F1 is the Happy Gilmore of motor racing movies.  You can enjoy it as simple entertainment, but it bears no resemblance to the sport itself.  This is a cliched, Hollywood-ised action piece, and you don’t need to be a Formula One aficionado to recognise that fact.  As is so often the case with sporting films, there’s no substitute for the real thing.  If looking for a “crash” course on Formula One, I’d suggest watching a live race on television or connecting through the popular British documentary series Drive to Survive.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), F1 is centred on the fictitious Sonny Hayes, a washed-up, 50-something-year-old who had a fleeting career in the 1990s which amounted to nothing.  He’s played by Brad Pitt in a very Brad Pitt-type role.  He’s a jokey, playful, carefree character who goes “against the grain” like we saw in Moneyball, The Big Short, Bullet Train, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  Pitt also serves as producer with the film co-funded by his own Plan B Entertainment company.

Sonny is lured back into the sport when approached by a former driver, Ruben Cervantes (Bardem), desperate for help.  Ruben now runs the APXGP team but, having burned through $350 million over three years and not earned a single place on the podium, he’s reached the bottom of the barrel in search of answers.  He wants Sonny to serve as #2 driver for the team while also mentoring the young Noah Pearce (Idris) who has natural talent but lacks maturity and experience.  They’ve got 9 races to prove themselves or else it’s “curtains” for their respective careers.

The production values are top-notch.  Kosinski and his team had permission to shoot scenes on actual Formula One race weekends over two years and it’s why the sets, costumes and extras look so genuine.  They don’t have much in the way of speaking lines, but the film finds a way of incorporating a bunch of real-life commentators and drivers, including Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, into the drama.  The race sequences will get the blood pumping and composer Hans Zimmer (Interstellar) adds further energy with a pulsating music score, nicely showcased during the opening titles.  I’ll be adding it to my soundtrack collection!

It’s a shame the script doesn’t offer more.  It’s as if they filmed all the racetrack stuff first and tried to cobble together a narrative in the editing room.  I realise that’s not the case but it’s how the film comes across.  From Sonny Hayes rediscovering his skills with next-to-no training, to a group of ignorant investors with minimal knowledge, to a pioneering female engineer (Condon) who becomes a token love interest, to a pit crew member lacking confidence when changing tires… yeah, it’s hard to swallow.

While it has its fair share of positive attributes, F1 suffers by being a movie which “features” Formula One but is not “about” Formula One.