Joseph Kosinski’s F1 fires on all cylinders thanks to numerous Pitt-stops

Damson Idris and Brad Pitt in Joseph Kosinski’s F1: The Movie

If there’s one thing that I can confidently say about myself, it’s that I don’t know squat about Formula 1, or any motorsports for that matter. I’d go as far to say that my “knowledge” of racing is confined to a lone episode of South Park where Cartman finds his way into a NASCAR cockpit.

I was delighted to find that my knowledge, or lack thereof, was plenty to thoroughly enjoy F1: The Movie, the latest addition of a growing résumé from director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick). It’s an exciting summer movie fuel-injected with a star-studded cast that captures the palpable thrill and sheer intensity of Formula 1 racing.

Kosinski understood perfectly how to grasp the tension and precision of motorsports, and he threads the realities of F1 effortlessly into his fictional story. The film, which lands in theaters June 27 before a streaming release on AppleTV+, is a convincing addition to a pretty strong lineup of recent motorsport films like Gran Turismo, Ford v. Ferrari, and, most recently, Ferrari.

Kosinski puts together a tale of a once-promising premier motorsport driver making a late-career comeback. The talent-filled cast led by Brad Pitt, reminiscent of his role as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and an excellent Damson Idris filmed for 18 months during more than a dozen real Grand Prixs.

Both Pitt and Idris also drive real F1 cars, and the use of practical effects and on-track shooting gives an insanely visceral energy that makes you feel the gravitas of every decision the driver makes, as if their death would mean your own, as well. You’re not just watching the races, you’re in them, too.

Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a once-promising Formula 1 driver turned racing nomad. Well past his prime, he competes in grittier endurance events like the 24 Hours of Daytona, where we first meet him behind the wheel, tearing up the track with the same intensity that likely made him a legend, and then booking it as soon as his check clears.

But the driver’s low-profile routine is disrupted when Reuben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), an old rival turned team owner who’s now $350 million in the hole and desperate to revive his struggling outfit, APXGP, asks Sonny to dig them out. Sonny brushes him off, still reeling from a near-fatal crash that ended his career 30 years prior. Memories of his disastrous race in Spain still plague his dreams.

Reuben, unrelenting, ultimately convinces Sonny, who’s still hungry for more glory. The driver finds himself back in the cockpit paired with APXGP’s current star driver, Joshua Pearce (Idris). As you could probably imagine, this goes pretty poorly and cues a generational clash; one in which Pearce, brash and media-polished, sees Sonny like an antique, and he’s certainly not afraid to say so.

As the season progresses, the two evolve from antagonists to eventual equals. Idris puts on a really great performance as the cocky young driver, showing glimpses of fear behind his bravado, while Pitt embodies Sonny with this hard-earned patience of someone who’s lost, crashed, and is fighting to rebuild himself.

The generational divide within Formula 1 is also clearly stated, as racers need to win over audiences, too. Sonny has absolutely no interest in the spectacle of it all, but Joshua, one of only two Black drivers in this fictionalized league, doesn’t have the luxury of indifference and leans into it.

Real-life F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, the first and only Black F1 driver, helped produce the film and makes a quiet but very impactful appearance near the finale. He trades glances with Joshua before a race, sort of like a subtle but powerful acknowledgment of the sport’s racial disparities and a hopeful nod toward greater inclusivity in the sport’s future.

Underlying messages such as this only reach the surface level, though, as the screenwriters certainly elected to play it safe with this film, preventing F1 from elevating to the next level it was certainly capable of reaching. This is a growing sport, so why not lean into its complexities and give the audience something to think about?

Kosinski structures each Grand Prix as both a narrative milestone and a lesson in how Formula 1 works, which I honestly greatly appreciated due to my horrid prior knowledge of it. Early races are all about the basics: speed, money, and precision. Sonny starts to reorient himself in this new era of the sport, and connects with Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), the team’s lead engineer and the only woman in her role across the league. For Kate, APXGP’s success is personal because she has something to prove to everyone who’s underestimated her because of her gender. Again, though, her story doesn’t reach the development it should have.

As the season continues and Motorsports 101 concludes, it shifts to focus on the mentality of everyone involved. The later races emphasize how tightly knit the operation has to be. From the pit crews to the drivers, every second has to be intentional. “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast,” one character notes, summing up the philosophy behind the chaos.

The film’s strongest moments definitely come during these race weekends, where Kosinski embeds his fictional team within the real-world Formula 1 circuit. Cameos from Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, and Lando Norris did wonders in deepening the immersion. I’d be doing a disservice, too, without mentioning Hans Zimmer’s electric score that just cranks up the intensity. The score adds emotional weight to moments like a turn on a rain-slicked course or a high-stakes pit stop executed with split-second timing. Oh man, it gave me chills.

Kosinski also digs into the behind-the-scenes tools of modern F1 with things like road simulators, aerodynamic testing, and data analysis without overwhelming people like me who don’t know much. There are definitely a few dramatic liberties that die-hard fans would probably scratch their heads at, but the film never loses its grip on what makes racing pretty exciting.