F1 review: Brad Pitt movie is thrilling but two-dimensional

This sports film from director Joseph Kosinski is like a re-run of Top Gun: Maverick on wet weather tyres.

Damson Idris and Brad Pitt in F1

WB

★★★☆☆

F1 is in cinemas from Wednesday 25 June 2025. Add it to your watchlist

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The opening of F1 is very promising.

To the sound of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, veteran race car driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) arrives for 24 Hours of Daytona, the Florida-set endurance rally. After winning his stretch with typical bravura, he steps out the car and growls to the next driver: "Lose that lead – I’ll kill you." Does he want to hang around? Does he even take the trophy or the expensive watch he’s gifted? Nope. He just collects his $5,000 and drives away.

Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt in F1.

Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt in F1. WB/Apple

Living a nomadic lifestyle – the sort that sees him doing his washing in a launderette – Sonny is a journeyman racer, forever seeking the next thrill. A former Formula 1 driver who crashed in the 1993 Spanish Grand Prix, he saw his career dribble away, with only a gambling habit and failed marriages to show for his life. But then he gets a shot at redemption, when ex-teammate Ruben (Javier Bardem) offers him the chance to join Apx GP, the F1 team he manages. Without a win, Apx GP is far removed from giants like Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull and Ruben is on the verge of selling the team.

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With half the season already done, recruiting Sonny is true last-chance saloon stuff, especially as it means pairing him with hot-headed rookie driver Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris). As per his reputation, Sonny soon starts pulling all sorts of dangerous tricks to gain an advantage on the track.

F1 is very much a re-run of Top Gun: Maverick – with director Joseph Kosinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and writer Ehren Kruger all on board. And just as that film stunned with its IMAX-ready aerial stunts, F1 will blow your mind when it comes to the stunning racetrack footage.

A shot from a racing sequence in F1.

A shot from a racing sequence in F1. WB/Apple

With Sonny and Joshua seemingly racing alongside Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton (also a producer on the film) and others, it’s utterly seamless. As the story globe-trots from Britain’s Silverstone via races in Hungary, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, Kosinski does a fine job of showing the glamour of being an F1 driver. But sadly, the fun stops when the chequered flag comes down. Off the track, the story is hammy, whether it be Sonny’s blossoming romance with Apx’s lead engineer Kate (Kerry Condon), or the Machiavellian attempt to squeeze Ruben out, led by Tobias Menzies’s corporate sleaze.

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As for Pitt, his tattoo-covered torso frequently on show, he delves into a two-dimensional role that he’s not totally comfortable in. There isn’t a great deal of depth to Sonny, a character forever teetering on the precipice of cliché, and that doesn’t entirely suit an actor who is capable of showing much more behind the eyes.

Here, Sonny spends most of his time conjuring trick shots with playing cards or throwing tennis balls at walls. His relationship with Joshua (from dislike to mutual respect) is as obvious as anything else in a film that dispenses with subtlety from the off.

Damson Idris in F1.

Damson Idris in F1. WB/Apple

Idris, so good in the criminally underseen TV drama Snowfall, is an admirable foil here. But in truth, he – and most others – are acted off the screen by Ted Lasso’s Sarah Niles, who plays Joshua’s mother with real aplomb.

Scored with a typically bombastic composition by Hans Zimmer, this is a fantasy take on racing’s most premier sport. A Top Gun on wet-weather tyres, you might say.

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Spare a thought for the race commentators too, who have their work cut out explaining the complex race regulations that the maverick Sonny keeps breaking, in a classic exposition dump. But then that is the least of the narrative crimes this fun-but-dumb movie pulls.

Authors

James Mottram

James Mottram is a London-based film critic, journalist, and author.

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