F1 OCTANE

PITT DROPS HIGH OCTANE SPORTS PERFORMANCE

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Director Joseph Kosinski brings together the movie tools for a high octane cinematic experience for racing enthusiasts.

F1: The Movie (2025) as seen in an IMAX theatre is the latest in a series of big splash blockbuster films intended to provide entertainment by invoking emotive responses rather than delivering a message embedded in a story.

Kosinski gets the adrenaline flowing immediately with popular rock and roll songs pressing through the IMAX sound system. The camera work moving from racing shots of the cars on the raceway to racing shots of the individual drivers inside the race cars maintains visual interests underneath the pulsing audio.

Brad Pitt stars as former Formula 1 driver, Sonny Hayes, who retired during another era after a bone crushing racing accident.

Damson Idris costars as Formula 1 race driver, Joshua Pearce, who finds himself in competition with the late addition to the team.

The plot centers around the newly constructed racing team still struggling in last place with the poor performance of the team cars. Kosinski uses this scenario as a narrative device to drive the characters together or in oppositions to the dominating power of the machines in the sport, such as the race cars, but also the tools used by the pit stop crews, and the testing and manufacturing of the vehicles that goes on between races.

Javier Bardem plays Ruben Cervantes, the owner of the team, who must find something special with the team facing permanent elimination if they do not have at least one win during the racing season. Ruben raced with Sonny back in the day, and as such, searches out his old friend as the answer to all his corporate problems.

Pitt plays Sonny as a person still with a lot of self esteem and confidence in his ability to compete in the sport, but who has fallen off the grid in terms of lifestyle and career expectations. Kosinski’s camera finds Sonny living out of his van and periodically taking on temporary racing assignments to improve his finances.

Ruben’s pitch is initially unsuccessful, but when Sonny has a weekend to think about the offer, he spontaneously appears at the track to join the team.

Damson Idris’ character is in the number one driver spot on the team, and so he is not too happy by a more experienced driver in his face to take all the benefits the position offers.

Sonny does not like what he finds, and moves toward mentoring the entire crew.

Sonny befriends the design team leader, Kate McKenna, who is the first women to have the job in Formula 1. Kerry Condon plays Kate as apprehensive about the meeting with the new driver, but she is experienced enough on a design team surrounded by alpha males to deal with whatever is put to her, especially because she knows she is in charge and gets the final say in any decisions.

The narrative follows this plot line but gets twisted and turned not just on the circuit but with the various relationships that develop.

The film runtime of 2h 35 minutes is long enough, but the plot goes by quickly with all the high octane emotive devices thrown on screen.

Pitt creates a slightly different screen character for this performance of a race car driver who has been given a second chance later in life by an old friend. Cervantes has taken a chance by calling him up from the laundromat to race Formula 1, but he stands behind his decision eventhough everyone else protests a bit.

The relationships are formed out of poignant moments of trust, betrayal and redemption, and share the screen in parallel with the driving circuit.

The film falls short a bit though with the unreal driving scenes, and which remain unbelievable even after becoming vested in the character. The story of the drivers seems based on true facts, but then embellished just a bit too much to create a storyline worthy of a Hollywood marque.

F1: The Movie departs from other films in the genre as a result, such as Grand Prix (1966) starring James Garner, or Le Mans (1971), starring Steve McQueen, or even Ford v. Ferrari (2019) starring Matt Damon.

F1: The Movie is an Apple Original Films currently in theatres.