F1: The Movie

Cast View all

	Brad Pitt	Sonny Hayes
	Damson Idris	Joshua Pearce
	Javier Bardem	Ruben Cervantes
	Kerry Condon	Kate McKenna
	Tobias Menzies	Peter Banning
	Kim Bodnia	Kaspar Smolinski
	Sarah Niles	Bernadette
	Will Merrick	Nickleby
	Joseph Balderrama	Fazio
	Abdul Salis	Dodge
	Callie Cooke	Jodie
	Samson Kayo	Cash
	Simon Kunz	Don Cavendish
	Liz Kingsman	Lisbeth Bampton
	Simone Ashley	Simone Ashley
	Ramona Von Pusch	Liesl
	Barney Smith	Kaspar's Son
	Poppy Smith	Kaspar's Daughter
	Luciano Bacheta	Luca Cortez
	Rosie Dwyer	Pippa Leguin
	Martin Brundle	Martin Brundle
	David Croft	David Croft
	Leigh Diffey	Daytona Race Broadcaster
	Shea Whigham	Chip Hart
	Patrick Long	Patrick Long

Crew View all

Director	Joseph Kosinski
Writer	Joseph Kosinski, Ehren Kruger
Producer	Gergö Balika, Tim Bampton, James Boughton, Jerry Bruckheimer, John K. Campbell, Emily Cheung, Amanda Confavreux, Stefano Domenicali, Howard Ellis, Dede Gardner, Adam Goodman, Wim Goossens, Lewis Hamilton, Toby Hefferman, Ian Holmes, Jeremy Kleiner, Brian Kobo, Joseph Kosinski, David B. Leener, Dean Locke, Daniel Lupi, Gildardo Martinez, Robbie McAree, Jonathan Nicholas, Chad Oman, Stacy Perskie, Ben Piltz, Brad Pitt, Marco Valerio Pugini, Melissa Reid
Musician	Hans Zimmer
Photography	Claudio Miranda

Trailer

Edition details

Personal

Notes

My quick rating - 7.3/10. Formula 1 has never been my sport, but every now and then a racing movie comes along that makes me wonder if I’ve been missing something. F1: The Movie is definitely one of those. It kicks off with an absolute wall of sound, engines roaring, waves crashing, tires biting into asphalt, and the authenticity in the audio hits you immediately. Honestly, hearing this in IMAX might’ve rattled a few internal organs in the best possible way. When you spend $300 million on a racing movie, you expect your ears to get blown back a little.

It is classic Hollywood underdog fuel with Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a once-legendary driver now retired and jaded in that effortlessly cool Pitt way, getting pulled back into the high-speed chaos to help a struggling Formula 1 team. Of course, he’s also tasked with mentoring the talented young hothead Joshua (Damson Idris), and even if you haven’t seen the trailer, you already know exactly how this dynamic works. If you’ve seen any Tom Cruise vehicle where he pilots something fast—planes, cars, probably a shopping cart at some point—you’ve basically seen the blueprint for the romantic and emotional beats here. But predictable doesn’t mean boring. There’s still plenty of fun in watching the pieces click into place.

What surprised me most is how well the pacing holds together. At 155 minutes, this thing could’ve dragged like a pit stop gone wrong, but it never does. The emotional story and the racing spectacle blend smoothly enough that neither ever hijacks the film. And the “stand up and cheer” moment, because yes, there is one, and you’ll know it when it hits, works even if you see it coming a lap in advance.

Since I was curious how a movie like this performed with the “actual” racing crowd, I checked BoxOfficeMojo mid-celebration. Worldwide? A massive $631,327,111. Domestic? A painful $189,527,111. For a film this expensive, that’s a rough split. Which is a shame, because it’s genuinely a solid piece of entertainment.

Credit where it’s due: Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Sound clearly didn’t half-step here. The audio is crisp, aggressive, and better than what most action movies settle for these days. Even as someone who doesn’t follow the sport, I could appreciate the sensory punch. Now, realism? Yeah, I’m pretty sure Sonny would’ve eaten a black flag or two with some of the stunts he pulls. Racing purists can probably write essays on that. But for viewers like me who aren’t keeping score on authenticity, it’s actually an advantage. I get to enjoy the thrills without dissecting the physics or rules.

F1: The Movie isn’t reinventing the genre, but it delivers polished, high-octane entertainment that goes down easier than expected. If Top Gun traded jets for carbon fiber and pit lanes, this would be it. And honestly? I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.

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