In F1 (marketed as F1: The Movie), director Joseph Kosinski trades fighter jets for Formula One race cars and brings along the visual velocity of Top Gun: Maverick. Armed with the charisma of Brad Pitt, the film is cinematic adrenaline—immaculately shot, ear-splittingly loud, and emotionally serviceable, if not especially deep.
Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a former F1 prodigy who burned out in the ’90s after a brutal crash. Three decades later, he’s racing in obscurity, ferrying himself from gig to gig in a beat-up camper van, carrying the scars of failure and fame. But redemption comes knocking when old teammate-turned-team-owner Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) pulls him back into the sport to mentor a hot-headed rookie, Joshua Pearce (played with fiery swagger by Damson Idris).
What follows is a sports movie painted by numbers—mentor versus prodigy, rivalry to bromance, one last shot at glory. We’ve seen the trajectory in Rush, Ford v Ferrari, even Days of Thunder. But rarely has it been executed with this level of immersive, on-location authenticity.
Visceral, Loud, and Gorgeous — The Kosinski Touch
Kosinski stages the racing scenes with stunning realism. Filmed during actual Formula One races, with access to pit lanes, real crowds, and cameos from Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Fernando Alonso, F1 shatters the CGI sheen most racing films carry. Claudio Miranda’s cinematography brings you into the cockpit—sweat, smoke, screaming tires, and all.
The action is kinetic but never chaotic. When the camera holds for just a second longer than usual, you feel the risk, the speed, the razor-edge dance between control and chaos. Hans Zimmer’s pulsating score intensifies the mood without overwhelming it, lifting key moments with synth-heavy bravado.
Pitt & Idris: A Classic Clash of Eras
Brad Pitt embodies Sonny Hayes with that signature blend of aged arrogance and effortless cool. He isn’t here to chase trophies—he races for the rush. Pitt plays Hayes with enough emotional restraint to keep things believable, but enough charm to light up the screen.
Damson Idris as Joshua Pearce is the perfect foil. He’s loud, brash, obsessed with performance stats and social media likes. Their hot-and-cold dynamic is a film-long duel—one foot in the old-school ethos of racing for passion, the other in a modern world obsessed with performance metrics.
Kerry Condon as APXGP’s technical director Kate McKenna deserves better, though. She begins with promise as a woman in power in the male-dominated F1 circuit, but her arc eventually succumbs to romantic subplot territory. Callie Cooke’s character, a bumbling female mechanic, offers some comic relief but feels frustratingly reductive in a film that could’ve been a little more progressive.
The Thrill is Real, But the Formula is Familiar
The plot is comfortable. Very comfortable. Ehren Kruger’s screenplay ticks all the boxes of a traditional underdog sports movie. You know every turn, every emotional beat, every inevitable pep talk before it happens.
Yes, the film leans hard on its spectacle and tech—a turbocharged showreel of what happens when Hollywood’s best cameramen shoot real races with real cars on real tracks. But narrative-wise, F1 barely pushes past the pit lane. The emotional stakes are muted, the dialogue occasionally dips into motivational Instagram caption territory (“Sometimes when you lose, you win”—really?).
The final race, while gorgeously mounted, plays out exactly how you’d expect. Still, knowing the finish line doesn’t stop the film from delivering high-octane tension in its final stretch.
A Glorious Engine That Doesn’t Fully Fire
The best parts of F1—its realism, its star power, and its technical precision—make it an irresistible watch on the big screen. Pitt and Idris give the film soul, while Bardem adds his usual flourish of unhinged charisma. The IMAX scale, Zimmer’s score, and the race-day immersion make it an event.
But you can’t help but wish it had dug deeper—into the politics of F1, the brutal pressure of modern sports, the underbelly of sponsorship, or the psychological toll of competition. Instead, it settles for the adrenaline and gloss.
Still, for what it aims to be—a glossy, entertaining blockbuster—F1 delivers. It’s not Rush or Ford v Ferrari, but it doesn’t need to be. Sometimes, going really fast and looking really good doing it is enough.
F1 is a thrilling ride—visually spectacular, immersive, and anchored by Brad Pitt’s magnetic performance. It leans a little too heavily on formulaic storytelling and undercooks its emotional layers, but its technical brilliance, charismatic cast, and commitment to realism make it a worthy addition to the sports drama genre.
A crowd-pleasing summer blockbuster that looks and sounds magnificent, even if its story stalls in familiar territory.
CINEMA SPICE RATING: ★★★½ (3.5/ 5)
