Last week, Motorsport Week was afforded the privilege of getting an exclusive look at ‘F1: The Movie’, a film which encapsulates the drama of the world’s leading motorsport competition, adapted for the silver screen.
CONTAINS SPOILERS
F1: The Movie has been in our faces for the last two years. It has not been an underground project kept secret, taking us all by surprise. Quite the contrary.
The film and its production has been in full view of the F1 community and fans both in the grandstands or at home, for its filming has taken place, quite literally, on the real grid.
Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, in their respective roles as Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce, drivers for the fictional APXGP team, were lining up as the unofficial 11th team on the grid since the British Grand Prix in 2023.
You will have also seen Pitt wandering around the background of the media pen in character, fully clad in overalls. At times, it has felt like distracting cosplay which has been overshadowing the real racing and drama.
But with the film now out, there is a definitely a feel that it was, perhaps after all, all worth it.
Not a film for the anoraks: F1: The Movie has been made to attract new fans
The film centres around Pitt’s Hayes character, a jobbing racing driver who had previously been a rising start in F1 before a horrific accident curtailed his career.
APXGP’s owner, played by Javier Bardem, is an old friend of Hayes and convinces him to make a shocking return to F1, after a 30-year hiatus.
And once Hayes is able to show his worth in the car, his speed and outspoken personality is a threat to Pearce, a promising rookie.
Like all great Hollywood sports classics, F1 is chock-full of training-themed montages, something straight out of the Rocky films. It’s also awash with a great deal of product placement for F1’s big sponsors [I lost count at the amount of times Pearce drank a Heineken Zero!], but these were purely cosmetic observations.
For an F1 nerd with an overbearing sense of detail, I was irked by use of historic commentary and how Sonny’s crash appears to take place at two different circuits, but if you are a diehard F1 fan and feel the need to vent at these innacuracies, bear one thing in mind: this film has clearly been made, for the large part, to appeal to potential new fans.
Sky F1’s David Croft and Martin Brundle appear visually and audibly in the film a lot, and their commentary dialogue is totally unrealistic, but again, the idiot-proof explanation of pitstops, DRS and other intricacies are there to draw in a non-endemic fan.
Cinematograpy is second to none
Cinematically, the film is a spectacular masterpiece, and director Joseph Kisinsky obviously drew inspiration from John Frankenheimer’s 1966 classic ‘Grand Prix’. A film ahead of its time, a lot of close-up onboard shots were used, with many of the films leading men, including James Garner, were really driving the cars used, after a period of tuition.
Despite being, as previously stated, a film for the newcomer fans, there is one hidden moment for the anoraks: the scene in which Pitt runs the old Monza banking is a nod to Grand Prix, the film’s climax taking place upon it.
This was also the case for Pitt and Idris, and it adds to the film’s authenticity in these moments, as does one of the key themes in the film: female empowerment.
Kerry Condon plays Kate, APXGP’s female technical director, and much of her segments in the film, and its realism, was down to the input of strategic gurus-turned TV pundits Bernie Collins and Ruth Buscombe.
Of course, as it’s Brad Pitt involved, there is going to be a form of love interest between the two characters, that helps segue some of the film away from full-on F1-themed action to a human element outside of racing.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the films producers, and his influence is striking, as his advice was key in ensuring much of the racing scenes were as accurate as possible, even down to the gear changes made in corners.
Many of the drivers that watched the film for the first time at a screening before the Monaco Grand Prix noted its realism in the racing scenes, and for the most part, they are right, but some moments in which cars collide or crash spectacularly seem slightly beyond the realms of reality, but creative licence is always surely going to be used when it comes to a film of this ilk?
A harmless and fun way to spend nearly three hours
And like all films of this kind, it has many sprinklings of silliness, most of which are comprised of the cameos made by many of F1’s most noticeable figures, including Guenther Steiner, who uses a trademark F-bomb to secure his moment as the funniest of the movie, as well as Hamilton’s dog Roscoe.
A silly concept in itself is the idea a man of around 60 years old [Pitt’s age at the time of the film] could play a current F1 driver, even one admittedly as youthful in appearance as Pitt.
Not only that, but someone who was able to secure a place in F1 after 30 years without even a mention of superlicence dispensation was a little baffling, but advanced details like this were never, quite literally, in the picture.
How is it best to sum up ‘F1’? It’s a light-hearted, action-packed romp which effectively does what it promised: deliver action and excitement, and makes two and a half hours go by very quickly, which is surely the best indication that, whilst not a classic, it is a fine cinematic piece, and managed to convey F1 with less fake drama than Drive To Survive. A solid 7.5/10.
