I'm A Huge Fan Of Formula 1, And I'm Totally Fine With The Most Unrealistic Parts Of Brad Pitt's F1

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17 hours ago

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Warning: Spoiler Alert! There are spoilers around every corner in this story about the racing in F1, so consider this your caution flag before proceeding.
This weekend, F1 ,starring Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem, hits the 2025 movie schedule, and as a Formula 1 fan, I've been excited for this movie ever since they began shooting during the 2023 F1 season. Honestly, I expected it to be somewhat unrealistic, and it was. That didn't bother me, though. Let me explain why.
Setting aside the fact that the movie never once showed race qualifying or the three practice sessions that every race has, the in-race tactics of the team led by Sonny Hayes (Pitt) and his teammate Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) are nothing like you'd see in a real Grand Prix. Harkening back to another Jerry Bruckheimer-produced racing classic, Days of Thunder, there are a lot more 'rubbin' is racin'' moments than would ever happen in a real race.
Sonny's cheeky moves to disable his opponents and even his car would be sniffed out immediately by the race stewards, and he would almost certainly be black-flagged (disqualified) from the race and possibly suspended from racing. While 'rubbin'' is a somewhat normal part of NASCAR, it's insanely dangerous in F1, where the cars are much more delicate (and much faster). In F1 these days, safety is paramount; the race officials would never, ever let a team get away with dangerous tactics like that.
During the Italian Grand Prix at the world-famous Monza, the rain starts to fall hard. This isn't weird; unlike American racing, F1 races don't stop for rain (most of the time). What is weird is the discussion the team has between the drivers, Sonny and Joshua, about what tires they are going to use.
The discussion is between 'slicks,' which are the normal racing tires and have no tread at all, and 'intermediates,' which are tires racers use for light rain, which do have some tread to push away the water. There is almost no situation where, in a rain as hard as it is in the movie, cars would ever stay on the track on slicks. They would have literally no grip at all. If anything, the discussion would be between intermediates or 'full wet' tires (tires with even more tread for harder rain). Staying on slicks would almost certainly end in disaster, and it does in the movie.
One thing I definitely expected to see in F1 was a big, fiery crash, and boy oh boy was there one! Joshua flies off the track (because he stayed on slicks in the rain) and crashes into the barrier with tremendous force in a fireball. These kinds of crashes are the type you expect in any racing movie, but they are exceedingly rare in real races. Most crashes in a real Formula 1 race are actually kind of underwhelming; a car loses control and spins onto the gravel or into a wall, and some carbon fiber goes flying; there's almost never a fire these days, and the drivers usually climb out of their wrecked car unaided.
There used to be a lot more terrible, and often deadly, crashes in F1. The movie Rush, from 2013, features one that was absolutely true to life in a race from the 1970s. However, ever since the death of the legendary Ayrton Senna (who still has millions of fans today, including Alexandra Daddario) at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994, Formula 1 has gone all in on making the cars as safe as possible, and they have largely succeeded.
That's not to say dramatic crashes never happen. During the 2020 season, Haas driver Romain Grosjean flew into a barrier at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and his car exploded into a huge fireball. Grosjean escaped safely, with a few minor burns to his hands, much like Joshua in F1. So, while the crash in the film is something that could happen, it's incredibly rare.
While it may seem like I'm complaining about the racing scenes in F1, none of these things bothered me at all. As I wrote, I expected the movie to be over-the-top. Heck, I wanted it to be over-the-top. The racing scenes are amazing. As my colleague Eric Eisenberg wrote in his review of F1,
F1 is an impressive technical achievement. It repeatedly offers the visceral experience of being strapped to the hood/side/back of one of the title sport's speedy cars.
F1 is so much fun, especially for a fan of racing, that playing fast and loose with reality doesn't matter at all. All the racing scenes, from the moment we first see Sonny competing at the 24 Hours of Daytona, through the last bit at the Rally Mexico are amazing.
Because the production had the full support of Formula 1, every racer from the 2023 season make some kind of appearance. It was like spotting Easter Eggs for a fan like me. 'Look! There's Max Verstappen! Hey, it's Fernando Alonso!' There are also the tracks. Silverstone, Spa, and Monza are three legendary tracks, and we get to see all of them extensively in the movie. It's just a really fun ride.
F1 is the epitome of a popcorn-chomping summer blockbuster. It's not a documentary, and it's not Drive To Survive (which you can watch with a Netflix subscription). Expecting it to be is, frankly, silly. It will make you a fan of F1, though. At least, I hope it will, because it's a fantastic sport. If the lack of realism does upset you, I think you need to relax and think like Sonny in the last lap, let the car do the flying, and just float into the zone.