Film Review – F1: The Movie

June 28th, 2025 | POSTED BY Sarah Ksiazek

From the previews and the media hype, F1: The Movie (2025) has what it takes to become the hottest film of summer 2025.  It has everything going for it — big-name stars, heart-pounding action sequences, and exotic locations.  Director and co-writer Joseph Kosinski already has one massively successful summer film in his pocket, Top Gun: Maverick (2022).  It stands to reason that this time out with F1, lightning will strike twice. 

The story of F1 revolves around Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), an excellent sports car driver who is pushing his senior years.  He is a driver for hire—not tied to any company, person, or car.  When his friend Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) is desperate for a new Formula 1 driver to help his flailing, deep-in-debt team, he comes to Sonny for help.  With Sonny as one of the main drivers for Ruben’s team, he is put at odds with the other driver, the much younger Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).  They are supposed to be a team, but Joshua is much more focused on stardom and money than Sonny, and he views Sonny as a senior citizen, past his prime.  This new “team” of drivers tries to save Ruben’s racing team through an entire racing season from disappointed investors and a board eager to sell to cut their losses.

There is no avoiding that F1 is a huge and expensive marketing film for the sport of Formula 1.  It’s literally in the title with no colon and no secondary title associated with it.  Some would argue that it’s the same for Top Gun: Maverick with the Navy and the Air Force.  When a film is so closely tied to the official sport, there is an impetus to portray the sport as appealing and shy away from its shortcomings, and the story may suffer as a result.  The odd thing about F1 is that there is no rivalry between the other Formula 1 teams.  For some reason, the writers (Kosinski and Ehren Kruger) decided to focus solely on the team’s internal struggle and its placement in races.  There is no villain, there is no one to root against.  It’s an odd way to frame a story when it involves, at the very least, racing against other people and teams.  Herein lies the issue: F1 could not make another real team the “bad guy,” as that would disparage those who participate in and fund the sport.  The Formula 1 team that Sonny and Joshua race for is fake, so why not increase the tension and stakes of the races by creating a fake rival team? The closest it came to that was including famed Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton (also a producer on the film) as the final boss in the last race. 

The film does excel at two things: being an ensemble film and putting the viewer in the driver’s seat.  With a big international star like Brad Pitt as its star, it is surprising to see how the film invested in smaller, supporting characters that continually made appearances throughout the film.  There is an emphasis on the racing team being just that: a team.  Even the pit crew is shown love on the screen, and what happens when it functions and when it does not.  Family members, managers, and press members make appearances in the film, all showcasing the extended support needed from those looking in from the outside.  Among those who made their screentime memorable are Sarah Niles (Joshua’s mom), Abdul Salis (pit crew manager), Callie Cooke (pit crew member), and Samson Kayo (Joshua’s manager).

The film excels fantastically at putting the viewer in the high-throttle, heart-pounding, intense F1 races.  This film screened on a giant IMAX screen, and the entire thing was indeed filmed for IMAX. If you have a good IMAX screen near you, it is worth the extra cash to experience it in the biggest and loudest format.  While you may scoff at the steering wheel resembling a video game controller and the seemingly brittle nature of the cars themselves, the film does a good job of educating the viewer on the science behind creating the fastest Formula 1 car money can buy.  The way the film is shot from inside the car allows the viewer to empathize with the difficulty of driving these cars, let alone at the speeds they achieve on the race track.  Drivers are strapped and packed into the cars, leaving one to ponder how difficult it is to get out in an emergency. 

F1 could be a summer blockbuster, and it has all the right elements to make it a success.  Unfortunately, the story itself falls short in making the stakes high enough for its characters, focusing on an internal rivalry rather than an external one.  The film at times goes in circles with how amiable drivers Sonny and Joshua are to each other, revisiting a breakdown in team dynamics that parallels a dysfunctional relationship, with only the semi-present Ruben able to cool the alpha male egos.  The film is enjoyable on the surface level, and honestly, sometimes that’s all that’s needed for a summertime flick to be a hit.  Time will tell if F1 will boost the following for its namesake’s sport.

Abdul Salis, Apple Studios, Brad Pitt, Callie Cooke, Damson Idris, Ehren Kruger, F1, Featured, Formula 1, Javier Bardem, Joseph Kosinski, Kerry Condon, Kim Bodnia, Lewis Hamilton, Samson Kayo, Sarah Niles, Tobias Menzies, Top Gun: Maverick