'F1 'ending explained: Does Sonny Hayes finally win a Formula One race (and is a sequel in the works)?

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01-07-2025

F1 stars Brad Pitt as a washed-up Formula One driver who gets another shot at glory when asked to help an old friend's struggling team.
The sports drama builds to a thrilling and heartfelt ending filled with burnt rubber and practical stunts.
Director Joseph Kosinski said he has plans for a sequel.The summer blockbuster season has officially arrived, and director Joseph Kosinski's F1 is off to the races.
Starring Oscar winner Brad Pitt, the adrenaline-fueled thrill ride follows Sonny Hayes, a once-promising Formula One driver whose career was cut short due to a serious crash three decades earlier.
When his friend and old teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) asks him to help save the struggling APXGP team, Sonny, now living out of a beat-up van and racing wherever he can, decides to take one last shot at greatness.
Below, we're taking you through F1's emotional final lap, including whether Sonny Hayes (Pitt) comes out on top and what's in store for a possible sequel.
After clashing on and off the track, Sonny and Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) — a hotshot rookie with raw talent and an ego to match — finally start to gel at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Sonny pulls out all the stops, exploiting the safety car rules by intentionally triggering minor crashes to bunch up the field. The gamble pays off, as Pearce forces his way into the midfield and scores APXGP's first-ever points finish.
With the team feeling like they have a chance, momentum builds. Sonny starts taking simulator training seriously and even convinces the brilliant technical director, Kate (Kerry Condon), to redesign the car for "combat." For the first time all season, APXGP looks like a real contender — then comes the Italian Grand Prix, where everything goes sideways.
Under heavy rain, Sonny urges Pearce to stay out on slick tires, a gutsy call that could lead to aquaplaning but boosts him into second place. Pearce's confidence soon gets the better of him, and rather than following Sonny's advice to wait for a straight, he attempts to overtake Max Verstappen at Curva Parabolica. Pearce ends up hitting a curb, and his car flies over the barrier before crashing and bursting into flames.
Kosinski revealed to Entertainment Weekly they staged the crash "practically," adding, "It was a massive set-up. Damson put his time up high in the air in a spinning car, which was pretty intense. It was actually based on an incident that happened on the same corner in Formula Three about 10 years ago. We adapted it for our film and put it in the rain and Formula One."
Watching it unfold, Sonny is transported back to the career-ending crash he suffered 30 years ago. Without hesitation, he abandons the race and sprints to the wreck, pulling Pearce from the burning car.
Pearce misses the next three races, but Sonny keeps the team alive with steady, points-scoring drives. During his first race back, Pearce's aggression boils over, and he forces a crash with Sonny. This knocks both APXGP drivers out of the race, leading to a rift forming between them.
With only two races left, Kate proposes an unconventional solution: a poker game, and the winner gets to be APXGP's No. 1 driver for the high-stakes Las Vegas Grand Prix. Pearce wins, but what he doesn't know is that Sonny folded a winning hand.
After Sonny lets Pearce win the poker game, he spends the night with Kate. However, their rendezvous is short-lived, as Ruben bursts in and shares that a whistleblower is claiming Kate's upgrades to the car are illegal.
Kate denies it, but the FIA steps in and demands the upgrades be stripped before the next race. At the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Sonny's frustration boils over. While racing Sergio Pérez, he loses his cool and crashes his car.
Kosinski told EW they had no time to rehearse the sequence. "The Las Vegas track is not a permanent track," he explained. "It's a street track down the strip that is only up for a couple of nights, so it is very hard to get access to. We were not able to get any practice time on it."
He continued, "We got one 15-minute slot in the middle of the night. It was freezing cold, so the tires were not getting any grip. And it's the only circuit we drove on that has no safety area. It's walls on both sides on a very, very fast track."
Sonny ends up in the hospital. While he recovers, Ruben learns that Sonny's injury from his 1993 crash left him nearly paralyzed and barely able to race. For his own safety, Ruben fires Sonny from the team.
As Sonny recovers, APXGP board member Peter Banning (Tobias Menzies) tells him he wants to force Ruben to sell so he can create his own team, one that includes Sonny stepping in as team principal. Peter admits he's the one who forged documents accusing Kate of illegal upgrades, hoping to get APXGP banned from the grid.
Ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Pearce finally gets his act together, committing to being more responsible and admitting that his crash wasn't Sonny's fault.
Meanwhile, Sonny finds a loophole and convinces Ruben to give him one last shot behind the wheel, finally aiming to secure that long-awaited Formula One win. Oh, and before the race, Sonny makes it clear to Peter that he's not interested in his shady offer by texting him a middle finger emoji.
Everything starts coming together, especially once the FIA clears Kate of wrongdoing and allows APXGP to use the upgrades.
During the race, Pearce takes the lead but gets passed by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Then, just when things get tense, a red flag drops after Sonny, in fourth place, collides with George Russell, giving both APXGP drivers fresh tires and a second shot at the title.
When the race resumes, Sonny charges past Leclerc and, in a selfless move, forces race leader Hamilton to block him instead of Pearce. However, Hamilton and Pearce crash on the final lap, clearing the way for Sonny to claim his lifelong dream of winning a Formula One race. The win also stops the team's sale, and Sonny and Ruben celebrate together on the podium.
As the champagne flows, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff offers Pearce a coveted seat, but he passes, choosing to stick with APXGP. Later, Pearce congratulates Sonny but tells him it's cool he took this win because Pearce himself is "gonna win a million races."
In the movie's final moments, Sonny and Kate share a bittersweet goodbye (for now). Sonny's got other races to run, even if it means his relationship with Kate is a long-distance one. And with that, Sonny hits the road again, trading Formula One for the rugged Baja 1000 off-road race.
As of now, no official F1 sequel has been announced. Rumor has it, though, that the wheels are turning behind the scenes. On Monday, June 30, Variety reported that talks are underway, and director Joseph Kosinski previously told EW he's already got sequel ideas brewing.
"But that's up to the audience to decide if they want to see it," he said. "I loved working with this group of people. I loved creating our own Formula One team. I'd love to see what's up next for APXGP and Sonny Hayes."
What could an F1 sequel look like? In a chat with British GQ, Kosinski revealed his ultimate dream is to bring in Tom Cruise for an epic Days of Thunder crossover.
"Well, right now, it'd be Cole Trickle, who was [Cruise's] Days of Thunder character, we find out that he and Sonny Hayes have a past," he shared. "They were rivals at some point, maybe crossed paths… I heard about this epic go-kart battle on Interview with a Vampire that Brad and Tom had, and who wouldn't pay to see those two go head-to-head on the track?"
F1 is now in theaters, but it will become available to stream on Apple TV+ at a later date.Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly