Director Joseph Kosinski’s ‘F1 The Movie’ stars Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, FORMULA 1’s most promising phenomenon in the 1990s before an accident that ended his career. Thirty years later, he is a racer for hire who moves from city to city picking up jobs.
His former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) is the owner of a struggling FORMULA 1 team and convinces Sonny to come back for one last chance to be the best in the world, and to save the team, of course. Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) is the team’s hotshot rookie who wants to do things his way which causes them to butt heads at times.
Moviefone was in attendance of a virtual press conference featuring Brad Pitt, Kerry Condon, Damson Idris, Joseph Kosinski, and Jeremy Kleiner, to learn behind-the-scenes details and what it was like to make such a high-octane movie.
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1) Joining ‘F1 The Movie’ Was A No Brainer For Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt explains that he has been trying to do a racing film for decades and is extremely thankful that not only did it finally pan out, but that it did so in this way.
Brad Pitt: It was just a no-brainer. When Joe has this audacious plan to embed us in the racing season, to put us actually in the cars, it was just a dream come true. I’ve been trying to do a racing film for literally decades, and whether it was on bikes or whether it was in cars, for whatever reason, it just didn’t pan out. I’m so grateful because the experience Joe gave us, putting us in the car, putting us in this ecosystem of the F1 racing season with all the drivers, with the teams, was just an extraordinary experience. Nothing like I’ve ever experienced in all my decades doing this. And I will always thank Joe for this film that we’re able to bring to you today and just being the architect of this insane idea.
2) ‘F1 The Movie’ Was Filmed On Actual Racetracks
Director Joseph Kosinski crated a new FORMULA 1 team, complete with garages and the actors driving, in order to perfectly blend reality and fiction.
Joseph Kosinski: There’s nothing like being at a real FORMULA 1 race. You just can’t fake that energy, the energy of the crowd, the sound. I knew that if we were going to make a film in this world, we had to shoot it at the races. Stefano Domenicali, who runs Formula 1, Brad and Jerry and I went very early on the project and pitched the idea of what we wanted to do and he got it right away. The partnership has been really incredible. I think we learned so much from them. I think they learned a little bit from us. The partnership has been amazing and I can’t wait for people to see the result.
3) Brad Pitt & Damson Idris Are Really Driving The Cars In ‘F1 The Movie’
Brad Pitt and Damson Idris discuss what it was like to do their own stunts in ‘F1 The Movie’ and what it was like to actually drive cars going at such high speeds.
Brad Pitt: The idea of being in the car and dealing with these forces, G-forces, the physics of it all, is just something you cannot fake. Joe said it. I want to make the most immersive, visceral racing film that’s ever been done. That’s how he got Lewis in, that’s how he got me in, that’s how he got all of us in. So we started this training and we ended up getting to drive for basically two years in the making of this. I would almost wish we could shoot it again because by the end of it, Damson and I, I’d say we were quite tasty as drivers.
Idris added:
Damson Idris: Before I even got the part, I drove up somewhere in California and got in simulators and got the guy to put all the race tracks there so I could learn them before I even came to London. Then I downloaded the F1 game, created a fake character, and won a championship. I was doing a lot of manifesting. When I finally got the part, it was about the training, intense training from Rockingham to Silverstone, Palm Springs. We were in Austin, Texas, all the way from F4 up to F1. Just really learning and immersing myself in the world of Formula 1.
4) A Whole New Camera System Was Built To Capture The Speed Of The Cars
‘F1 The Movie’ is extremely immersive, causing viewers to feel as if they are in the car alongside the drivers. Director Joseph Kosinski explains that they needed to build a new camera system to pull that off.
Joseph Kosinski: In order to capture what it’s like to be in one of these FORMULA 1 cars, we had to come up with a whole new camera system that was very light and very small. So we took the system we developed for ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ and we miniaturized it. We made it as small as we could. I’m sure these guys wish it was a little smaller because it was right in front of their face the whole time while they were driving. You don’t think about that as you’re watching the movie, but they have four cameras pointing at their faces while they’re driving around the track. These cameras also move, which was a new innovation that we developed for this film. But the reason it feels immersive is because it’s really happening. These guys are driving the cars at 180 miles an hour. The cameras are mounted to the cars. We’re shooting it during a real race weekend between practice and qualifying sessions. And the audience can feel that. When you go to all that effort to do it for real, I really believe you feel it when you’re watching the film.
5) FORMULA 1 Driver Lewis Hamilton Was A Key Part Of Making ‘F1 The Movie’
Brad Pitt explains that ‘F1 The Movie’ could not have been made without the incredible support that they received from FORMULA 1 and in particular, driver Lewis Hamilton.
Brad Pitt: We couldn’t have done this without the support of F1, the teams, the principals, the drivers themselves. We all went to even driver meetings to try to earn their trust, let them know how much we respect their sport, how much we want to get it right, and we want to include them. And if we’re ever in the way, please tell us, and we’ll scram. But exactly what Damson was saying about Lewis Hamilton coming in, it was so smart of Joe to bring him in first and foremost because his knowledge is unfathomable. We would have meetings with him, some 12-hour meetings just as we developed the story, developed the script, and he would tell us his experiences. A lot of him is in the film as far as certainly our summation where we end. He is so knowledgeable even in the post portion of the film, putting the film together. He could tell you if we were in the wrong gear at turn six or that there’s a reverb when you go down the straight and make sure you add that.
6) One Scene Could Have Gone Horribly Wrong… But Thankfully Didn’t
The cast and filming crew felt extreme pressure during a key scene because they knew they could cause a racing team to be disqualified.
Kerry Condon: We were all nervous. Even the camera people were nervous because they had to walk backwards. And we were told 20 times by F1, don’t touch the cars. It’s the end of the race. That’s when the cars all pull in at the end and they have to check that they didn’t cheat or whatever. They have to weigh them and stuff. And so you can’t touch them. If you touch them, they’re disqualified. So everyone was so nervous about touching these cars. And then it was a beautiful moment for our team in the movie, so we had to have a great feeling. Everybody worked together, the AD department and the camera department and the sound department and stills photography. It was like all of us had to be great at the exact same time. So just the feeling when we did it was like, I was so high for so long.
7) Sonny’s Line “New Day, New Challenge” Is Something Director Joseph Kosinski Will Always Take With Him
Joseph Kosinski compares his experience in filmmaking to a line that Brad Pitt’s Sonny Hayes says in ‘F1 The Movie’.
Joseph Kosinski: He has a line in the film, New Day, New Challenge, and for me, that’s what I think about when approaching a film. What’s something I’ve never done before? What’s something that’s going to inspire me to get up out of bed every day and want to tackle it? So I think that’s one thing I’ll take away from this experience.
8) Filming ‘F1 The Movie’ Is An Experience Brad Pitt Will Never Forget
Brad Pitt is a fan of FORMULA 1 racing so for him to be able to sit in the drivers seat was not just another day at work, but rather an experience he will never forget.
Brad Pitt: It’s a religion for me as well. It’s incredible what these guys can do. We all think we’re backseat drivers in a way that we would know how to handle it. The precision, as Kerry said, they’re changing time zones. They’re taking these corners, they’re pulling 5Gs. It is staggering. And the idea that these guys can go around a four-mile track, a three-and-a-half-mile track, and all be within one second of each other, it’s awesome. So for us to even get to experience a hint of that, it’s such a high… I would love to explain what downforce feels like, the way these cars can stick. It is awesome. I don’t know how to do any better than that because there’s nothing I can compare it to. It is such a high… And the fact that we got to be tourists in this ecosystem for a little bit was an experience I’ll never forget.
9) FORMULA 1 Is Full Of Stories, Which Is Something This Movie Worked Hard To Capture
Brad Pitt is walking away from making ‘F1 The Movie’ knowing that the sport is full of stories. It is not just about the races, but the athletes and people behind-the-scenes, their lives, and the stories they tell.
Brad Pitt: F1 is full of stories, and each individual has their own quest and their own forces that they’re fighting against. Me, myself, for Sonny, he’s a character who had an early existence in F1, and it didn’t pan out for him, and he thinks he’s made his peace with that and has structured his life around that and moved on. But as life does, those unanswered things seem to circle back around, and we have to address them again, and that’s the Sonny story as I see it, which I’m quite moved by. But there’s many more stories to our story. There’s an underdog story, they’re a last-place team, how do they fight within the rules, how can they become a winning team? Kate’s fighting against a glass ceiling, in a sense. Damson’s character is a new and young phenomenon. He’s trying to find his way in a sport under great scrutiny, and still trying to operate at his best, and Javier is someone who’s trying to maintain this dream. He anchors it. So there’s multiple things going on in our story, and just like if you follow any racing weekend, the headlines are full of individual stories, and that’s the same for us.
10) Kerry Condon Never Thought She Would Be In A Hollywood Blockbuster
Kerry Condon admits that the main reason she joined the cast of ‘F1 The Movie’ is because she never thought she would be in a blockbuster film.
CyMVLBZ0nDc1R50XgbSKa4Kerry Condon: It was a blockbuster movie, and I grew up watching them in Ireland. I never thought I would have been in a big Hollywood movie with the music and the effects. It was just crazy thinking that I was even up for it, to be honest. I just wanted to be in it because it was one of those movies I had watched as a child.
What is the plot of ‘F1”?
Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a Formula One driver who raced in the 1990s, has a horrible crash, forcing him to retire from Formula One and start racing in other disciplines. A Formula One team owner and friend, Ruben (Javier Bardem), contacts Hayes and asks him to come out of retirement to mentor rookie prodigy Joshua “Noah” Pearce (Damson Idris) for the Apex Grand Prix team (APXGP).
Who is in the cast of ‘F1 The Movie’?
- Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes
- Damson Idris as Joshua “Noah” Pearce
- Kerry Condon as Kate
- Tobias Menzies as Banning
- Kim Bodnia as Kaspar
- Javier Bardem as Ruben
- Shea Whigham as Chip Hart
- Joseph Balderrama as Rico Fazio
- Sarah Niles as Bernadette
- Samson Kayo as Cashman
- Callie Cooke as Jodie
List of Joseph Kosinski Movies:
- ‘TRON: Legacy‘ (2010)
- ‘Oblivion‘ (2013)
- ‘Only the Brave‘ (2017)
- ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ (2022)
- ‘Spiderhead‘ (2022)
- ‘F1‘ (2025)
Buy Tickets: ‘F1 The Movie’ Movie Showtimes
Buy Joseph Kosinski Movies on Amazon
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