After months of setbacks, frustrations, and minuscule teasers, we’re finally learning more about F1, the new Formula 1 movie directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt.
After the announcement regarding its name (F1) and release date (June 25, 2025 internationally; June 27, 2025 in the USA), we got our first teaser of actual film footage ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
What is Brad Pitt’s F1 movie about?
While the 97-second teaser doesn’t feature much by way of dialogue to indicate potential plot points, it did show one thing: F1 has a chance to become the Grand Prix (1966) of the modern era… if it can get past its own Hollywoodification.
While the 97-second F1 teaser didn’t shed much light on what the film will ultimately be about, we do have a brief synopsis already available.
In effect, Sonny Hayes (played by Brad Pitt) was a Formula 1 driver in the 1990s until a nasty crash forced him into retirement from the open-wheel series. While he still races in other disciplines, he has stepped back from F1.
Until, that is, a team owner asks him to come out of retirement to serve as a mentor to a young rookie prodigy named Joshua Pearce (played by Damson Idris). So, Hayes joins the Expensify Apex Grand Prix team and rejoins the F1 world.
As mentioned, the teaser doesn’t show much about the plot of the film, as it primarily focuses instead on showing off some of the exceptional racing footage captured by the production team.
Unfortunately, the only dialogue in the montage bodes poorly for the film.
Kerry Condon plays a character named Kate; in the trailer, she asks, “How am I supposed to make that safe?”
Pitt, as Sonny Hayes, answers, “Who said anything about safe?”
Many modern F1 fans around the world likely groaned at that bit of dialogue. A significant goal of the sport, in its current iteration, is about making motorsport safer. In fact, the FIA itself would probably have a lot to say about the safety that Sonny Hayes so cavalierly brushes aside.
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It’s the only bit of dialogue shared in the trailer, and it’s surely designed to intrigue audiences. Unfortunately, folks familiar with Formula 1 — and with modern motorsport more generally — will know that everyone has a lot to say about safety.
That line is, of course, free of any context. Perhaps Sonny Hayes earns a stern rebuff for his callousness, or perhaps his attitude toward safety becomes a key plot point; at this moment in time, we just can’t know for certain.
But its inclusion in the otherwise incredible trailer was disappointing.
Until that point, F1 (2025) had all the makings of a modern take on Grand Prix (1966), the fictional racing film inspired by then-contemporary Formula 1 racing. F1, like Grand Prix, features a cast of contemporary drivers and key team personnel, offering a taste of authenticity to the film’s fictionalized storyline.
But the biggest point of comparison between F1 and Grand Prix is the use of ground-breaking film technology to capture Formula 1 from previously unheard of angles. The inclusion of actual racing footage, paired with John Frankenheimer’s camera-mounted Formula 3 machines, created a spectacle unlike anything ever before seen in the world of motorsport media.
Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer have done the same with F1. The film utilizes some incredible production strategies that the producer helped pioneer for Top Gun: Maverick. The result is the montage of stunning racing footage we see in the trailer — and it looks absolutely incredible.
Those clips alone will likely be enough to convince fans of both motorsport and of film to hit the theaters in June of 2025. F1 will likely introduce new audiences to motorsport and increase the appeal of F1 outside of its usual demographics.
But if one tone-deaf line about safety is deemed compelling enough to become the grounding dialogue utilized in the film’s first trailer, I can’t say that bodes well for the film overall. It suggests that the already-sensational premise of the film will be further watered down by a clunky, Hollywoodified portrayal of F1 on the big screen.
With a year until release and just one trailer to consider, we can only hope that isn’t the case.
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