Movie review: F1

Brad Pitt’s F1: The Movie races onto screens with the promise of redefining motorsport cinema. 

For non-Formula 1 fans, it probably delivers exactly that — a glossy, high-octane spectacle anchored by Pitt’s charm, stunning IMAX visuals, and adrenaline-fueled track sequences shot on real Grand Prix circuits.

The cockpit camera work is breathtaking, capturing the claustrophobic violence of open-wheel racing in a way that makes even the uninitiated feel the visceral, physical chaos of 300-kilometres-per-hour battles. But for anyone who follows F1 with devotion, the film lands like a glitzy DNF.

At its core, F1: The Movie is another iteration of the familiar white saviour story. Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a washed-up former driver dragged back into the sport to help the struggling APX GP team and rookie sensation Joshua Pearce, played with understated gravitas by Damson Idris.

The film sets up Pearce as the future of F1. He’s an immensely talented, calm, and media-shy Black driver grappling with the demands of global fame and team politics. It is a character brimming with narrative potential. Yet time after time, that potential is cut off at the knees in service of Pitt’s redemption arc.

We never get to sit fully with Pearce’s struggles or triumphs because the camera — and the script — remain relentlessly focused on Hayes. Idris does what he can with the material, hinting at Pearce’s layered psyche through subtle glances and clipped lines, but his story is ultimately flattened into the backdrop of Pitt’s comeback.

There was a rare chance here to centre an underrepresented voice in motorsport cinema, to allow a young Black driver to anchor a major Hollywood racing film in an industry still struggling with systemic racism. Instead, Pitt’s Hayes swoops in with wisdom, grit, and rule-breaking genius to save the day (*insert eyeroll*).

And it’s that rule breaking that truly rankles F1 fans. The film portrays Hayes ignoring team orders, making reckless tire calls, and executing unsanctioned overtakes with triumphant bravado — all to the rousing hum of Hans Zimmer’s score.

The line “Who said anything about safe?” plays as a rebellious quip in the trailer, but within the real culture of F1, where drivers have died for far less, it feels almost grotesque.

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) strict safety protocols aren’t narrative obstacles, they’re the thin line between life and death. Watching Hayes toss them aside for swagger turns the film into a cartoonish fantasy that undercuts its claim to authenticity.

But beyond technical inaccuracies and racing bravado lies another problem that simmers quietly throughout: the film’s treatment of women. Kerry Condon plays Kate McKenna, the APX GP team principal and the first woman in such a role in F1.

Her character begins with force, intelligence, and weary authority — the kind of female leadership rarely seen in motorsport stories. Yet midway through the film, she is swiftly relegated to a romantic subplot with Hayes. Her strategic genius is brushed aside to make space for longing looks and a tired midlife affair arc.

Even more galling is the treatment of Jodie, played by Callie Cooke, the team’s only female pit crew member. In one key pit stop sequence, Jodie fumbles and drops the tire gun. The scene is played for maximum tension, as if to say, “See what happens when you let a woman in?” Of course, she recovers heroically seconds later, but the damage is done.

Rather than showcasing the precision and calm under pressure that real pit crew women demonstrate daily, the film reduces her to a near-slapstick moment of incompetence redeemed only by silent determination — a quick beat for dramatic effect with no emotional payoff.

All of this combines to make F1: The Movie a deeply conflicted experience. It is undeniably thrilling in parts. The racing footage, much of it filmed during actual Grand Prix weekends, hums with authentic energy. The soundtrack is rousing, Pitt is charming, and Joseph Kosinski’s direction captures the scale and spectacle of Formula 1 better than any Hollywood attempt so far.

Yet the film’s narrative choices undermine its ambition.

For casual viewers, the movie works as entertainment — an accessible window into the high-speed theatre of F1, powered by Pitt’s enduring charisma. But for fans of the sport, its dismissal of FIA rules, its centring of a tired saviour narrative, and its disrespect for women’s presence in motorsport make it a frustrating — and almost insulting — experience.

Idris could have carried this film with ease. His role as Pearce is compelling enough to lead a franchise that challenges F1’s race and class hierarchies, while still delivering the rush of racing cinema. But in the end, Hollywood couldn’t resist Brad Pitt behind the wheel.

F1: The Movie is a testament to the enduring formula: star power over substance, speed over truth.