- A brand new teaser trailer aired during Super Bowl LIX has previewed the authentic racing action featured in Apple Studio’s F1 starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris.
- Camera placements aside, the $300 million production achieved all-new heights of authenticity by having its cast actually join the grid for principal photography.
- F1 movie release date: June 25th, 2025.
True to the earlier promise of director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Top Gun: Maverick), F1 flaunts some tasty “in-camera action” to do the elite motorsport cinematic justice — which was previewed in the Super Bowl LIV teaser.
“It’s almost funny to me to see people who are so enamoured with real photography. Younger people almost haven’t seen a lot of it. They’re so used to CGI being a tool of big movies that when you shoot something for real, it feels innovative,” Kosinski told The Wrap.
“That’s exactly the approach for Formula One… to shoot at the real races and real cars and capture it. It’s going to be a huge challenge but an exciting one for me.”
The film’s fictional 11th team — dubbed Apex Grand Prix team (APXGP) — also had its very own garage and pit bay alongside Scuderia Ferrari; and even made use of a Formula 2 car modified by the Mercedes team to resemble current F1 machinery (fitted out with camera technology similar to that of Top Gun: Maverick).
Although the AXGP cars did participate in the formation lap, it’s worth noting that for this specific instance, they were piloted by ex-drivers Craig Dolby and Luciano Bachetta — not the Hollywood actors. However, the latter two did take the high-powered race rigs for a spin earlier when nobody else was on the track for safety reasons.
In terms of story, similar to Sylvester Stallone’s Driven, F1 follows a grid veteran named Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) who was forced to retire after a horrible crash in the 90s. That is until his dear friend and APXGP team owner Ruben (Javier Bardem) calls him up to mentor rookie prodigy Joshua “Noah” Pearce (Damson Idris).
“I play a guy who raced in the 1990s who has a horrible crash and disappears to race in other disciplines,” Brad Pitt explained to Sky Sports.
“His friend (played by Javier Bardem), the team owner, contacts him. They’re last in the grid, they haven’t scored a point. But they have a young phenom, played by Damson Idris, and they bring me in as kind of a Hail Mary.”
“You’ve never seen speed, you’ve never seen the G-forces like this. The footage is really, really exciting.”
The rest of the cast has been filled out by Kerry Condon as Kate, Tobias Menzies as Banning, Sarah Niles as Joshua’s mother Bernadette, Kim Bodnia, Samson Kayo as Cashman, and plenty more.
Seven-time world champion and
MercedesFerrari driver Sir Lewis Hamilton — who produces via Dawn Apollo Films — four-time world champion Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr, the freshly-ousted Sergio Perez, as well as the rest of the drivers will appear as themselves. The legendary Jerry Bruckheimer has also signed on to produce.
Joseph Kosinski’s F1 movie starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris has officially set a release date: June 25th, 2025 — check out the new teaser trailer above and the first one below.
