Have you ever watched Top Gun and soon after felt the desire to join the United States Air Force? Have you felt the true American spirit, watching fighter jets soar through the sky while the pilots work with ease, throwing cheap jokes at each other along the way? Did that make you want to enlist right away in hopes of experiencing the true “Maverick” experience? Me neither.
However, F1: The Movie helped me to understand how one could feel such inspiration from something as simple as a movie.
June 27th, 2025 marked the release of the movie, which follows Brad Pitt’s character, Sonny Hayes, who is making his return to Formula One thirty years after his career-ending crash in the 90s. In the movie’s present day, his old friend and teammate, played by Javier Bardem, begs him to join his failing Formula One team, APXGP, which Hayes reluctantly agrees to. With a budget of over $300 million and a Met Gala spectacle by supporting actor, Damson Idris, Sonny Hayes’ rookie teammate, the movie was expected to be immensely popular amongst fans of the sport, and even those who don’t follow it. As a fan of Formula One, who has been watching consistently for the past two years, watching F1: The Movie threw me into a story of adrenaline, anticipation, and edge-of-the-seat encounters. It almost allowed me to forget about the inconsistencies within the story line itself.
Opening on a scene of an intense battle during the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix with the two 90s era Formula One cars of Ayrton Senna with McLaren and Sonny Hayes with Lotus, the audience is thrown into a series of corners and curves on the Jerez race track in Spain. The action, however, suddenly ends with a crash into the barriers from the onboard perspective of the car.
Ever since that moment, Sonny Hayes spent his life participating in countless Motorsport events excluding F1, from Le Mans to Daytona. Reminiscent of a quote by late Motorsport legend, Ayrton Senna, he has been chasing the feeling of flying whilst driving the car, which he experienced thirty years ago. This was revealed during a balcony conversation overlooking the late night scenes of Las Vegas, between Hayes and APXGP’s technical director, Kate McKenna, played by Kerry Condon.
The scene leading up to the aforementioned conversation depicts the physical relationship between the two characters, after McKenna insists on her “professionalism” and how she just doesn’t get involved with team members. The sex scene served no purpose to the plot, as the conversation they had afterwards could have easily found its way into the movie by other means. It stings to see a woman with so much potential to be a strong character in a movie be diminished to a love interest in the same year Formula One introduced their first female race engineer, Laura Müller.
It is important to note that Hayes and McKenna’s relationship is unrealistic. Like many sports movies, it’s better to leave your knowledge of the sport at home. F1: The Movie is no exception. The excitement of racing is, in my opinion, extremely thrilling enough as it is. However, the action in the movie is multiplied tenfold, to the point of blatantly obvious unrealistic events, such as the obvious cheating going mostly undetected by race control, which supervises all sessions on track and hands out penalties if needed.
If the filmmakers wanted to be action-packed AND realistic, they could have put Hayes in a qualifying session, which takes place during all twenty-four race weekends and has its own drama. The fight for the fastest lap, which would set up the starting positions for the following race, would also add more depth and a better understanding of APXGP as a team, rather than blaming their poor grid positions on it being out of their control.
Produced by Lewis Hamilton, seven time World Champion, the movie itself is fictional, but loosely based on previous Formula One events and drivers. It’s an action packed story that makes you want to just keep watching. The movie has the potential to be loved by both fans and casual watchers alike, although it certainly should not be taken as an introduction into Formula One. If you plan on watching a race, leave what you learned from Sonny Hayes at the movie theater.
