Director: Joseph Kosinski

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem 

Star rating: 3/5 (though I could honestly go lower!)

SPOILER WARNING: THERE ARE DETAILS OF THE PLOT FROM THE SECOND PARAGRAPH ONWARDS!

I was extremely excited when it was announced that Sir Lewis Hamilton would be working with Apple, Joseph Kosinski, and Jerry Bruckheimer on a film that takes place in the world of Formula 1. We’ve seen it done well before (my favourite F1 film is Rush!) so I had very high hopes that this would be the perfect summer blockbuster for F1 fans. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is.

The film is about fictional race car driver, Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt). We start in Daytona at the 24 hour race, Hayes and his team win and he is scouted by his ex F1 teammate who he last worked with 30 years ago. Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) now owns a failing F1 team, APX GP, they need a second driver for the final 9 races of the season because if they don’t get a single point then they will have to sell the team. Hayes attends a testing day at Silverstone, he gets in the car, spins on his first lap, and crashes into the wall soon after. The team is already in debt and repairs on F1 cars aren’t cheap, yet shockingly, he gets the seat. We see Hayes and Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) clash on many occasions as the drivers fight to get points. Hayes makes questionable strategic calls throughout, he stays in the pit box after a tyre change because the team didn’t put on the tyres he wanted to have on, he forcibly crashes into multiple drivers over a couple different races, he even calls over the radio giving strategy advice to his race engineer to pass on to Pearces race engineer as if he is the teams strategist. Let me remind you he’s not been in an F1 car for 30 years. By the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi, Hayes is out of a job. Somehow he still ends up racing for the team despite not being in the car for practice and qualifying sessions, something that would literally never happen in real life. He wins the race then leaves the sport once more, we see him in the epilogue scene racing on sand dunes. Hayes says he does it all for the love of racing but I have never seen a racer who loves racing make the calls that Hayes did which, in real life, would have ended with penalty points or even disqualifications. 

It was a hard watch for an F1 fan, it’s shocking that they spent so long working with people in the sport like Hamilton, Ruth Buscombe (former race strategist for Scuderia Ferrari, former strategy engineer for Haas F1 Team, and former head of race strategy for Sauber), and Stefano Domenicali (President and CEO of Formula One Group) and still the film ends up feeling like no research was done at all. The film seems to take place in an alternate universe where the FIA and its (sometimes absurd) rules don’t exist. It’s also hard to watch how women are portrayed in the sport, a member of the pit crew, Jodie (Callie Cooke) leaves a wheel gun that wasn’t working right where the wheel would drive over it, she’s portrayed as clueless in the beginning but competent by the end. Would they ever have done that storyline with a man? The technical director of the team, Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), takes both drivers out in Las Vegas one night and says to Hayes that she doesn’t mess around during the season and definitely not with anyone at the team. In the next scene we are led to believe that they sleep together. I can’t even explain to you how disappointing that was. Cervantes even tells McKenna to stay away from Hayes because he knows he’ll flirt with her. She also only makes the car better once Hayes tells her what to do. We’re supposed to believe that McKenna, who is allegedly one of the best in the sport, needed the help of a washed up old driver who was last in the sport 30 years ago to make a good car? It gets to a point guys.

It would be hard not to praise the cast in this film, they did the best with what they were given and they were all good! The standout for me was Damson Idris, he played a perfect F1 rookie driver. I really look forward to seeing what he does next. Unfortunately for this cast, Brad Pitt leads the film. You could say that he’s the perfect Sonny Hayes, he’s egotistical, does what he wants, and I want to call him words that I refuse to say. If you have been living under a rock you might not know that Brad Pitt has abused his ex wife, Angelina Jolie, and their children. I was so disappointed when it was revealed that he was the lead actor. They say abuse allegations ruin the lives of men but this one is playing a fictional F1 driver in one of the most anticipated films of the year. Makes sense. If they wanted a good actor and decent man to play an older race car driver they could’ve cast Patrick Dempsey, who is a good actor AND a good race car driver. 

It was a great idea to have actual drivers, F1 journalists, and David Croft and Martin Brundle to feature in the film. My only complaint about it is as they are not actors everything any of them said felt forced and too scripted, especially the commentary. It could just be because usually when watching a race the commentary is consistent and they talk about everything happening on track but we only heard small parts about how APX GP were doing. I also think having the drivers and co in the film made it harder to watch as an F1 fan, especially knowing what actually happened during the season, it took me out of the story in places but I understand why they had them there and I liked the concept.

The racing was filmed well but was frankly a bit boring. Actual F1 races can be pretty dramatic but the races felt quite basic here. I loved the helmet cam footage though, it felt like you were in with the action, like you were in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car. I imagine it would be fantastic to watch in an IMAX cinema or in 4DX. I also really loved that they filmed at actual races, I’m not sure anything like that has ever been done before. They had the APX GP cars do the formation laps but had cameras on different F1 cars during actual race sessions and then used CGI to change the car into the APX GP one. I would love to see a behind the scenes featurette that shows the work that went into filming at the races. 

Visually I had hoped for more aesthetically pleasing shots of the racing and the surroundings, a lot of the film felt a bit flat for me in that respect, I know F1 may not sound like a very pretty sport but there are some shots I’ve seen at races that would disagree with that. I felt the lighting was off for most of it too, it was either too cold or too warm throughout leading people to look yellow or blue. I noticed it multiple times and it might have been a conscious choice but it wasn’t for me. The score and soundtrack were great, it’s hard not to have a good score when Hans Zimmer is in charge. 

F1 The Movie is a fine film but that’s all it is, especially if you enjoy the sport. Personally I’m not sure I can recommend it, there were some good parts but mostly it was just a bit of a mess. Sports films are 100% better when it’s a true story with a sprinkle of fiction. The fictional story with a sprinkle of truth, at least in this instance, just doesn’t work. We were promised the most realistic sports movie and they didn’t deliver. I now understand why all the drivers have spoken as they have in interviews about the film.

It’s also important to say that platforming an abuser like this is absurd, plus McLaren letting Brad Pitt drive the MCL60 this week is so disappointing. I expect better from my team and the sport overall. 

A note to Simone Ashley: I’m almost glad they cut you out of this mess, I hope you got paid more than you deserve girl.