on the track for his role as Sonny Hayes in F1 but explained that he was due to collaborate with Cruise on the 2019 sports film about the battle between the two car manufacturers at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race before his fellow star went cold on the project after discovering that his character - car designer Carroll Shelby - wouldn't be getting behind the wheel.

Brad told The National: "Tom and I, for a while there, were on Ford v Ferrari with Joe (Kosinski, to direct). This was about 10 years before the guys who actually made it - and made it a great movie.

"What it came down to is that we both wanted to drive, and he wanted to play Shelby, and I wanted to play Ken Miles. And when Tom realised that Carroll Shelby would not be driving much in the movie, it didn't come through."

Ford v Ferrari eventually came to fruition with James Mangold directing and Matt Damon and Christian Bale portraying Shelby and Miles respectively.

Pitt and Cruise haven't worked together on the big screen since the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire but the World War Z star is open to collaborating with the film icon again - as long as he doesn't have to do any crazy stunts.

Speaking to E! News, Pitt said: "Well, I’m not gonna hang my a** off airplanes and s*** like that.

"So when he does something again that’s on the ground [then yes]."

Meanwhile, Pitt is open to the possibility of an F1 sequel but said that he "would want to drive again, selfishly speaking".

He said: "F1 is still the focus. It needs to be on Joshua Pearce - Damson Idris' character - and the rest of the team fighting for a championship. Where does Sonny fit in? I'm not sure.

"Sonny's probably out on the Bonneville Salt Flats, setting speed records or something like that. So I'm not sure beyond that, just yet."

Pitt has previously starred in the sports genre in the 2011 movie Moneyball - in which he played baseball revolutionary Billy Beane - and says they are his favourite type of film.

He told NFL stars Travis and Jason Kelce on their New Heights podcast: "I love a sports movie when they work... It's the greatest. I look back at Gene Hackman and Hoosiers and (Robert) Redford and The Natural, there's even something more. Sports for me, even one game is an entire lifetime."

Pitt added to the Kelce brothers - who have both won the Super Bowl in the NFL: "We watch you guys, we watch your fate. We watch how you deal with adversity, how you fight through it and it's really an amazing metaphor for a lifetime."