Would You Enjoy The F1 Movie? It Depends On Your Knowledge

You need to suspend some disbelief, but it's a fun ride

I’ve never been a fan of NASCAR or Indy Car racing, but I love Formula 1. When I was a young journalist, Detroit hosted an F1 race downtown for several years, which now seems like an incredible flex for the Motor City. (It subsequently became a CART race.)

I got to meet legendary figures such as Ayrton Senna. He was slim, charming, and had beautiful eyes. I was devastated when he died. Sir Jackie Stewart taught me how to maneuver the little race track at the Ford proving grounds.

Through the years, I’ve enjoyed following drivers like Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard and more recently, Max Versteppen.

Sir Lewis Hamilton remains my all-time favorite driver, and when I found out that he was involved in bringing a movie about F1 to life, I put it on my list.

F1 the movie came out on June 27, after several years in production around the world. As of July 5, it had earned $237 million worldwide, most of it outside the U.S.

The good news for me is that Sir Lewis makes several cameo appearances in it: there’s a cool moment at the end of the film when he and Damson Idris, who plays a rookie driver, exchange challenging glances. Sir Lewis’ bulldog Roscoe actually appears on screen before he does.

Numerous F1 drivers make appearances, although many are so quick you have to check the credits to make sure they were on screen.

As for the rest of the movie, and whether auto enthusiasts would like it, that depends.

Appealing to a wide audience

For decades, F1 was considered a boutique sport for Americans. Like soccer, it had a big audience overseas, but a smaller one here, mainly because there were so few American races. Montreal often had to stand in for North America.

In recent times, however, F1 has picked up a number of new fans thanks to Netflix. The documentary series, F1: Drive To Survive reached the streamer in 2019 and is now in its seventh season.

It has made the drivers familiar figures and told behind the scenes stories about the teams and their owners. At the same time, Miami, Austin and Las Vegas have taken spots on the F1 calendar, drawing in these new fans.

The audience at my showing of F1 the movie seemed to reflect this broader appeal. I walked in expecting a largely male audience, but the audience seemed to be divided evenly between men and women.

There also were all ages of viewers: I sat between an older couple and a trio of young women who looked to be about college age.

Along with the streaming series, I’m sure some moviegoers were there to see Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and Idris, who is burnishing his reputation with the film.

The story itself is pretty generic: a grizzled veteran driver who never made it big is recruited to revive a struggling team and help educate its talented but green newcomer.

You could pick up the plot and drop it into baseball, soccer or football. In fact, F1 has more than a little in common with Bull Durham, the 1988 comedy starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon. There’s a love interest in the movie that stretches credulity, but whatever.

If you want to really understand what happens in F1 the movie, I highly recommend that you watch the Netflix series first. The movie really doesn’t go into the history of F1, or explain what sets it apart from other types of racing, which might have been helpful.

It makes an effort to be respectful, though, with multiple references to Senna. In one plot point, the movie infers that Pitt’s character had something to do with his death, which struck me as dramatic license.

Names like Schmacher and Verstappen are mentioned and the logos of the most famous contractors are visible, from Mercedes to Ferrari. Product placement abounds in pretty much every scene.

What’s in store

So, if you’re an F1 fan, why should you see it? The movie gives an up close look at nine races, from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, to the Hungarian Grand Prix, and the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. It winds up in Abu Dhabi.

You get a sense of the expansive teams that are needed to make a car and a driver a success. You see the role that social media and marketing play in F1 and you also might get a little claustrophobic from so many scenes set inside race cars. The movie reportedly cost $300 million and it looks like it.

It’s a loud movie, as you might expect with the noise of the tracks and the race cars, and there’s rock music throughout including the credits song by Ed Sheeran.

While Pitt is photogenic, and I’d love to have access to his skin routine, the casting of a 61-year-old actor as a driver is a stretch. The oldest driver on the circuit now is 44 and the youngest is 18. Even Idris would be in the middle of the pack, at age 30.

Somehow, Pitt magically stays in shape mainly by jogging, a contrast to the nutrition and physical analysis that drivers now endure.

Hamilton has talked about the impact of racing on his body. He has to keep his weight at a certain level in order to maximize his speed. And the impact of the track causes him to sweat off pounds every race. That’s along with the psychological stress and physical danger.

Its lack of history and explanation aside, F1 is an enjoyable popcorn movie, a little long at two hours and 30 minutes, but you won’t be bored. It’s nice to see something other than pre-historic monsters and cartoon animals at the cineplex.