Review of 'F1'

After a horrific crash in a Formula 1 race in 1993 Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) lives in a van and has struggled in his personal life with gambling and failed marriages. Following a win at the Daytona 24 hour race Sonny is approached by team owner Chip Hart (Shea Whigham) to join his team full-time but he declines. Later in a laundromat he is approached by former driver Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) who now owns the APXGP Formula 1 team but now fears for it's future which can only be secured by winning at least one race. Ruben is stuck with only having one cocky rookie driver, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), following failed mid-season contract negotiations with his second driver. Ruben wants Sonny to join his team to help save his team and serve as a mentor to Joshua. Sonny initially declines though eventually shows up at the Silverstone Formula 1 track to join the team. Initially the aging Sonny is treated with scepticism but proves his worth in both his driving skill but also in subtle sacrificial racing strategies to help his teammate succeed. Struggling to cope with modern Formula 1 technology and the media pressure, Sonny eventually wins over the team including the extremely focused technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon) but is it enough to save the team?

I have a bit of a personal attachment to this film not only in being a fan of Formula 1 but also having seen some of the film shot at the 2023 grand prix at Silverstone in the UK. Seated in the stands on the start/finish straight, we saw not only the APXGP garage but the cars racing around the track (when there were no other cars) and Pitt himself along with his follow actors filming a sequence at the back of the (real) Formula 1 grid waiting for the actual race formation lap. Of course, there were a lot of loud calls from the crowd out to Pitt that must have spoiled some of the shots, but it was very cool to see it happening in front of us.

So, having seen the filming, being a fan of F1 and having been to several races, what did I think of the film?

The racing sequences look absolutely amazing with some incredible camera angles that really help the viewer get a sense of the action (of course, condensing multi-hour races into a few minutes helps as well) but it was also great to see how hard the filmmakers worked to make everything look as real as possible: The racetracks are the real deal filmed at the real locations including Silverstone (UK), Las Vegas (USA), Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (Mexico City), Hungaroring (Hungary), and Suzuka (Japan) during real race weekends (ok, the accidents were perhaps a bit digital-ly but look very real); The APXGP cars, though not the latest specification, are real race cars (in reality they were MUCH louder than the modern F1 cars - believe me!) and the actors actually did a bit of driving themselves (not the serious bits, you understand, but were capable of driving a few laps relatively competitively); The film's background contains the real F1 teams of 2023 and 2024 including team principals and drivers of modern Formula 1 having roles in the plot of the film itself, such as a rather stilted Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff with a speaking part alongside Fred Vasseur of Ferrari. All of this effort to be faithful to the sport pays off in a very convincing experience on the big screen. I personally thought it was great to see complex, but believable, strategy being used by drivers in the races which you often do not see or at least are not aware of in modern F1 racing.

Pitt is very believable as the aging racer defeating his demons and achieving success in the modern racing world. As his teammate Joshua Pearce, Damson Idris does a great job as the petulant young (ish) driver resentful of the veteran being brought in to help him sort out his races and mindset. Reluctantly he begins to open up and see that to succeed in F1 you do not necessarily always have to win races.

Despite being more than 2.5 hours, F1 is a great film for racing fans and, in particular, Formula 1 fans but I am not so sure about the more general audience who may find it the detail a bit too much. The film does go out of it's way to explain key aspects of the racing but if you want to just go and enjoy a good action flick without having to at least remember some of this you might be a bit put off. I think it is worth a watch regardless. A film of very real human emotions and some great racing sequences.

Rating: “I have absolutely no complaints”

Review Date: 2025-08-02

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

Studio: Apple Original Films

Year: 2025

Length: 155 minutes

Genre: Action/Adventure

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16311594/

• Tron: Legacy (2010)
• Oblivion (2013)
• Spiderhead (2022)
• Top Gun: Maverick (2022)