Marvel comic writer Ethan Sacks admitted he gave “the quickest yes” of his career when offered the chance to create the storyline to the comic collaboration with Williams F1 team. 

The F1 team announced it would be collaborating with Marvel in a special one-shot comic ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, with seven different covers expected to launch across the season.

After releases for Miami and Monaco, the latest edition has been released ahead of the British Grand Prix weekend, with the comic eventually set to go on sale in specialist stores in October 2026.  

In a first-of-its kind venture in F1’s ever-expanding market, the collaboration marks a special twist to the classic superhero comic book as its characters meet the fast-paced world of motorsport.

Sacks, who was tasked with creating the storyline for the partnership, revealed it was a fairly quick turnaround between finding out about the project and getting to work - but was more than delighted to take on a unique opportunity. 

“It was the quickest yes I’ve ever given,” Sacks told The Race. “Marvel came to me with this idea about their collaboration with the Williams F1 team and said ‘would you be interested in writing this?’ 

“We went out for lunch, had talks over lunch and after one hour I immediately came away with the idea of a storyline and what it would be like.

“I knew immediately that Iron Man would be one of the main characters just because of the characteristics. Especially the technology and the engineering, it’s just so obvious with an F1 partnership. 

“Then, in the same way, you had to pick one of the bad guys and the first one that came to mind was Doctor Doom.

"Both characters funnily enough are played by Robert Downey Jr. and he has that kind of charisma that people would be able to recognise from the movies and recognise in the comic.”

It wasn’t just the superheroes that needed to be recognisable - as Sacks undertook hours of extensive research watching interviews of Williams drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz and team principal James Vowles to transform them into comic book superheroes.

To capture the essence of the team, Albon’s “love for animals” and Sainz’s monologues about food made it into the storyline, while Sacks also attempted to capture Vowles’ “naturally funny” character. 

After the storyline was complete, the next step of the “assembly line” saw the concept passed on to artists and designers, as if piecing together the body of work in a similar manner to the engineers in the garage over a race weekend.

“Just like F1, it really is a team effort - piecing together a comic book is kind of like a factory line,” Sacks explained. “You start with the storyline and then the artist Greg Land did an amazing job of bringing the imagery to the story.  

“Then the colorists, who really made everything pop and the text designers and everything, it’s not just a one-person job, it takes everyone to drive things forward, if you’ll excuse the unintentional pun there.

“We’re just really happy with the way that it turned out and excited for people to be able to read it and see the amazing work that went into it.”

With the unique cover designs meant to capture the typical comic fan feeling of being able to pick and choose from multiple special editions, Sacks hopes the collaboration can introduce both sets of fans into a brand-new world. 

“That’s the goal really. We want to take this amazing sport to as many people as possible, and by working with Williams it’s been a new experience for everyone.

“We didn’t use too much jargon so people could follow along and enjoy the story regardless of their knowledge, but we still wanted to highlight all of the things that makes this sport so great.”

The project also introduced Sacks himself to a new audience. While he had previously followed NASCAR, the process of creating the comic gave him a much closer look at Formula 1. 

“I wasn’t a massive F1 fan before taking this one, I followed NASCAR being American but not so much F1. But now, listening and following it, I can say that I am a fan and I’m really glad to have taken it on.

“It’s the same for Formula 1 fans who may be familiar with the movies but have never read a comic before, we want them to be able to follow along with the characters without having to go back and read different things to make sense of it all.

“We want to show them exactly what makes us love comic books and show them our world and why we find so much joy in what we do.”