6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Maverick
F1: The Movie brings high-speed thrills to the big screen
F1: The Movie makes for a thrilling watch that will have fans on the edge of their seats. As for the plot? It could have done with a serious shift in gear.
Formula 1 is at the top of its game. The sport has a global fan base of 826.5 million, superstar drivers and countries often vying for a place on its annual calendar – it commands worldwide attention.
Formula 1's long and storied history has been both documented and fictionalised in films such as Rush, Senna, Ferrari, Schumacher, Netflix's Drive to Survive and now, F1: The Movie. With the championship in its 75th year, there is arguably no better time to capitalise on its hype than now.
The film follows racing driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who is convinced to return to Formula 1 with the struggling APXGP F1 Team on the brink of being sold. He is partnered with rookie driver Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), whom he is encouraged to mentor and pass down his years of racing knowledge to – but the pair immediately clash, not only on the track but also in the garage, where tensions are high and neither is used to coming second.
The production worked hard to make this a real blockbuster. Seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton was brought in as a producer for the film, and his expertise was aimed at making this the 'most authentic racing movie that's ever been made'.
Chassis from Formula 2 vehicles were built up to look like Formula 1 cars, and filmmakers worked with the Mercedes F1 team to build custom bodywork according to real-world regulations. Cameras were then built into the models at 16 different places, giving viewers gripping perspectives of racing not seen before.
'It was a machine built for shooting a Formula 1 movie – completely custom, but a real race car at the heart of it,' director Joseph Kosinski told the F1 Explains podcast.
Filming took place over two years at real race weekends and circuits including Silverstone, Spa and Yas Marina, and alongside real Formula 1 drivers on the grid, in the paddock, on the podium and on the track.
The results are spectacular visuals that truly capture the spectacle and sheer magnitude of the sport.
The audience is treated to shots of wide, open skies above hundreds of thousands of fans, the roar of the crowd rising up from the grandstands, the smoke of flares coloured in Ferrari red and Dutch orange. We ride onboard through every sweeping corner of the racetrack, and feel the pure speed when the pedal hits metal. There are heart-in-throat moments as drivers fight for position, the thrill when they win a tussle and shock when they crash out with sickening crunches of carbon fibre meeting barrier. This is undoubtedly a technically stunning film.
However, the movie's push for authenticity is also what lets it down in many places. To be clear, there is a lot one could nitpick here, especially for a passionate F1 fan: there are moments where remaining faithful to regulations and rules of engagement has been abandoned in favour of drama and suspense, and that is to be expected in any Hollywood film.
But the decision to film alongside real race teams and drivers blurs the lines between fact and fiction, and can take the viewer out of the experience when paired with the unrealistic moments mentioned above.
It also lets the plot down: of course, Formula 1 drivers are not actors, and they aren't expected to be. This results in very little tension in the racing scenes, as viewers cannot be introduced to the rivalry between competitors that is fundamental to the sport and, by extension, any racing movie.
One can forgive this lack of developed secondary characters due to the filmmakers' deliberate choice to favour authenticity. However, there isn't much character development for the stars of the film, either.
Pitt plays a charismatic and driven driver who has been at the heights of racing fame and fallen to its lowest lows. He is a complicated character who takes massive risks, on and off the track, yet his motivations for being a driver remain elusive. Sonny will eventually admit that he is 'chasing that moment of peace… where everything goes quiet' and he is one with the car, but outside of that one line of script, viewers will be hard-pressed to understand what makes him want to be a racing driver.
Joshua Pearce's story is similarly surface-level. Sonny's rookie teammate is portrayed as young and cocky, and while he undergoes some personal development in the course of the film, his storyline never digs deep into his passions, desires or drives.
In one scene, he does point out that he had to work 'twice as hard' as other drivers to get to where he is, but the film does not explore that further, which is a shame. There are no other Black men other than Hamilton on the grid, in the film or in the real world, and filmmakers missed an opportunity to present multidimensional, passionate racers of colour – something that has been woefully overlooked in the media for years.
Kerry Condon, who plays the team's technical director, Kate McKenna, is also a victim of poor writing. To prepare for her role, Condon worked with former Formula 1 strategists Bernie Collins and Ruth Buscombe – both women who have been instrumental in proving that motorsport is not just a man's game. Unfortunately, Kate is reduced to Sonny's love interest who is only capable of building a fast car once he starts working with her.
Other female characters don't fare too well either. Jodie (Callie Cooke), a pit crew mechanic and one of the only team members to have a speaking role, is repeatedly presented as out of her depth as she fumbles around the garage, bumping into drivers and misplacing equipment. Simone Ashley, who spent the past year promoting the film, was cut from the final product almost entirely.
Again, filmmakers had an opportunity to break down the stigma around who belongs in racing, and it is a shame that Kate and Jodie were not allowed to shine as smart, strong women in motorsport in their own right. This film brings Formula 1 to the masses, yet it lets a core demographic down by reducing women to stereotypes that women like Collins and Buscombe have been working to dismantle.
Ultimately, followers of the sport may leave the cinema disappointed for valid reasons. At the same time, there is a lot the movie gets right. The excitement of fans is tangible, the pure speed is exhilarating, the racing is gritty and dramatic. These are things that make the sport so special. DM
