F1: The Movie Review

The director of Top Gun: Maverick presents another masterpiece to the world, this time starring Brad Pitt.

image by: google images

With its first appearance in the cinemas on June 27th, F1: The Movie has made an incredible impact on both the Formula One and film industries. Within its first opening weekend, the movie has earned up to an estimated $140 million globally. Many came to see how the director, Joseph Kosinski, would present the exciting F1 races, while others were excited to see Brad Pitt on the screen again. 

Set in the world of Formula One, Pitt plays a skilled veteran driver, Sonny Hayes, who could have been a world-class contender, but left Formula One due to a severe injury. After being recruited by his old friend, Ruben (played by Javier Bardem) to save his team, Hayes gets an opportunity to race in F1 again and to prove himself alongside promising rookie Joshua Pearce (played by Damson Idris). The two characters, the veteran and the rookie, form the central conflict of the movie. On one hand, Hayes has raced in Formula One before, and he expects Josh to cooperate with him, but Joshua is eager to become famous and the team’s first driver. The plot may seem generic, but it is a realistic problem for the teams, as the rookie and the veteran often create tension between themselves. 

While the story follows a familiar rookie-versus-veteran arc, Kosinski manages to intensify the experience for the audience when it comes to the race scenes. By positioning cameras both inside and outside the cars, he immerses the audience with action, as he cuts from Hayes’ perspective to sweeping shots of competitors behind. The movie is definitely successful in displaying the thrill and competitiveness of Formula One to the audience. While the movie provides an epic portrayal of the race, it also manages to hold an outstanding authenticity of Formula One. 

Though just in a few cut scenes, the F1 fans were thrilled to see their favorite drivers in the movie, like George Russell, Fernando Alonso, and Charles Leclerc. With the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton being the producer, the movie proves to be revolutionary in taking authenticity to a whole new level, with real F1 drivers participating in the production. The movie also reveals the crucial roles of the crew, like the engineers who are responsible for designing the car. The F1 crew is paid relatively less attention compared to the drivers of the team, but they are just as important as the drivers themselves. The crew is responsible for almost everything apart from the driving itself: every pitstop, aerodynamic adjustment, car repair… The movie certainly succeeded in bringing up their point of view. 

Despite its many successes, the movie draws criticism from Hayes’ racing strategy. Sonny Hayes’ tactics are simply absurd, involving nothing more than crashing into other drivers to slow them down. Though supposedly effective in the movie, Hayes and his team would face penalty points and grid penalties in reality, which would heavily affect the team’s future performance. 

Despite facing criticisms on the plot and Hayes’ tactics, the movie ultimately accomplished to present a thrilling experience for the audience while holding onto Formula One’s authenticity. Overall, F1: The Movie certainly succeeded in showing F1’s competitiveness and introducing it to a wider audience, with Kosinski’s epic cinematography and Lewis Hamilton’s dedication to the movie’s production.

Ethan Gu ‘28 & Lawrence Chen ‘28