F1 the Movie
Year: 2025
Rating: PG-13
Length: 155 minutes / 2.58 hours
I’m not terribly huge into watching sports or racing. Yet, F1 the Movie (2025) intrigues me because it hooked me as a film about racing Formula 1 cars—which itself is more of a team sport than I originally realized. Much like Ford v Ferrari (2019) and Gran Turismo (2023) before it, F1 has a strong character-driven (ha ha) core that makes the entire experience enthralling. Whether it’s the adrenaline junkie Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) just racing for the love of the thrill or the young upstart Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris) trying to prove himself, their struggles move the plot along.
One aspect I appreciated about F1 was how the movie shows that the driver is not the sole reason why a car wins a race. There are so many aspects involved, many of which are pure engineering, that it’s difficult to realize all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into a winning team. If anything, F1 taught me that Formula 1 racing is much more than a recognizable driver. Of course, having only a passing knowledge of F1, I recognized a few of the names of other racers that they dropped in from time to time.
All this being said, F1 is still a sports movie at its heart. There are the “black shirt” rival teams, humbling moments of hubris, and thrilling victory laps that are standard for the genre. Not to say these are bad things, but more that they are the standard tropes of the genre. If you like it, that’s great! F1 should be enjoyable for you. It certainly entertained me.
A surprising team sports movie involving Formula 1 racing, I give F1 the Movie 4.0 stars out of 5.
