I’m not making a documentary, I’m making a drama,” Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard tells me as we walk back from lunch at Crystal Palace where he is directing the new film Rush on Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

It’s a surreal experience talking to Richie Cunningham from Happy Days, and his enthusiasm for his latest project – due out in cinemas in February/March 2013 – is infectious. Many Formula 1 aficionados have already started picking holes in various scenes having seen photos of them on the internet, and some have asked how Ron Howard can make a film about a sport he has never really been a fan of. “Well,” he says to a Sky reporter while I’m waiting for my turn, “I’ve never been to the Moon and I made Apollo 13.”

Ron Howard may not be a lifelong fan of F1, but he has surrounded himself with people who know the sport and know what looks right. The plan is to tell the story of Hunt and Lauda’s relationship between 1973 and ’76, but Howard doesn’t want to get caught up on details. Yes – it will be based on fact, but there will be drama added. That’s no bad thing so long as it doesn’t resemble Driven, the dreadful Sylvester Stallone film based (very) loosely on Champ Cars. Howard is adamant this won’t be the case: “I know what would annoy me if someone made a film about the sports that I love,” he tells me.