For the first time in its 75 years of history, F1 has opened its paddock, its boxes, its grid and even its races for over two years for a Hollywood overproduction.
With starry cast, with Brad Pitt as protagonist, and having a consultant as the most won rider in F1 history, Lewis Hamilton, the goal of “F1 – The Movie” of course: increasing the sport fan base worldwide and especially in the United States. The premiere in theaters will be on June 26.
The model of captivating a new audience with an efficient audiovisual production has worked once in the category: the launch of the “Drive to Survive” series, Netflix, was a success and expanded the F1 audience, gaining a greater female and younger audience presence, from 18 to 25 years.
“The impact of the film will be gigantic. If the Netflix series was great, with the cinema we will hit an audience that is not yet present in the races,” says Stefano Domenicali, CEO of the category.
In Montreal, during the F1 Canada GP, the report of Sheetalong with other guests, watched the first session of the movie in IMAX format – which provides greater reality for running scenes, one of the main points of the movie. Earlier, producer Jerry Bruckheimer highlighted the effect of the film’s screening on an audience that did not know the sport.
“Before we started the movie, we asked 20 people who had already watched an F1 GP. Only one raised his hand. After the screening, we asked who would like to see a race and everyone raised them. I had never seen it in my career,” says Bruckheimer.
The film tells the story of Sonny Hayes, played by Brad Pitt, a pilot considered a young talent on the runways in the 1990s –Inclusive competing against Ayrton Senna. After a serious accident, he has a somewhat erratic life, but is still shown great talent on the tracks, such as the beautiful opening sequence of Daytona 24 hours, a pleasant surprise to race fans, with beautiful images of the famous endurance race in the United States.
This is the invitation of Ruben, played by Javier Bardem, so that he will return to F1, helping a rookie (Joshua Pearce) and his team, the fictional APX GP, to achieve competitive results so that he (who was a pilot and teammate in the 1990s) can stay in charge of the team.
A pilot over 50 returning to F1 and the way Haynes helps his teammate can cause a rather difficult premise to happen today, but it is the pilots themselves who reread some details on behalf of a larger prol, which is expanding the F1 audience.
“The movie is very cool. Of course, as F1 riders, we ended up watching small details that are not exactly just as we live in reality, but I think it’s okay, the movie is not for us, but for a much larger audience. I was very impressed as the cameras placed amazing angles of how we ride,” said Charles Leclerc.
Fred Vassur, head of the Ferrari team, also says he believes that the effect of the film will be as the visa with the Netflix series. “Yes, you can make this parallel and surely the people who watch the movie will want to see the races and thus increase our fan base,” he said.
In Montreal, Joseph Kosinski, director of the film (who also made “Top Gun – Maverick”), also made a point of saying that he did not just look for a new audience and made references to classic motorsport films such as “Grand Prix” and “Le Mans”, as well as recent productions such as “Rush” and “Ford vs Ferrari”.
“It is important that the audience who see the movie realizes that our production had access never before seen in the history of F1. We were as the 11th team, we recorded scenes with the real riders, in various racetracks around the world. We wanted to do it in real places, not just studios. And we did some angles of cameras that bring unpublished images, with a technology from Apple (producer of the movie) that allowed us to put on F1 during real GPS during gps, Amazing details for production, “he says.
In fact, in 2024 the report of Sheet He witnessed one of the scenes that appears in the movie being recorded in the grid: the filming team was only ten minutes to get it produced in real time, as the “real” race would happen soon after. For those who watch the movie, it occurs in the dialogue between Pitt’s character and a journalist in the Abu Dhabi race.
Lewis Hamilton also worked as a consultant and his detail level was highlighted by the director. “He even commented: ‘In this curve the sound has to be different, we are not in third gear, but in fourth gear.’ In a Budapest scene, he comments that the type of accident we would filming could only happen in curve 6. It’s this kind of detail,” he replied.
Hamilton admitted nervousness before the F1 riders were exhibited – they occurred in Monaco and also this week in New York. “I was looking forward to knowing their opinion and I was happy that they thought our sport was well represented in a Hollywood production,” he said.
Concern about some of the very faithful details to the movie will be perceived by fans. Even in the important scene about Haynes competing against Senna. Asked if these small details, including the presence of the Brazilian’s car, were references for fans to be attracted to the film, the director replied.
“Surely, even more talking to Lewis and all the pilots, the age of 1990s is considered the great age of F1, with the sound of the engines, Senna being the great icon. It was a great opportunity to put in the movie and please those who understand the history of the sport,” he said.
If big F1 fans will consider the new movie a great classic, it’s still hard to predict, but a new audience will come in the category and the goals of making F1 even more popular, especially in the US, is a bet even easy to predict. As much as what happens in APX’s trajectory during “F1 – The Movie”.
