Brad Pitt F1 movie races onto screens in 2025

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The final F1 race of 2024 held in Abu Dhabi early mid-December strangely saw two separate podium celebrations.

It wasn't a shock to see McLaren's Lando Norris – who fans had just witnessed win the Grand Prix – spraying champagne with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who came second ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Yet moments later, fans at the circuit saw Mercedes-Benz driver George Russell – who came fifth in the Grand Prix, two places short of a podium – being handed trophies alongside Leclerc.

Standing on the top step of the podium was a figure in a white suit who hadn't just climbed out of a F1 cockpit after a 57-lap race like Russell and Leclerc – it wasn't a driver at all, but Hollywood star Brad Pitt.

Pitt plays the lead role of Sonny Hayes in the 2025 Warner Brothers/Apple film F1, directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick, Only the Brave and Tron Legacy) and co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Beverly Hills Cop, Days of Thunder, Top Gun).

Fans quickly jumped on social media with tongue-in-cheek posts including "Brad Pitt wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix'" and "Wow, Leclerc got two podiums in one day".

Yet the film – due for released globally, including Australia, in late June 2025 – has seen a studious Pitt and the crew embedded in F1, with filming taking place across the past two seasons alongside the real sport, aiming to be as authentic as possible.

"One of the big things that we're doing as part of this is that we wanted the racing to be real," Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Services, told media at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as filming wound up.

Successful films about F1 – from a fan point of view – are few and far between.

The 2013 film Rush, which was based on the on- and off-track rivalry of Austrian Niki Lauda and Brit James Hunt (played by Australian Chris Hemsworth) was well received – although some enthusiasts criticised the racing footage filmed at Cadwell Park in the United Kingdom (UK), saying the cars appeared unrealistically slow.

That's something the makers of F1 have gone to significant lengths – and cost – to avoid, directors disputing a reported $US300 million ($AU485 million) budget, saying it was too high following media reports the film had cost even more.

Bruckheimer’s 1990 Oscar-winning Days of Thunder starring Tom Cruise as a NASCAR driver cost $US60 million ($AU97million) to make according to IMDB.com, around $US145 million in today's money ($AU234 million).

Regardless, the dedication to realism and authenticity – knowing some die-hard racing fans will be at pains to spot any errors – appears to have been meticulous in its planning and execution. 

"A lot of the incidents in the movie are taken from real events," Bruckheimer said – filming taking place at races including Silverstone (UK), Hungary, Spa (Belgium), Monza (Italy), Suzuka (Japan), Las Vegas (United States) and Abu Dhabi – among others.

For F1, efforts included contributions from Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion – who is making a high-profile switch from Mercedes-Benz to Ferrari in 2025 – ensuring the driving scenes were as true to the real F1 as possible.

Hamilton launched his own film production company, Dawn Apollo Films, in 2023, which is also working on a documentary of the British driver’s racing career.

"Lewis keeps us honest. Lewis looks at every race and goes, 'You wouldn't be in second gear in this turn, you would be in first.' He comes in there, and he can hear the engine and the shifting and everything like that," Bruckheimer explained.

In the film, Pitt's character Hayes is a veteran racer driving for the fictitious APXGP team, which used real Formula 2 chassis – modified by Mercedes-Benz to look like a current F1 car, with the team even having its own garage space in pit lane during Grand Prix weekends.

Not since the legendary Grand Prix of 1966, starring James Garner, took the groundbreaking move of strapping cameras to F1 cars – with driver cameos including Juan Manuel Fangio and Australia's Jack Brabham – has the level of engagement with genuine racing been so deep.

Pitt, now 61 years old, and British co-star Damson Idris, who plays Hayes' team-mate Joshua Pearce, trained extensively for the demands – and to have the physique of a modern F1 driver.

The efforts of cast and crew reflect the significant growth in interest in the sport, particularly in the US, where its own open-wheel racing series – IndyCar – is often compared head-to-head with F1.

The film also sees drivers making active cameos – such as the second podium at the final race – while at other times, they were asked not to acknowledge the cameras but carry on as usual while filming took place.

Working around the events saw the crew have a single nine-minute window at Las Vegas, for example, to get footage shot. 

While not quite as invasive as the fly-on-the-wall Netflix Drive to Survive series, trackside fans found the Hollywood sideshow hard to ignore.

This led to worries they could potentially ruin the charade with plot-line spoilers, even if the social posts were fuelled by anticipation – but Cue was not worried.

"If you're on the set of a movie, and you get a clip of it, you would have no idea what the hell is going on," Cue said.

"It's not like it's shot in sequence, right? These little things … I saw this thing on YouTube of Brad fainting [in character as Hayes] in Vegas or whatever, but you have no idea what the context of that is or before. I actually think all of it helps."

Bruckheimer, too, said the fans have improved the end product with infectious enthusiasm which will bring the sport they love to a wider audience.

"The fans have been phenomenal, they really have," Bruckheimer said.

"They've embraced us and been really gracious to Brad and to the movie itself, the stuff that they've tweeted about the movie. They've realised the impact that a movie can have on a sport."

That's true in North America, where four-time world champion Max Verstappen is rarely recognised – with only Australia's Daniel Riccardo one of the sport's breakthrough personalities in the US.

Most F1 drivers go unrecognised in the US but may not once F1 hits cinemas.

"The drivers haven't been exposed to certain markets. I mean, these guys are rockstars – let's face it, they're the 20 best drivers in the world. And they'll be exposed to not just the Drive to Survive audience, but everybody."

F1 is scheduled for release in Australian cinemas on 25 June 2025.

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