F1 The Movie Makes Speed Look Sultry

The premiere of F1, the movie in New York City on June 16.

The most memorable sports movies are about winning, losing, and ultimately finding redemption. F1, the movie, sets up a battle between dueling drivers, but at its core poses a bigger question. What does it feel like to be the one with the wheel?

As F1 (Apple) arrives in theaters during a summer heatwave, the feature film offers viewers an escape into the surreal sensation of high speed—a world where all that matters is what happens on the track. Many of the recent movies made about motorsports miss this point and get bogged down in the characters’ outside dalliances and flaws that drift away from the sport’s real appeal. F1 foregoes long character driven scenes and keeps it simple. The camera stays trained on the fictional APXGP team cars and its two drivers for old-fashioned Hollywood spectacle. Big budget, meticulously-filmed sequences from the driver's cockpit shot at actual Formula 1 tracks capture the thrilling sensation of driving in Formula 1, reinforced by cameos from the sport's marquee stars.

Producer Lewis Hamilton's real-world expertise enhances the race car driver’s vantage point and the sheen that makes Jerry Bruckheimer-backed movies enduring—showing what happens when humans successfully merge with machines for the sheer joy of wild risk. Top Gun did it in 1986, accompanied by Harold Faltermyer’s signature chords, and looped back again 2022 with its satisfying sequel reuniting Tom Cruise with his fighter jet, directed by Joseph Kosinski, who also directs F1.

Damson Idris at the New York City Premiere of *F1.* Photo by Gray Sitton.

In F1, Kosinski’s machine-human melding finds its perfect embodiment in a weathered and tanned Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, renaissance racer who can drive just about anything to its edge. Sonny reveals that experience counts as he imparts what it means to make a race car soar, a glorious sensation that he remembers after he brushes up his Formula 1 driving skills for the modern age. Sonny at the wheel delivers a surefire celestial dopamine rush, crushing flawless laps at high speeds. While points and a podium are the goals, it's the act of driving to the limit that is his real talent.

The film opens with Sonny earning P1 at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, one of the more historic endurance car races, and certainly no small feat. For most drivers, winning a 24-hour race would be a moment of glory, but Sonny leaves behind acclaim and an unnamed Rolex watch and retreats back into anonymity. That changes when his former rival and class of early-2000s driver Reuben Cervantes, played by a sophisticated and stately Javier Bardem, swoops into a laundromat between loads to woo Sonny back to the track. Reuben offers Sonny unlikely salvation. It becomes apparent that Sonny fell from prominence after he was injured in a nasty crash before he earned the sought after podium finish. Reuben is in a pickle and his “hail Mary” is to appeal to Sonny to turn around his over-budget failing F1 project, APXGP. (Not the most compelling team name choice for this high stake’s story.) Sonny in the likeness of Pitt is more than twice the age of the average F1 driver—in this sport, 40 is considered old. Damson Idris as Joshua Pearce is the more real world racing character, who embodies the carefully developed young F1 star of current day — sponsor savvy, camera ready, and cocky enough to think he can run with the fastest in the world.

The mentor-mentee relationship gets off to a predictably rough start and sets up the ageist conflict at the center of this story — old school racing versus new school racing, where Sonny’s experience adds gravitas and Joshua brings dedication. It feels like a couple of more meaningful scenes between these two strong actors were cut in favor of high thrills racing sequences, but the point is made — one is on the rise and facing hurdles of self doubt, while the other is on the decline and facing old nagging self doubts. The source of their insecurity? Both men lost their fathers at a young age and are still chasing their medals of approval. Joshua moves the world with the support of scene-stealing mother Bernadette played by Sarah Niles, which makes the young hotshot far more endearing. Once he overcomes some immaturity and a terrifying unfortunate on-track incident, its imbued that he’s destined for a bright future in the sport. But first the flailing team needs a shot as the APXGP sputtering race car becomes another flawed character.

It’s not Sonny or Joshua who saves the day. That role belongs to the brilliant and brainy APXGP team engineer Kate, played by Kerry Condon. Kate repairs flaws in the car and the relationship between drivers. Without her, everyone would have hung up their Pumas to pout. As the mediating force she supersedes the team boss, who fades into the film’s background. Yet, Kate hammers in the point that a race car driver is only as good as their multi-million dollar Formula 1 car built by a team. Here’s another strong point made — racing is a team sport.

The movie manages to integrate the persnickety real world rule enforcement that dogs much of F1 in technical penalties and FIA governance drama. The big business of F1 is alluded to in the script, as Sonny Hayes tangles with the cutthroat characters backing Reuben’s project. This aspect of the plot drifts away from the story, as the money guy’s intentions to blow up the operation veer away from the track with too much speculation about what comes next. Yet both drivers are anointed heroes and the investor who attempts to make a mockery of Bardem and tank the team is the real foe. Some aspects of the story seem to get tangled up between F1 explainer settings and multiple dramas involving too many characters.

The movie is at its strongest when centered on the struggles of a racing team to gel and its internal conflicts to get there fast. What doesn’t come through are the real world rivalries among the 20 drivers who see each other week in and week out in this exclusive sport. Perhaps that’s material best left for Season 8 of “Drive to Survive.” The heartbeat of F1 is in the death defying hot laps, which were filmed over 18 months during real races, boost by the dramatic tones of the Hans Zimmer score.

As Pearce’s star rises, it is Sonny Hayes who owns the redemption story that’s meant to appeal to nostalgic F1 fans, who have stuck by the sport. It’s worth remembering that this film hits as America discovers the elegant world of F1. Yet, the most beloved F1 stars of the past loom large. (There’s even a Jackie Stewart cameo.) Talk to any F1 purist and Ayrton Senna's name inevitably comes up—he comes up in the F1 movie too. Before the film hits theaters, it’s worth watching Asif Kapedia’s documentary Senna as a pre-game F1 primer. I first saw that 2011 doc in theaters, seated next to grown men sobbing at Senna’s poigant rise and tragic early death. Another timely watch is the four-part Dale Earnhardt documentary on Amazon that shows how ruthless race drivers can take down the competition and gain an edge.

F1, the movie, doesn't get everything right, but it's entertaining throughout and effectively conveys what makes racing an exciting and addictive sport. When milliseconds matter, it's less about flying and more about the pursuit of perfection. F1 show how drivers find a road to redemption in the inevitable gaps.