From the moment Brad Pitt was photographed at the British Grand Prix last summer - where he also put in a few hot laps around Silverstone - the movie's marketing people have kept the buzz gently revving in the background in the build up to the film's launch in June 2025.
The film, simply titled 'F1', is a federation-approved, Jerry Bruckheimer-produced love letter to the sport. In it, Pitt stars as an over-the-hill great who comes out of retirement to mentor a rookie played by Damson Idris - the Lewis Hamilton to Pitt’s Michael Schumacher, ostensibly.
If the production’s embedded presence at F1 events and with the sport’s leading personalities is a guide, the film shouldn’t lack for authenticity, and the film-makers have gone to extreme lengths to ensure that all the details are spot on. They don't want any F1 nerds picking holes or spotting technical errors to spoil the endeavours of both the actors and the marketing people.
For example, Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion driver, was brought in to accurately relate the feeling of driving an F1 car - down to what going around a curve should sound like. In one such scene from the British GP, Hamilton spotted a car in second gear, but could hear that the driver was actually in third gear. It’s exactly the kind of detail that F1 nerds will make mincemeat of - which is why this film, at least from a purely racing standpoint, shouldn’t disappoint.
Formula One has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years thanks, in no small way, to the success of the Netflix series Drive to Survive. The multi-year series provides a behind-the-scenes look into F1 and its drivers, including lots of juicy gossip and intense rivalries.
Alfa Romeo boss Frederic Vasseur says this about the new movie: "For me, it could be a mega step forward for F1 in general, as Netflix was a couple of years ago."
By now, you're probably itching to see the movie's official teaser trailer. Here it is...