The F1 Movie Thing Everyone’s Talking About (And Some You Probably Forgot)

So Brad Pitt’s doing an F1 movie. Yeah, that’s happening. Apple dropped something like $300 million on this thing, which is absolutely bonkers when you think about it. They’ve been filming at actual race weekends – Silverstone, Spa, you name it. Pitt’s 60-something years old pretending to be a racing driver and honestly? The footage looks pretty decent.

The movie’s called «F1» which is maybe the laziest title ever but whatever. Joseph Kosinski’s directing, same guy who did Top Gun Maverick, so at least we know the racing scenes won’t look like garbage. They literally built a fake team called APXGP and stuck it right there on the grid during real races in 2023 and 2024. Lewis Hamilton’s producing, which either means it’ll be super authentic or he’s just getting a paycheck. Probably both.

Here’s what bugs me though – we’ve been down this road before and it almost never works out.

Rush Was Good But That Was 2013

Ron Howard made Rush and everyone acts like it’s the gold standard for racing movies. Fine, it was good. Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt, Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda, the whole 1976 season drama. It made $98 million worldwide which isn’t exactly Avatar numbers but for a racing movie? Not terrible. The Nürburgring crash scene still makes me wince every time.

But here’s the thing – that was 12 years ago now and it worked because the story was already insane. Hunt was this playboy drunk who somehow won a championship. Lauda literally got burned alive and came back six weeks later to race again. You can’t make that stuff up. The Brad Pitt movie is about a fictional driver making a comeback which… I mean, we’ll see.

The racing in Rush looked real because they used a ton of practical effects and actual F1 cars from that era. Problem is modern F1 cars are so complicated and expensive that you can’t just have Brad Pitt hooning one around for b-roll footage. They’re using modified F2 cars painted to look like F1 cars. Which is fine I guess but it’s not the same thing.

Drive to Survive Changed Everything (Maybe)

Netflix’s Drive to Survive launched in 2019 and suddenly Americans gave a shit about F1. The Austin race went from 160,000 people in 2018 to over 440,000 in 2023. That’s crazy growth. F1 went from this niche European thing to selling out races in Miami and Las Vegas.

The show’s kind of controversial though because it manufactures drama that isn’t really there. They’ll make two drivers look like bitter enemies when they literally had lunch together that same day. But it worked – F1’s popularity in the US went through the roof. So now we’re getting this $300 million movie because Hollywood thinks everyone cares about racing.

I’m not convinced everyone actually cares about racing though. They care about the personalities and the drama. Drive to Survive figured that out. Will a two-hour movie with made-up characters hit the same way? Doubtful.

The show’s in its sixth season now and honestly the quality’s dropped. First two seasons were incredible. Now it feels like they’re scraping for storylines. «Oh no, will this midfield team finish 7th or 8th?» Who cares? But people still watch it apparently.

Other F1 Movies That Kinda Sucked

Remember Driven from 2001? Sylvester Stallone wrote it originally as an F1 movie but the FIA wouldn’t cooperate so he changed it to CART racing. It was terrible. Made $54 million on a $72 million budget which is a disaster. The racing looked fake, the plot was ridiculous. There’s a scene where they race through the streets of Chicago that’s so bad it’s almost funny.

Bobby Deerfield from 1977 with Al Pacino – nobody remembers this exists. Al Pacino as an F1 driver falling in love while dealing with death and danger. It bombed hard. Made less than $2 million.

Grand Prix from 1966 is supposedly a classic but it’s three hours long and honestly pretty boring by today’s standards. Won three Oscars though, all technical categories. The racing footage was revolutionary for its time but watching it now? Ehhh. James Garner, Yves Montand, a bunch of people your grandparents might remember.

Senna from 2010 is different because it’s a documentary. Asif Kapadia directed it and it’s genuinely brilliant. Just archival footage of Ayrton Senna with no talking heads or modern commentary. Made $8.2 million theatrical which is pretty good for a documentary. If you only watch one F1 movie ever, watch this one. The political stuff with Jean-Marie Balestre and the FIA is fascinating and the Imola crash footage is devastating even when you know it’s coming.

The Brad Pitt Movie Might Actually Work Though

Against my better judgment I think this F1 movie might be okay. Not great, probably not Rush-level, but okay. They’ve got Damson Idris as Pitt’s teammate which is good casting – he was excellent in Snowfall. The script went through rewrites by Ehren Kruger who’s done some decent action stuff.

Biggest thing going for it is the access. Mercedes F1 team basically let them do whatever they wanted. They filmed during the 2023 British Grand Prix with real crowds, real cars on track during practice sessions. That’s unprecedented. When have you ever seen Hollywood get that kind of access to an actual sport during competition?

Apple’s releasing it in June 2025 which puts it right before the Canadian Grand Prix. Smart timing honestly. Get people hyped about F1 right as the season’s hitting its stride. They’re doing IMAX which means those racing scenes are gonna be ridiculous on a proper screen.

The budget though. $300 million. For context, Rush cost $38 million. Ford v Ferrari was $97 million. Top Gun Maverick was $170 million and that was filming actual fighter jets doing actual stunts. What the hell is costing so much? My guess is the F1 teams charged them an absolute fortune for access and disruption during race weekends. Plus Pitt’s probably getting $20-30 million just for showing up.

Why Racing Movies Usually Fail

Racing is really hard to film in a way that feels fast and dangerous but also lets the audience understand what’s happening. You can’t just point a camera at a car going fast – it either looks slow or it’s too shaky to follow. Video games figured this out years ago but movies still struggle.

The other problem is that car racing is fundamentally kind of boring to non-fans. It’s just left turns and right turns for two hours. Yeah there’s strategy and tire management and DRS and all that but explaining it in a movie kills the pacing. Rush worked because it barely explained anything technical – it was just «these guys hate each other and one might die.»

Also racing movies always try to make the main character this brooding complicated person dealing with their demons. Sometimes a race car driver is just a guy who likes going fast and is good at it. Not everything needs to be deep.

The romance subplot thing is tired too. We get it, his wife/girlfriend is worried he’ll die. Revolutionary stuff. If the Brad Pitt movie has a scene where he promises he’ll quit racing after one more season I’m walking out.

Formula 1’s Hollywood Problem

F1 has been trying to crack America for decades. They ran races in Phoenix in 1989-1991 and nobody came. Tried Indianapolis in 2000-2007 with mixed results. The 2005 race was a complete disaster – only 6 cars started because of tire safety issues. 20 cars pulled into the pits after the formation lap. The crowd booed for like an hour straight.

Now they’ve got three US races and they’re printing money but a lot of that is because F1 became a status symbol. Miami tickets went for thousands of dollars and half the people there couldn’t name five drivers. Vegas was even worse – a $5000 ticket to watch cars you can barely see while standing in a parking lot. But it’s «exclusive» so people paid it.

Will this movie help F1 grow more in America or is the sport already at peak popularity here? Hard to say. NASCAR’s been declining for years, IndyCar barely exists in public consciousness. F1 filled that void but movies are a different beast than a Netflix show you can binge.

If the movie’s good it probably doesn’t move the needle much – people who care about F1 already care about F1. If it’s bad though? Could actually hurt the sport’s image. «Oh that’s the thing from that boring Brad Pitt movie» isn’t great for business.

What Would Actually Make a Good F1 Movie

Honestly they should just make a movie about one specific race or one specific season. The 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi was more dramatic than any screenplay – Hamilton and Verstappen tied on points, controversial safety car decision, Verstappen wins on the last lap. You could make that movie tomorrow with barely any changes to what actually happened.

Or do the 2012 season where the championship lead changed hands like five times. Fernando Alonso dragging that Ferrari way beyond where it should’ve been. Seven different race winners in the first seven races. That’s a ready-made script.

The 1994 season with Senna’s death and Schumacher’s first championship would be powerful but probably too dark for Hollywood. Same with the 1958 season when multiple drivers died. F1 used to be horrifically dangerous – two drivers died in 1994, and in the 1950s-1970s the fatality rate was insane. In 1960 alone, two F1 drivers were killed. Hard to make that entertaining without being exploitative.

Maybe a movie about Frank Williams? Built one of the most successful F1 teams ever, became a quadriplegic in a car crash in 1986, kept running the team from a wheelchair for decades. That’s a story right there. He died in 2021 so it’s recent enough that people remember Williams F1’s glory days but long enough ago to have perspective.

The Weird State of Racing Movies Right Now

We’re in this odd period where racing content is everywhere but actual racing movies are rare. There’s Drive to Survive, there’s all the YouTube content, there’s video games that look photo-realistic. But theatrical movies? Not many.

Ford v Ferrari from 2019 was the last major one and it was great. Christian Bale and Matt Damon, the Le Mans race in 1966, all that Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles drama. Made $225 million worldwide and should’ve won Best Picture honestly. But that was five years ago now.

Gran Turismo the movie came out in 2023 and was… fine? It made $122 million which is respectable. Story of a guy who went from playing Gran Turismo video game to actual GT racing. That actually happened to Jann Mardenborough. The movie was okay but felt like a two-hour PlayStation commercial because it basically was.

Will Anyone Care?

That’s the real question. Brad Pitt’s a huge star but he’s not the box office draw he was 20 years ago. Top Gun Maverick worked because of nostalgia and because Tom Cruise is insane and did all his own stunts. Pitt’s not flying the F1 car himself obviously.

Apple’s releasing it in theaters which is interesting because they usually dump stuff straight to Apple TV+. They must think it’ll actually make money. $300 million budget probably means it needs to make $600-700 million to break even. That’s a massive number for a racing movie.

Rush made $98 million. Ford v Ferrari made $225 million. For this to be profitable it needs to basically double Ford v Ferrari’s numbers. In a post-pandemic theatrical market where people are way more selective about what they see in theaters. Good luck with that.

Maybe the IMAX premium ticket prices save it? If enough people want to see F1 cars on a massive screen that could work. The trailer’s supposed to drop soon, that’ll be the real test. If the racing footage looks as good as Top Gun Maverick’s flying scenes maybe there’s hope.

I’ll probably see it because I’m an F1 nerd and I’ll watch anything remotely related to racing. But will normal people who barely know what DRS means show up? We’ll find out in June 2025. My prediction: it opens to $40-50 million, makes maybe $300 million worldwide, Apple eats the loss but gets Apple TV+ subscriptions from it. Everyone calls it «pretty good» and forgets about it six months later.

Unless it’s actually amazing. Which would be nice for once.