F1 the Movie is a ridiculous 2025 sports drama with a heavily Hollywoodised take on the pinnacle of motorsport. It’s also damn good fun popcorn fodder entertainment, spearheaded by Brad Pitt on maximum charm offensive as the deadbeat racing driver Sonny Hayes.
It’s a big deal for F1 when you get the biggest film star on the planet to lead the project. And this part film/advert for the sport delivers in many ways, although does also lack any kind of depth. Zoom.
Racing and Legitimate Cheating in F1 the Movie
Brad Pitt may be 62 now, but his natural charisma carries him through F1 the Movie like he’s… not 62. He doesn’t look it, of course, keeping himself trim and fit. Which means taking on the role of lovable rogue Sonny Hayes was an ideal time of it for the actor.
However, it doesn’t stop F1 the Movie from being ridiculous from start to finish.
Director Joseph Kosinski makes it work as it’s all tongue-in-cheek, nothing is to be taken too seriously, and the crew used some really clever filming techniques to immersive themselves into Formula One (more on that further below).
As for the plot, it follows now early 50s racing driver for rent Sonny Hayes (Pitt). He had raced in F1 in 1993, but suffered a major accident and had his career ended. For this, the film uses actual footage from Martin Donnelly’s horrific crash at Jerez in 1990 (with the driver’s permission). Over the top of that, F1 the Movie uses an audio extract of Murray Walker commentating on Ayrton Senna’s fatal accident (Imola 1994).
We can’t say that’s tastefully done, but it is what it is.
Cut to the modern day and Hayes is in America driving 24 Hours of Daytona. That is until he’s hired by Rubén Cervantes (Javier Bardem) to support the struggling APXGP F1 team, acting as a mid-season driver replacement.
With his maverick SOB ways, Hayes immediately shakes up the F1 circus with some unique driving techniques (strategic cheating), whilst also hitting on the team’s technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon).
Meanwhile, he contends with his cocky young teammate Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).
Hayes shakes things up and demands car improvement. By the time the F1 circus arrives at Silverstone, he’s starting to make his mark. Cue what the film is all about (i.e. the in car footage).
There are a number of interesting things going on here. The first is that the film crew were allowed in the F1 paddock to interact with the sport across various weekends, so it appears like they’re actually there (because they were).
Brad Pitt did all his driving sequences, too, just in an upgraded F2 car.
Also, and this is one of the most annoying bits of the film, Sky F1 commentators David Croft and Martin Brundle provide in-race commentary.
And it’s mind-numbingly bad.
The plot is also just ridiculous. For example, there’s a crash that merges Romain Grosjean’s infamous 2020 Bahrain accident with Alex Peroni’s 2019 F2 Monza accident. We get it’s supposed to be the big dramatic moment in the film, but we ended up finding it darkly comical.
Hayes continues with his race fixing driving, which includes deliberately hitting other drivers and the like, all whilst APXGP face getting axed unless they win a race. The racing side is actually very accurate to what the sport is like, it’s just the way Hayes interacts with it makes little sense.
Anyway, you can probably guess what happens at the final race of the season.
Now, this is one giant advertisement for F1 alongside its hugely popular Drive to Survive Netflix series. That series alone was responsible with the sport finally taking off in America, with the US having previously ignored F1. So F1’s commercial rights owner, Liberty Media Corporation, wants to make the most of it.
And when you get Brad Pitt on board, you have to make the most of it. He’s obviously loving the role and does his usual super charming thing very well. Kerry Condon is terrific, too!
But the main thing is, despite the absurdity and daft nature of the plot, this is perfect popcorn cannon fodder entertainment most people will have a blast with.
Yes, it doesn’t make any sense and is heavily removed from what real Formula One is. But it doesn’t matter, it’s a Hollywoodised take and one we, as hardcore fans from mid-1998 to now, don’t have too many issues with.
Expect a sequel? Maybe. Hopefully they’ll get Arnold Schwarzenegger to take the lead role next time out: F1 the Movie: I’ll Be At the Back of the Grid.
The Production of F1 the Movie
The film’s budget was between $200 and $300 million. It made $631.7 million at the global box office and has since hit global streaming services.
It’s now the highest grossing racing film ever and the highest grossing film Brad Pitt has starred in.
He was a producer as well, along with Jerry Bruckheimer, director Joseph Kosinski, and a certain Sir Lewis Hamilton. He was still racing with Mercedes at the time but helped oversee the technical side of the shoot, making sure the racing action was realistic.
We should also note the legendary Hans Zimmer composed the score for the film. So the film did the rounds in Hollywood and certainly got some major names involved.
Brad Pitt also later got the chance to drive a real F1 car, an opportunity provided by the McLaren team.
Lots of familiar faces from F1 also appear in the film. Various drivers have a cameo, including an unscripted ad lib by Fernando Alonso, along with team principles such as Zak Brown, Guenther Steiner, and Frédéric Vasseur.
The cleverest thing about the production remains with how they integrated directly with the sport, often only have one chance to nail a take. Such as on a podium ceremony at Silverstone, where Brad Pitt stood just out of line of the world’s live feed before being given permission to nip in and get a take done.
All Hollywood magic stuff. And whilst the script may be a bit lacking in places, at least it doesn’t take itself too seriously and, instead, caters for a wide audience appeal (whether you like F1 or not).
