Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the Brad Pitt-starring film F1, has said reports the production budget has swelled to $300 million are “out of whack.”
Production of F1 began in 2023 with the fictional APXGP Formula 1 team turning up at several Grands Prix with its own hospitality, pit garage and cars.
Amid a Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike, production was delayed and reports emerged that the production budget had grown to a massive $300 million, a price tag in the upper echelons of Hollywood finances, usually reserved for superhero extravaganzas.
Bruckheimer and F1 Director Joseph Kosinski dismissed these claims, claiming the budget comes well below the $300 million mark.
“It’s completely, unfortunately, tens of millions of dollars out of whack in the wrong direction, and in the right direction for us,” Bruckheimer told Deadline.
“What people don’t realize is, first of all, we’re shooting in rebate [locations], England has a big rebate, lots of Europe has rebates and so does Abu Dhabi. It all lowers the budget.
“Plus, we’ve raised more money for our car [through sponsorship] than some Formula 1 teams. You take that all into consideration and it really drops that number quite a bit lower than what people would think.”
Kosinski, who directed the Oscar-winning Top Gun: Maverick, added “I’m just going to say I’m used, on a lot of the movies I’ve worked on, to having them over-reported for whatever reason, but I’ve never had an experience where they were off by this much on a film. I’m not sure where that number came from.”
Bruckheimer also dismissed the notion that the strikes led to reshoots, saying “We never re-shot anything, nothing whatsoever. It’s a misnomer, a rumor that got spread.
“No, once the strike happened, we just focused on the cars, and focused on the driving [with the stunt drivers, not the actors].
“We made a smaller unit, cut down our staff and everything to save money. And then we just carried on to all the different tracks. We basically finished all the second unit stuff.”
The F1 production team was on site at Silverstone during last weekend’s British Grand Prix, embedded in the paddock filming during one of the busiest weekends of the Formula 1 season.
Stars Pitt and Damson Idris walked through the paddock, joined the 20 Formula 1 drivers on the grid and even shot scenes in the media pen after sessions, becoming compelety entwined within the F1 circus.
Production has already gotten accustomed to filming under this pressure from last year and will continue to be present this season at multiple rounds.
Kosinski described the pressures of shooting scenes in a Formula 1 environment.
“Last year, at Silverstone, we had a scene we shot on the grid,” Kosinski began.
“I think we had something like nine minutes to shoot a one, or one-and-a-half-page dialogue scene with three actors.
“It’s like a pitstop. It really brings an intensity and everyone’s leaning forward in a way that maybe you wouldn’t on a normal shoot day on a soundstage, where you’ve got 10 hours to get right.
“Now, when you’ve got nine minutes, with all the actors you can just see the adrenaline going beforehand and you feel that in the performances.”
The teaser trailer for F1 was broadcast internationally last Sunday in the build up to the British Grand Prix, ahead of its international cinema release on June 25, 2025.
Distributed internationally by Warner Bros, F1 is an Apple Original Film that also stars Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies, Sarah Niles, Kim Bodnia and Samson Kayo.
