F1 (film)

F1 (marketed as F1 the Movie ) is a 2025 American sports drama film directed by Joseph Kosinski from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger . The film stars Brad Pitt as Formula One (F1) racing driver Sonny Hayes, who returns after a 30-year absence to save his former teammate's underdog team, APXGP, from collapse. Damson Idris , Kerry Condon , Tobias Menzies , and Javier Bardem also star in supporting roles.

Aging American racing driver and former Formula One (F1) prodigy Sonny Hayes lives nomadically as a racer-for-hire. Although he raced for Lotus in the 1990s, severe injuries from a crash at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1993 ended his F1 career. [ c ] He subsequently became a gambling addict and lost three marriages. After winning the 24 Hours of Daytona , [ d ] his former Lotus teammate Rubén Cervantes, who owns the APXGP F1 Team, offers him a test drive to fill their spare seat . Rubén discloses t...

At the Silverstone test, Sonny meets team principal Kaspar Smolinski, technical director Kate McKenna, and ambitious British rookie Joshua Pearce, who reveal seven drivers turned down the opportunity. Joshua remains arrogant, yet worries the potential sale will result in his replacement, believing he must trounce his teammates to impress the investors. During his test, Sonny struggles with modern F1 machinery but immediately identifies APXGP's weaknesses. He pushes the limit and crashes, but Kas...

Sonny returns at the British Grand Prix , where slow pit stops demote the APXGP drivers to last after a promising start. Sonny ignores team orders to let Joshua by and they collide. In Hungary , Sonny mends his relationship with Joshua by exploiting F1 rules : by colliding with other drivers to force safety cars , he helps Joshua catch the midfield and score APXGP's maiden points finish . [ e ] Joshua adopts Sonny's old-school training methods, while Sonny emulates his simulator work and persuad...

In his comeback race—the Belgian Grand Prix —Joshua's aggressive driving causes a collision with Sonny, forcing him out of the race. Kate arranges a poker game where the winner gets favorable treatment at the Las Vegas Grand Prix . Joshua wins but, after he leaves, Sonny reveals he intentionally folded with a winning hand . Impressed, Kate invites Sonny to her hotel room and they spend the night together. Rubén interrupts them to announce an anonymous tip claimed Kate manufactured upgrades illeg...

Before the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix , Joshua commits to being more disciplined, admitting his crash was not Sonny's fault. Sonny persuades Rubén into letting him race and declines Peter's offer. The FIA exonerates Kate, allowing APXGP to restore her upgrades. During the race, Joshua takes the lead by remaining on worn tires , but is overtaken by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc ; an opportune red flag is shown after a struggling Sonny, in fourth, collides with George Russell , allowi...

The film is based on the 2023 Formula One season and was filmed during both the 2023 and 2024 seasons. [ 13 ] As a result, many Formula One drivers and personnel appear in the film as themselves. The drivers are as follows, with the teams and achievements they had at the time: [ 14 ] [ 15 ]

Formula One personnel that appear in the film include:

Sky Sports F1 commentators Martin Brundle and David Croft provide commentary for races depicted in the film. [ 16 ] Leigh Diffey provides commentary for the 24 Hours of Daytona scene. [ 17 ] Cameo appearances include Porsche factory driver Patrick Long as Sonny's other co-driver at the 24 Hours of Daytona race, [ 18 ] motorsport presenters Rachel Brookes, Natalie Pinkham , and Will Buxton , [ 19 ] Dutch DJ Tiësto [ 20 ] and social media influencer Sabrina Bahsoon . [ 21 ]

On December 3, 2021, a bidding war commenced for an untitled film starring Brad Pitt , with producer Jerry Bruckheimer , director Joseph Kosinski , and screenwriter Ehren Kruger , who previously worked on Top Gun: Maverick (2022), on board in their respective roles. Sources said F1 driver Lewis Hamilton was also involved in the film as both a producer and actor. Studios involved in the bidding were Paramount Pictures , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Sony Pictures , Universal Pictures , and Walt Disney Pi...

In November 2022, Claudio Miranda announced he would be the film's cinematographer. [ 24 ] In April 2023, Damson Idris was hired after a lengthy casting process, which included a shortlist of actors driving the car in January 2023. [ 25 ] Kerry Condon and Tobias Menzies would join the cast in the following months. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] Sarah Niles and Simone Ashley also joined the cast. [ 28 ] [ 10 ] However, in June 2025, Kosinski revealed that Ashley's role had been cut from the film. [ 11 ]

On July 5, 2024, the title F1 was announced. A teaser trailer premiered before the 2024 British Grand Prix . [ 29 ] Kruger received sole credit for the film's screenplay, along with story credit with Kosinski. Jez Butterworth , Kara Smith, Aaron Sorkin , and Christopher Storer earned off-screen "Additional Literary Material" credit. [ 30 ]

In May 2024, Puck ' s Matthew Belloni reported the film's budget to be $300 million. [ 31 ] Bruckheimer and Kosinski disputed the claim; the former cited rebates and sponsorships as lowering the budget, and the latter said: "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." [ 32 ] In 2025, ahead of the film's theatrical release, some industry sources reported the film's budget to be $200 million, though others still claimed the $3...

In July 2023, principal photography began at the Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom, including filming during the British Grand Prix weekend between July 7–9, [ 39 ] outside of the official F1 sessions. [ 40 ] [ 41 ] [ 42 ] The APXGP team had its own garage and motorhome during the weekend and their car was kept on display alongside other F1 cars during the mandatory "show and tell" session before the track action. [ 43 ] [ 44 ] Pitt was present with the actual drivers at the drivers' bri...

Apple designed a custom onboard camera for the car based on iPhone and powered by its A-series system on a chip . [ 46 ] The camera technology used for the fast-paced shots had evolved since Top Gun: Maverick . [ 47 ] [ 48 ] With help from Sony , [ 37 ] the cameras were shrunk to about a quarter of the size of those from Maverick such that up to four cameras could be set up onto the cars at a time, with minimal effect to weight. [ 48 ] The camera bodies and RF transmitters were stashed in the fl...

Speaking with former F1 driver and Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle at the 2023 British Grand Prix, Pitt confirmed Javier Bardem would star. [ 53 ] Later that month, ESPN reported that the film was titled Apex , but later retracted this claim. [ 54 ]

During the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix , Hans Zimmer announced he would be composing the score for the film, marking his second collaboration with Kosinski after Top Gun: Maverick . It is also Zimmer's second Formula One-related score, following the Ron Howard -directed film Rush (2013). Zimmer co-composed the score with Steve Mazzaro, creating what Kosinski described as a musical identity that reflects Formula One's dual nature, "a sport that straddles both the past and the present, with its rich ...

The score features guitarist Tim Henson , drummer Marco Minnemann and members of Zimmer's touring band. This marks Zimmer's 13th collaboration with Bruckheimer, beginning with Days of Thunder (1990). [ 57 ] Central to the score is a recurring motif for Pitt's character, Sonny Hayes, which Zimmer described as a "gunslinger motif." [ 57 ] Zimmer and Mazzaro paid attention to the way the score interacts with the film's sound design and visuals.

Sponsorships from various brands featured in the film brought in at least $40 million, according to Forbes estimates. [ 70 ] Many of the brands were featured on the APXGP cars and clothing as team sponsors, such as Expensify , GEICO , SharkNinja , MSC Cruises and EA Sports . [ 70 ] Other sponsors that featured on the cars such as IWC Schaffhausen released watches themed on APXGP's black and gold colors, Tommy Hilfiger launched a line of clothing, and Mercedes-AMG revealed a limited APXGP-edition...

At the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans , the #90 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R ran a livery similar to the one used for filming at the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona . [ 75 ] At the 2025 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen the following weekend, the same #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R used for filming in 2024 ran the race with the livery from the film. [ 76 ] The drivers, crew and IMSA personnel were also given a private screening. [ 76 ]

In June 2022, Apple acquired distribution rights in a package deal worth $130–140 million before above-the-line compensation . [ 79 ] In June 2024, Warner Bros. Pictures acquired the theatrical, home entertainment and digital purchase distribution rights from Apple; Apple retains SVOD rights and the film will become available on Apple TV+ at a later date. [ 80 ] The film had an early IMAX screening on June 23, 2025. [ 81 ] The film was released in the IMAX format internationally on June 25, 2025...

As of August 3, 2025 [update] , F1 has grossed $173.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $372.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $545.6 million. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Opening to $146.3 million worldwide, [ 5 ] the film is considered to be Apple Studios 's first box office hit, and the first film from the studio to top the box office on its opening weekend. [ 89 ] It surpassed $200 million in its second weekend. [ 90 ] In early August, it became the highest-grossing Brad Pit...

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 83% of 344 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Driven by Brad Pitt's laidback magnetism and sporting a souped-up engine courtesy of Joseph Kosinski's kinetic direction, F1 the Movie brings vintage cool across the finish line." [ 99 ] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 56 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [ 100 ] Audiences polled by CinemaSc...

BBC 's Nicholas Barber gave the film two stars out of five and wrote: "Formula One enthusiasts may disagree, and they may be delighted that their beloved motorsport has been put on the big screen in such a laudatory fashion. Everyone else: this is not where you want to be." [ 101 ] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times deemed F1 to be "an enjoyably arranged collection of all the visual attractions and narrative clichés that money can buy". [ 102 ]

Katy Fairman of Motor Sport described the film as "comedically unrealistic", adding that "with the level of access they had into [F1] itself, it felt a little like [APXGP] before Sonny Hayes showed up: pointless". [ 107 ] Mixed reviews also came from journalists at The Race , with praise for the racing sequences and further criticism for its depiction of women in motorsport and plot. [ 108 ] Top Gear 's Jason Barlow described it as "a crowd-pleasing, feel-good blockbuster". [ 109 ] Chris Medland...

Defending four-time World Drivers' Champion Max Verstappen skipped the private screening for F1 drivers and the New York premiere, and Carlos Sainz Jr. cautioned "pure F1 fans" to "be open-minded to Hollywood films". [ 111 ]