"A middle-aged, could-have-been champion driver joins a struggling Formula 1 team as a last-chance effort to race to victory and save the day."
If this were a story cut from the real world, we’d be seeing a return to the grid for Martin Brundle or David Coulthard, or perhaps following the outcome of last week’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, maybe Robert Kubica would find himself in the seat…
A heartwarming, somewhat romantic and genuine underdog journey, sure, but not one that is connected to the real-world complexities of competitive top-tier motorsport.
With that in mind, true motorsport anoraks, Formula 1 hyperfans and racing accuracy pundits should retire their brains to parc ferme, grab the popcorn, and relax, as Hollywood has the keys now, and life doesn’t always need to be so serious.
The has-been to hero journey is the pitch of the new $300m ($AUD462m) Hollywood blockbuster, F1, that sees big names like Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Joseph Kosinski (director), Jerry Bruckheimer and Lewis Hamilton (producers) join forces for an unprecedented level of immersion within the word’s premiere motorsport category.
Yes, the film asks a reasonable amount of liberty be taken by audiences as you meet racer Sonny Hayes (played by 61-year-old Brad Pitt), who is coaxed back into Formula 1 by his old friend and bottom-rung team owner, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), in order to mentor a young rookie driver (Damson Idris) and save the team from being sold.
The story leaps from Hayes casually claiming victory in the Daytona 24 Hours (in a Porsche 911 GT3 R) to sliding behind the wheel of an F1 car (for the first time in 30 years) at Silverstone and opens the door into a world of tyre strategies, teamwork, and board disagreements.
Will our rugged and handsome wheelman bring the team together, win the heart of the first-ever female engineering director, take the trophy, save the day and generate significant revenue for all of the overtly placed sponsors? Of course he will!
So strap on the OMP race boots, don the Tommy Hilfiger jacket, process your receipts with Expensify before you sort out a stylish IWC watch and jump in the Mercedes-Benz, because the F1 movie is in pole position to bring a whole new audience to the world of Formula 1.
Just remember it’s a movie, and you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more.
This sees Hayes (Pitt) and JP (Idris) on the grid with real drivers and real teams at real circuits on the F1 calendar. The production famously worked within the on-track schedule of a number of F1 events to secure the most realistic imagery possible. Hell, the film even uses the official F1 logo as its own.
There are cameos, walk-ons, and interactions with the real-life F1 stars, melded with some fun Hollywood hat-tips, like a Days of Thunder quote and Rocky IV style training montage.
There’s plenty of movie magic and storytelling at play; the APX F1 car is actually an F2 racer dressed up, and Bardem’s fictional APXGP team is based at the real-life McLaren Technology Centre in Woking.
The plot shoehorns in some FIA drama, a romance, and the tried-and-tested 'perhaps the grizzly old hero can teach the young upstart a few tricks' narrative device, almost as if Kosinski took Maverick’s character from Top Gun and hit ‘Save As’.
For all its ‘that would never happen’ flaws, though, F1 does a solid job of showing how a two-car team strategy can work within a race, and how so much of what happens on the circuit is planned and strategised by headphone-wearing teammates using endless data points both before, during and after the race.
Is it a documentary? No. Is it an Oscar-bait biopic? No. Is it accurate? Look – it’s fun, the racing vision is impressive, but in the same way that director Kosinski ignored a few technical points of aviation and warfare in Top Gun: Maverick, the same has been done here to keep the story moving in a broadly entertaining way.
You feel like you are on board and behind the wheel with Pitt, in the same way Tom Cruise really seemed to be flying that FA-18. The racing scenes are good, but I personally felt the audio could have been taken up a notch to really create a sensory extravaganza.
You get popular needle drops (there’s a soundtrack album available), close-ups of Pitt’s custom IWC Ingenieur wristwatch (there’s a limited-edition ‘Sonny’ timepiece available), a largely unnecessary Mercedes-AMG GT feature scene (there’s an APXGP Edition livery option available – but not for Aus'), and plenty of other branded tie-ins… just like you do in the real world of F1.
And really, if you go into a film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer expecting anything more than a good time, that’s kind of on you.
In all, F1: The Movie is a fun story with some great visuals and plenty to entertain the whole family, regardless of where your level of Formula 1 knowledge sits. See it to be entertained, but if you want real drama and real detail, you can always just watch the real thing!
With over 20 years of experience in digital publishing, James Ward has worked within the automotive landscape since 2007 and brings experience from the publishing, manufacturer and lifestyle side of the industry together to spearhead Drive's multi-media content direction.
