As a Formula One (F1) enthusiast, I’ve followed the sport since 2020, and I have since pledged my allegiance to the red house of Ferrari. So when “F1: The Movie” was announced, I was ecstatic. With a star-studded cast led by the legendary Brad Pitt and rising talent Damson Idris, anticipation grew as Apple Studios was spotted filming at real Grand Prix on weekends throughout 2023 and 2024.
If that much star power was not enough, this 2-hour 35-minute ode to the sport was co-produced by Sir Lewis Hamilton, star of “Cars 2,” part-time model and seven-time F1 World Champion.
Fans rallied together in excitement globally. They were finally getting an accurate, immersive representation of one of the world’s fastest and most glamorous sports — an upgrade from Netflix’s highly dramatised and controversial show, “Drive To Survive” — but it seems they thought wrong. Early reviews trickled in leading up to the release date, and there was a clear consensus among fans: “F1: The Movie” was unwatchable for those with prior knowledge of the sport.
Friends who were also longtime watchers of the sport advised me to switch my brain off while watching the film. Luckily, thanks to all of the uninspiring sports movies that have come before, I had regular experience in that department. I expected the usual inaccuracies that riddle these movies: disregard for specific rules, plot holes and metaphorical last-minute buzzer beaters.
Sonny Hayes, a grizzled, battle-hardened driver played by Brad Pitt, serves as a reluctant mentor to Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris, the new rookie starboy of APXGP F1 Team.
The motley bunch is led by Hayes’ old teammate, Rubén Cervantes, who seems to be the only person who sees past his rough exterior and recognises the waning embers of greatness in him.
APXGP’s goal for the season is clear enough: win the bare minimum to avoid going bankrupt. F1 is the world’s most expensive sport, with a car costing around $15 million to develop. That doesn’t account for the many replacement parts required throughout the season that can add up to $150,000.
Hayes’s strategy to win is at odds with the financial situation of the team and the rules of the track. Reluctantly working with Pearce, Hayes uses the tactic of spamming the crash button to use the car as a weapon of destruction — allowing Pearce to pull ahead.
In a movie committed to “realism,” Hayes’s antics would have likely warranted a race ban by the governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). He would’ve faced a ban from coming within 10 miles of a circuit, given that the FIA has announced sanctions for matters as trivial as foul language.
Pitt’s role in “F1: The Movie” falls short, and the forced mentor-mentee routine feels like a tired effort by the actor. The film’s shortcoming is simple: it’s trying too hard. It stuffs each scene with sloppy dialogue and plot, and the mentor-mentee dynamic feels like an exhausted effort.
Take Hayes’s love interest, Kerry Condon: His hookup-turned-girlfriend being the technical director of his F1 team should’ve never made the cut.
In a seventy-five-year-old sport where only one woman has ever worked as a race engineer, it’s essential to set some positive standards, especially because Hamilton himself has championed women’s equity in F1. Reducing a woman to a conveniently placed plot device to check a box is lazy writing. Instead, Simone Ashley (whose role was significantly cut out of the movie) would’ve fared much better as the influencer girlfriend of Pearce.
Viewers are instead forced to sit through some of the most childish dialogue of the year, with Pearce glibly delivering one-liners that seem to have been inspired by early Central Cee songs. Idris, despite delivering a stellar performance in “Snowfall,” was knifed by predictable writing and a largely one-dimensional role.
However, joy can be found in the most unexpected places in the story. Think easter egg shots of the now-retired Haas team principal, Guenther Steiner, in various stages of shock and rage. Small cameos by drivers such as Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz were a welcome change amid tense interactions between Hayes and Pearce.
Director Joseph Kosinski takes full advantage of his Paddock Pass+ access to the other twenty teams. He tastefully intersperses scenes of real drivers with Pitt and Idris, and taps pundit Will Buxton in for commentary.
To his credit, the movie is accurate in all of its glossy parts: the hustle and flimsiness of motorhomes leading up to a Grand Prix, the breathless exhilaration of every start and the glamour that surrounds the world’s most expensive sport.
Another highlight was the races themselves, produced artfully with edited montages of snappy gear shifts, tight turns and dramatic crashes through custom-developed Apple cameras in helmets and cars.
It’s easy for me to break into my “um, actually” throughout the film as someone who’s followed F1 for half a decade, but it is undeniable that it’s going to be the entry point for many new fans. Since most talent is recruited from Europe, Australia and Asia, untapped audiences in America often unfairly perceive the sport to be fast cars going maniacally around the track in never-ending circles.
Since the film’s release, viewership for non-American audiences, such as those in Australia, reached 1.10 million people in 2025, a 103 percent increase from 2024.
In an uncertain but exciting era of the sport marked by new regulations, a new team (Cadillac) and emerging rivalries between fresh talent such as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the movie does well to counteract the boring allegations of the sport.
However, it could have focused more on the tense politics between drivers and correctly represented the strenuous training that they must undergo before setting foot on a track. The directors trade that for flashy Vegas casinos and rose-tinted shots of Hayes.
Sports films beg for more stories that are unafraid of dissecting the technicalities of the matter. The potential of “F1: The Movie” to be a gritty, emotional drama was not fulfilled due to its overemphasis on cinematography and filler scenes of Hayes. A simple solution for the directors? Dropping the fuss and leaving it all out on the track.
Lavanya Aditi Puri CM ’29 is from India, intending to major in a variation of Economics with a minor in Clash Royale. She has survived Xavi’s Barcelona and is weathering through Ferrari’s antics since 2020. She is currently in pursuit of Diamond in Merge Tactics.
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