F1: The Movie – Review

F1: The Movie is out, featuring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris. Here is our review of the highly anticipated film.

Feature image credit: Apple TV+

Disclaimer

This is a review of F1: The Movie. 

This is your spoiler warning, as the content below will contain aspects of the movie. 

If you would not like to have the film spoiled for you, save this page, see the movie and come back to read our review.

Lights out…

F1 is the next motorsport-based film, which has been highly anticipated since its announcement, and fans have been able to keep an eye on the aspects of the film through its appearance in actual Grand Prix events. 

It’s a movie which has been created to become the most authentic racing film of all time. It’s a point which has been strengthened by having one of two Formula 1 seven-time world champions, Lewis Hamilton, as a producer on the film.

Utilising similar cinematography that was previously used in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, a movie also produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, helps immerse the viewer in many of the film’s racing scenes. The film integrates APXGP’s car well over real-life moments, making it believable that the team were part of the grid, which brings to life F1’s real-life history to the big screen.

Following its release, the film, depending on your preference, F1 is set to challenge the likes of Rush (2013) or Grand Prix (1966).  

The plot follows Sonny Hayes [Pitt], a nomadic racer-for-hire, someone who goes series-to-series without a permanent seat. A former F1 driver who had his time cut short. After the 24 Hours of Daytona, he is given a chance to reignite his F1 dream. 

APXGP, is the 11th fictional team on the grid, but they are deep in financial trouble and are on the brink of being sold. The plot of the story revolves around a single fact: unless the team can win one race, they will be sold at the end of the season. 

Hayes and Joshua Pearce [Idris], a rookie and a young up-and-coming F1 star, race for the team searching for points and their first championship victory.

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Mike Donnelly… 

Mike Donnelly is the catalyst for Hayes simply because the former’s crash and near-death incident has been co-opted as the latter’s. In 1990, in real life, Donnelly had a horrify crash at that year’s Spanish Grand Prix, in Jerez.

He crashed into the barrier at 160mph, and the collision threw him from his Lotus 102. He lay motionless out on the track following the collision that broke his car. 

In F1, the crash happens three years later, and is brought back through flashbacks – using real-life footage – and in a F1 season review, narrated by former F1 presenter and now IndyCar presenter, Will Buxton. 

Unlike the real-life racer, Hayes’ injuries wouldn’t stop him from competing in the premier-class of single-seaters, whereas the injuries did stop Donnelly. But this is Hollywood, and suspension of disbelief is to be expected. 

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‘Who said anything about safe?’…

That line, when it was first spoken in the early trailers, was not perceived well initially. Its inclusion questioned whether the film would ignore the work F1 has done to become safer than it used to be, like turning a promising F1 film into a Michael Bay blockbuster.

However, besides the reckless driving behaviour of Hayes in the early races, the film does lean into how dangerous it is for the unsuspecting movie-goer, whilst F1 fans would understandably know how dangerous it is.

During the Italian Grand Prix, in Monza, Pearce, on slick, dry tyres in wet conditions, crashes and ends up in a fireball at Parabolica. He is pulled out of the fire by Hayes, who stops on the track to help extract his injured teammate from the blaze. 

There was also another crash at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, later in the film, where Hayes is ‘driving angry’ and crashes into the catch fence on the pit straight, later revealing his injuries from his crash in the 90s.

It highlights the dangers, which can be forgotten, that drivers accept when they get into an F1 car. The Italian GP crash felt inspired by horrifying real-life crashes to drive home that point: Niki Lauda at the Nurburgring in 1976 and Romain Grosjean at the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2020.  

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Verdict?

F1: The Movie is a good film, there is no denying that, I won’t claim it to be Oscar-winning, but it’s a film you could switch off from the world and watch if you had nothing else to do. 

But you do have to look past some aspects of the film, such as a calendar reshuffle with the Belgian Grand Prix, for example, being positioned later in the F1 calendar… and clear race fixing. 

The film does dip into the community’s gatekeeping against Drive to Survive fans, serving as a nod to the films ‘bad guy,’ Banning. He is a board member who is trying to sell the team and claims he binge-watched the Netflix series when he was introduced. 

He could’ve just said he was a board member; DTS didn’t need to be mentioned, in all honesty. 

F1 does attempt to showcase that women do have a place in the sport too, with Kate [Kerry Condon] being the sport’s first female Technical Director and Jodie [Callie Cooke] as one of the pit crew. In a way, the movie pays homage to real-life milestones like Laura Mueller becoming F1’s first female race engineer, for Esteban Ocon at Haas.  

Whilst Kate holds a major part in the film, there is an unnecessary romantic interest which serves no purpose later in the film. But, it is a Pitt film, and it would be like asking Tom Cruise not to do his own stunts. Then there’s Jodie, someone who is projected as accident-prone early on, with a wheel gun incident, until she grows in confidence, later in the film.

It could’ve done better, especially with Jodie, as fans know – whilst they can have off days – pit crews practice relentlessly and perfect their role. 

Overall, it is an authentic film with moments which has been over-explained, in parts, to help those who may not be aware or overly understanding of the terminology or regulations, which is understandable. I enjoyed the film as did my other half, someone who does not watch F1.

Star Rating

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Austrian GP: George Russell warned for pit lane infringement
• Austrian GP: who qualified where?
• Austrian GP: Norris takes pole position by half a second
• Austrian GP: Lando Norris fastest ahead of Oscar Piastri
• Austria GP: Lando Norris leads McLaren 1-2 in F1 FP2
• Austrian GP: George Russell tops opening F1 practice

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