For anyone who somehow wasn't already aware of the global interest surge Formula One is enjoying, the arrival of a blockbuster movie is a surefire way to catch their attention. The sport is heading to the big screen with Brad Pitt starring as Sonny Hayes alongside fictional Apex GP teammate Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris in the movie "F1".
With Oscar-winner Javier Bardem also featuring, Jerry Bruckheimer producing, and Hans Zimmer providing the score, this 2025 summer flick certainly has all the Hollywood expertise behind it.
Films/TV references
Hayes is a driver returning from retirement to help mentor racing newcomer and hot prospect Pearce. Both drivers are racing for Apex GP owner Ruben, played by Bardem, to beat their rivals and each other. While we won't know the full plot until the movie premieres, the production has featured at several real-world grands prix over the past two seasons.
Much like how Tom Cruise's Top Gun Maverick featured stunts in fighter jets, Pitt and Pearce jumped into single-seater machinery to film their on-track scenes. With the same director, Joseph Kosinski, behind the camera in F1, there's no doubt that the movie will be a spectacle, just as Cruise's well-received return to the skies was.
F1's Fictional Reality
No matter how the final product is received by racing and movie fans, there's no disputing the film's desire for authenticity. F1 (the sport) is not welcoming to outsiders usually – just look at how much opposition the Andretti F1 team bid received. There is no off-the-shelf purchasing of a contemporary F1 car; each is a custom-made machine for a specific driver. Yet Pitt and Idris joined the sport's 20 drivers on the track during the 2023 and 2024 seasons when shooting F1 (the film).
To do so, each actor had to learn how to drive an F2 car, which is the category directly below F1. A modified version of the Carlin team's Formula 2 entry, complete with a unique livery and actual sponsors like IWC and Tommy Hilfiger, received custom bodywork that visually matched a modern F1 car. Pitt and Idris first joined the grid at the 2023 British GP and participated in the race's formation lap in their camera-equipped F2 cars before peeling into the pit lane before lights out. The two also drove the cars just inches apart from one another between that weekend's race sessions for additional filming.
All of this effort and accommodation is to help sell the story that Hayes and Pearce participated in a real season of the sport. The real-world drivers of the '23 and '24 seasons will be part of the film as rivals to the two actors and the Apex GP team. They'll walk around in the back of shots during interviews, just as Pitt and Idris did to them during the real-world broadcast. Even seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is listed as a producer to provide his unmatched expertise.
What is the F1 Film About?
It's unusual for a movie's filming to be as public as the F1 film's recording schedule has been. Of course, many unknown scenes on soundstages will drive the plot forward, but the strive for realism has meant the race weekend shooting had to happen in the real world.
With hundreds of thousands of fans attending races and a broadcast to millions, there was no hiding Hayes and Pearce. As such, we know that the two Apex GP drivers inhabit the same paddock as Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and everyone else, complete with signage, branding, race suits, and a pit garage.
Hayes' return from retirement to help Ruben's Apex GP while simultaneously supporting Pearce will demonstrate how unusual the motorsport team dynamic is to a wide audience. Although each F1 team has two drivers and the two are teammates, they are also the first person the other wants to beat. Trailer footage shows the two colliding on track at Silverstone, clashing in person, brushing the wall at another circuit, and an angry Pearce in the pit lane. Might this suggest there's not much harmony at Apex?
It doesn't seem that the team is a world-beating outfit, with the suggestion that Hayes' return is to help them regain speed. Yet they don't seem to be backmarkers if we use the sport's rules for guidance. The Apex GP pit garage wasn't at either extremity of the Silverstone pit lane during filming in 2023. Instead, it sat between Ferrari and Mercedes, two of the sport's long-term 'big' teams. The real pit lane order is set by where constructors finished the previous season, hinting that Apex GP are podium contenders if the same rules apply.
Ferrari and Mercedes get namechecked, too, along with Red Bull, Aston Martin, and McLaren at the start of 2024's teaser trailer. The five constructors are faster in the straights, says Hayes, who then requests more cornering speed to beat them in the turns. "Who said anything about safe?" he asks actor Kerry Condon's character, who questions how she'd do that. It's unclear who Condon plays, but the character looks intimate with Hayes. The Superbowl trailer shows the two partially clothed and embracing — something prying smartphone footage couldn't have picked up!
What Else We Know About the F1 Movie
Other shots show Hayes and Apex racing at Las Vegas, Monza, the Hungaroring, Abu Dhabi, and some superb shots heading to Spa-Francorchamps' Raidillion-Eau Rouge sequence. Leclerc and George Russell also shared the podium with Hayes in Vegas, as witnessed by attending fans, further reinforcing the idea that Apex GP are more frontrunners than backmarkers. Of course, that result could be a one-off or rare occurrence, but there's some success in Hayes' racing return at some point.
We also can make an educated guess that Hayes left for his American homeland during his time away from F1. Shots in the trailer of a fiery crash, not too dissimilar to Romain Grosjean's scary Bahrain incident, could indicate what necessitated that break. But Pitt filming at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in a Porsche 911 probably isn't part of Hayes having a fun day out. It's possible that the character kept racing in his life after his injury, but not in single-seater machinery.
How all these parts come together is something audiences will need to wait until summer to find out. The June 25th release date for international audiences has the movie slotting in just before the Austrian GP. American and Canadian fans will need to wait a little longer, until June 27th, for their chance to see how Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce fare in their F1 debut on the big screen.
