‘F1’ Review: Hollywood Hurrah, Formula Failure

As the lights go out and the racing begins, “F1” takes its viewers on an entertaining, gripping ride that captures the thrill of the sport. But with Brad Pitt in the driver’s seat and Apple Studios behind the wheel, the film tends to race toward a Hollywood spectacle over being a true homage to the sport.

“F1” follows APXGP, a fictional, struggling F1 team with no top 10 scoring in three years. Team owner Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) is told he’ll be fired if they don’t get a win by the end of the season. In a desperate move, he recruits Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a retired, once-failed F1 driver who has since found success at notable races such as the 24 Hours of Daytona, hoping he might somehow turn things around.

The setup is entirely unrealistic — the majority of teams in F1 don’t win a race in a season, and a more believable ultimatum would require the team to simply finish within the top 10 — but for the sake of storytelling, this implausibility is essential to build the stakes that make the film captivating.

Despite touching on themes of age and legacy, the film’s purpose is clearly not to be profound, but to amuse its audience — and that’s okay. “F1” knows what it is and delivers entertainment. Watching actual formula cars on track with cockpit-style shots reminiscent of “Top Gun: Maverick” (also directed by Joseph Kosinski) is genuinely thrilling, and while the plot feels familiar and unoriginal, it is nevertheless fast-paced and engaging.

On the technical side, the editing, sound, and score are some of the film’s strongest elements. From the beginning, the quick, deliberate edits help to clarify the action and push the story forward. The sound design places the viewer right on the track, capturing the power of the V6 engines with impressive realism. Hans Zimmer’s score echoes the F1 intro theme, adding energy and familiarity for fans while also driving the energy of the film.

By contrast, the writing feels uninspired. In its defense, this isn’t a film that depends on sharp dialogue. In fact, the strongest moments are the ones with little to no dialogue, where the film relies on image and sound alone. The film did a particularly great job of showing the rules of F1, rather than overly explicating them.

Despite the strengths of “F1,” the film fails to reach the heights of “Top Gun: Maverick” or other great sports dramas, and this issue partially lies with the racing itself. While authenticity to F1 isn’t everything, the film leans heavily on repetitive, unrealistic crashes rather than showing the actual wheel-to-wheel racing and strategic decisions that make F1 as a sport so exciting. There’s no defining “ordeal” race — no single sequence that feels like the emotional or narrative climax — which ultimately makes the film fall flat towards the end.

The visuals, at times, feel overly smooth and artificial. The minimal, polished look — typical of Apple productions — can resemble the feel of an Apple Store, making the film appear somewhat dull and gray.

Another major flaw is the romantic subplot. Without giving too much away, it involves a female race engineer — a high-level role unfortunately rare for women in motorsport — whose character is disappointingly reduced to a love interest. It’s a frustrating decision in a film that does not require romance. Women in the sport already face enough stereotypes — being belittled and assumed to only be there for the “hot men” — which this subplot only reinforces.

The film’s audience is additionally inconsistent. While the basic premise of F1 is simple — overtake cars and try to win — the film doesn’t explain key F1 concepts like tyre strategy, degradation, or undercutting. However, the film isn’t necessarily tailored towards F1 fans either. The final podium of the film was shot at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. For those who follow the sport, the third act therefore loses all dramatic weight because they already know the outcome. Moreover, the film premiered in the middle of a race weekend, just two weeks before F1 summer break, almost acknowledging that it wasn’t really made with fans in mind.

Between the unrealistic crashes, premise, and lack of penalties, all other inaccuracies remain mostly minor and unnoticeable. Soft tyres built to last for only a few laps are maintained for over 20, Max Verstappen infamous for impressive pit lane overtakes stays behind the slowest driver in the pit, and Ferrari, notoriously bad at tyre strategy, actually uses a wet tyre in the rain. And while they pick a lead driver via poker, McLaren fans might actually find that quite plausible with their current teammate rivalry. However, the film inserted a few nods to fans such as the iconic “through goes Hamilton” call, driver British bias, and a “Drive to Survive” fan as the villain.

Overall, “F1” follows the Hollywood formula more than Formula 1 — its plot loosely follows the classic action hero’s journey, and although unoriginal, the film nevertheless has incredible visuals and action sequences to make up for it. For fans of the sport, it's a great dessert to the Austrian Grand Prix weekend. For others, “F1” poses as a great summer blockbuster — one worth watching, but maybe not one worth writing home about.