The new trailer for ‘F1’ dropped today, and you can watch it above.
Scheduled to open in theaters on June 25th is the new film ‘F1’, which takes place in the world of Formula One racing. Directed by Joseph Kosinski (‘Top Gun Maverick’), the movie stars Brad Pitt (‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’), Damson Idris (‘Snowfall’), Kerry Condon (‘The Banshees of Inisherin’), and Javier Bardem (‘No Country for Old Men’).
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Earlier this week, Moviefone had the pleasure of attending a virtual press conference, along with other members of the press, for ‘F1’ featuring director Joseph Kosinski, and a video introduction from Lewis Hamilton, producer and Formular One World Champion.
Here’s what Kosinski and Hamilton had to say about making ‘F1’.
The Champion Speaks
The press conference began with an introduction from Formula One World Champion race driver Lewis Hamilton, who is also a producer on the film.
“Joe (Kosinski), Jerry (Bruckheimer), Brad (Pitt), the cast and the whole filmmaking team put an incredible amount of effort to deliver a genuine Formula One racing experience, unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before on screen. As you may have heard, the film was shot during the F1 races over the course of a season, and with Joe at the helm, audiences around the globe are going to feel like they’re on the track and in the driver’s seat.”
Hamilton went on to discuss working with Brad Pitt and his commitment to the project.
“Watching Brad drive around speeds over 180 miles an hour was impressive to see because it’s not something you can just learn overnight. The dedication and the focus that Brad put into this process has been amazing to witness. This film has got it all. Brad Pitt, speed, thrills, an epic underdog story, drama, humor, and a little bit of romance.”
Finally, Hamilton expressed his pride in the film and promised something for Formular One fans and non-fans alike.
“You may even recognize some familiar faces from the world of Formula One racing. As someone who’s dedicated his whole life to this sport, I’m so honored to have worked alongside this team of actors and filmmakers. This has been such a thrill for me. I genuinely promise this film delivers on every level.”
Why Formula One?
After Hamilton’s introduction, director Joseph Kosinski discussed why he wanted to make a movie about Formula One racing.
“Well, I think like a lot of people during Covid, I found myself starting to watch the races and found this great television show called ‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’. I found that it’s an incredibly unique sport in that your teammate is also your, in many ways, your greatest competition. For me, that makes for a great drama. I also loved how the first season of the show focused on the last place teams, the underdogs rather than the Ferrari, the Mercedes, the Red Bull, the teams that you see at the front of the pack. I thought that there was an interesting story to be told about an underdog team trying to not win the championship, but just trying to win one race against these titans of the sport. So that’s where it started. Lucky for me, I had a contact who was in Formula One that I could reach out to, so I did.”
Commitment to Authenticity
Kosinski discussed what steps he took to make sure the race scenes looked as authentic and accurate as possible.
“Well, the first thing I did was I reached out to Lewis Hamilton who gave that incredible intro, and obviously he lives that sport every day. He’s one of the greatest of all time and I asked him to be my partner on making this film. So having Lewis gave me this incredible in into this world, and one of the people he introduced me to was Toto Wolf, the team principal of Mercedes. I started talking with them about wanting to capture the speed of this sport, and It was actually Toto who came up with the idea of rather than making a movie car fast enough to achieve these speeds, but he said, “Why don’t you start with a race car and take a real race car and then work the cameras that you need into that”. So, we did that. We bought six F2 cars, real F2 race cars and worked with Mercedes AMG, the Formula One team and their engineers to build real race cars that could carry our camera equipment recorders and transmitters for making this film. So, every time you see Brad or Damson driving in this movie, they’re driving on their own in one of these real race cars on a real F1 track. So that’s kind of how we approached the making of this film.”
Kosinski also talked about the research he did to prepare for the movie.
“It’s one of the nice benefits of making a movie about Formula One is a lot of research, a lot of travel, and I got to see amazing tracks all over the world. One thing I really love about Formula One is every race has its own character and every weekend it’s very different. We end the film in Abu Dhabi, which is this incredible track that is just a spectacular way to end the film. But every track has its own personality, its own character, and because we went to all these places for real, you really feel like you’ve gone around the world when you watch the movie.”
Shooting the Racing Scenes
Coming off the success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, Kosinski explained how that movie prepared him for this film and how he was able to capture the incredible Formula One race scenes and bring that excitement and action to the big screen.
“I mean, the big challenge was just the camera system itself. We had to develop a brand-new camera system taking everything we learned on ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and pushing it much further. You can’t put 60 pounds of gear onto a race car and expect it’s going to perform the same way. So, we took those ‘Top Gun’ cameras and we worked closely with Sony, sizing them down to something about a quarter of the size. Then on top of that, something I really wanted to do on this film was to be able to operate and move the cameras while we were shooting, which was something we couldn’t do on ‘Top Gun’. So, we have motorized mounts on the car as well. So, you have transmitters that are transmitting the picture back. We’ve got transmitters controlling the movement of the camera. I’m sitting at the base station with Claudio (Miranda), our cinematographer looking at 16 screens. I’ve got camera operators on the controls for the cameras and it’s calling out. The Camera moves like a live television show while they’re shooting. So much research and technology and development went into just being able to roll a frame of footage in addition to the training for the actors and the logistics of shooting at a real race. So, it was a lot of prep to be able to pull this off.”
Kosinski shot some scenes during real Formula One Championship races and explained the complications of trying to execute those scenes in a small window of time.
“I mean, the tracks, the locations are one thing, but on race weekend, it just becomes this whole different world. It’s like a traveling circus. So, we couldn’t just shoot at the track without the race going on. It would’ve been the wrong dynamic. So, we were there on race weekend with hundreds of thousands of people watching us finding these slots between practice and qualifying, that Formula One graciously afforded us. So, we’d get these 10- or 15-minute slots where we’d have to have Brad and Damson ready in the cars, warmed up with and ready to go, and as soon as practice ended, they would pull out onto the track. We’d have 24 to 30 cameras ready, rolling, and I’d have to shoot these scenes in these very short, intense, high-speed windows. But the crowd you’re seeing was there in the stands. I don’t think the crowd realized that Brad Pitt was in the car that was in front of them. So, there was this heightened quality to every race. We were also shooting dramatic scenes on the grid before races, so it was a unique way of working rather than having a whole day to shoot a scene like you normally would on a movie. We had these 9- or 10-minute slots, so it was like a live stage play, but in front of hundreds of thousands of people shooting at 180 miles an hour, literally. So, it was an adrenaline rush every weekend, but what we captured is something you can’t fake, you can’t stage. it was like game day. I remember our first day shooting at Silverstone (racetrack) with Javier (Bardem), Brad and Tobias Menzies. I literally had a piece of paper with, it looked like an American football diagram of where everyone had to stand and walk and where you had moved to. It was like we looked at it and it was like, break, let’s go do this. I think we got three takes in seven minutes or something and got what you see in the film. But the actors, you feel that in their performance, they know it’s like, we’re not going to get 15 tries at it. You got to nail it.”
Driving School
Actors Brad Pitt and Damson Idris had to learn to drive real Formula One cars for the film and Kosinski discussed how Hamilton helped in their training.
“Brad and Damson are both driving in this film and to get them into these race cars, it required months, literally months of training. But the first day was fun. It was me, Brad and Lewis Hamilton at the track together, all of us jumping in cars and driving each other around in sports cars. Which was one of those things, I’ll never forget having Lewis Hamilton as your driving instructor. But what we learned and what Lewis was really interested was seeing did Brad know how to drive right? Because if Brad can’t drive, this whole film wasn’t going to work. What Lewis was very happy to discover was that Brad had a lot of just natural ability right from the start, and I don’t know where he got that or if he was born with it, but he rides motorcycles, which I think has something to do with it. He’s just a very talented, naturally blessed driver, which for Lewis, gave him a lot of confidence that we might have a shot at pulling this off. He just had that natural feel for grip in the car and what we’re doing on this film is dangerous. So yeah, you must be fearless, and when you see Brad driving, that’s not acting. He’s really concentering on keeping that car on the track and out of the wall during all those scenes. So that’s something that you just can’t fake, I think. I hope the audience feels that when they watch the movie.”
Finding the Right Story
The director talked about how important it was to find the right script and unique characters for ‘F1’.
“It always starts with a great script and a great story. I knew that no matter how accurate or exciting the racing is, it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not telling a story supported with great characters. So, it all starts with the script, and I worked with Ehren Kruger, who also worked on ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. He wrote an incredible script for us to start with. This story has everything. It has the tension you would expect in a movie like this with all the action, but at the same time, there’s real heart here, especially in the story of Sonny Hayes and this kind of redemption journey he’s on. There’s humor in there, there’s some romance, there’s a little bit of everything that you need to tell a fully fleshed out rich story like this.”
The Cast
The director also discussed his exceptional cast and what it was like to work with Oscar winners Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem.
“The most important thing a director does beyond developing the script is casting. Casting is everything. The group of actors that we pulled together for this film is incredible. Javier Bardem and Brad together, their friendship, which is an old one- three decades old, really is the core of this story and of this film and just seeing them together on screen is special. Kerry Condon, she’s incredible. She plays the team technical director, so she’s the person in charge of designing the car and the engineers and the drivers. There’s some healthy tension there on every team, and it makes for a great relationship between the two of them. Then Damson Iris, who people might know from his television career (‘Snowfall’), but maybe not from the movies. I’m really excited for people to see him here going toe to toe with Brad on a big screen and a big story. So, we have an incredible cast of supporting actors as well. It’s a great ensemble.”
Is ’F1’ for Racing Fans Only?
“Not at all,” answered Kosinski and the director went on to assure audiences that they don’t need to be Formula One fans to enjoy the movie.
CyMVLBZ0nDc1R50XgbSKa4“This is a movie about friendship, teamwork, sacrifice, and redemption. The story I think is universal. It’s just set in this incredibly exciting world of Formula One, and if you are a Formula One fan, I think you’re going to like this movie. If you don’t know anything about Formula One, I think you’re going to like this movie and you might come out wanting to watch some races or maybe even go to a race. So yeah, you don’t need to know anything going in. We’ll teach you everything you need to enjoy this story.”
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’?
- 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)
