Ed Sheeran and John Mayer on Making Their Song ‘Drive’ From ‘F1’: ‘As People Leave the Cinema, That’s the Song They Leave On’

Grammy-winning artists Ed Sheeran and John Mayer, joined by producer Blake Slatkin, are offering a closer look into the making of “Drive,” their original song created for “F1.” Released as the fifth single from the film’s soundtrack album on June 20, 2025, “Drive” was co-written by the three of them.

In an interview for Variety’s Behind the Song, the trio revealed that the idea for the track was created after Slatkin watched the film.

“I was called by my friends at Atlantic Records, who were working on the soundtrack, and they had me come in and see the movie,” said Slatkin. “I literally walked out of the screening room and called Ed and John at the same time, and was like, we have to make a song for this.”

Slatkin, who previously collaborated with Sheeran on his eighth studio album “Play,” also mentioned that they were shown scenes from the movie that would eventually include music and were asked to “take their pick.”

“The one that all of us kind of wanted was the Brad Pitt riding into the sunset piece,” said Slatkin. Sheeran added, “As people leave the cinema, that’s the song they leave on.”

For Mayer, it was clear the trio wanted a rock-and-roll feel. Within 10 minutes of their first session, Mayer came up with a rock riff that would become the foundation for the song.

“You got to know about Ed — he just starts writing. There’s no ‘well, let me just kick this around,'” said Mayer. “The distance between not having a song and having a song for Ed is a millimeter. Ed’s ability to intuit a song… I’ve never seen anyone like it, really.”

When Sheeran left for England, they set aside time to write lyrics together. Sheeran was at his friend’s bachelor party at a budget holiday camp in England, where he says he wrote the lyrics to “Drive.”

“We had a time that we were supposed to write lyrics together, and I sent it to Ed,” said Slatkin. “He was eight hours ahead, so I woke up, and he was like, it’s already done, I’ll call you. And then he just sang it.”

Still looking for a drummer, the first name that came to mind for the group was the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl.

“We had recorded a different drummer on it before, and when we had the different drums as a demo, we went back and forth on, is the song too slow? Is the tempo weird? And the second Dave played it, it was like, ‘Oh, this is perfect,'” revealed Slatkin.

Feeling that the song was turning into an “unhinged, untethered rock and roll” sound, Mayer discussed the decision to quiet down the cymbals, stating that the song “still had to be, to some extent, a pop song.”

Slatkin also added that “Drive” needed to leave space for Sheeran’s voice, calling his singing “a generational vocal performance,” and adding that Grohl was taken aback the first time he heard the track.

“Ed has an overdrive in his voice when he wants it that you don’t normally hear. And when it comes out, it’ll shock you,” said Mayer.

Joking that it would have to be a “once-in-a-while” performance due to the singer-songwriter losing his voice, Sheeran discussed his decision to kick off the chorus with the lyrics “Ha-la-lay-la, we can ride.”

“I sometimes find that vowels in general are quite fun for people to sing. So I never fight if there’s a cool vowel sound. If you listen to ‘Brown Eyed Girl,’ just Van Morrison going ‘Sha-la-la,’ like, it obviously just sounded really fucking good,” said Sheeran. “And that’s the part that everyone can sing along to.”

Keyboardist Rami Jaffee and bassist Pino Palladino were also featured on the track, the latter playing for the John Mayer Trio since 2005.

“There’s really no tricks on this song,” said Slatkin. “It’s just humans in a room, which I think is, is really special, and not to get granular with it, but we did all see the movie and see Brad’s character in the movie be like, rough and tumble, kind of scruffy guy, and to us, embodies this. There’s nothing really going on besides just the musicians.”

“Drive” peaked at number 49 on the UK Singles Chart and was ranked as the best song out of the film’s 17 tracks by Billboard.

Watch the video above.