WATCH: The new trailer for F1, from ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ director Joseph Kosinski

The thrill of F1 racing has only grown in popularity in the past decade. Thanks to stars like Lewis Hamilton and the popular Netflix series Drive to Survive, Formula One racing has found an all new audience that transcends class and age. Director Joseph Kosinski — who helped save cinema from the effects of the pandemic with Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 — has been tasked with bringing the thrill and intrigue of the sport to the big screen with the upcoming film F1. A fictionalized account of racer Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a champion racer coaxed out of retirement to revive a struggling team, the film’s trailer hints at the action-packed thrills and bromantic hangout vibes that helped make Maverick such a big hit.

During a press conference for the trailer reveal, director Kosinski describes discovering the high-speed reality series Drive to Survive during the early part of the pandemic. “I found that it’s an incredibly unique sport in that your teammate is also, in many ways, your greatest competition. And for me, that makes for a great drama. I also loved how the first season of the show focused on the last place teams, the underdogs,” he explained.

The film was made in close collaboration not just with Formula One racing, to ensure realism, but specifically Lewis Hamilton — a friend of Kosinski’s. In an intro to the event. Hamilton said that the movie will feature “the most authentic racing scenes you will ever experience in a cinema.” Despite the fictionalized story, Hamilton and Kosinski both hint that the movie will feature many stars and familiar faces for Formula One fans.

Due to the physically demanding nature of driving cars that go 180 km/hr, Brad Pitt and his co-star Damson Idris had to go through months of training in order to convincingly operate these monstrous machines. Both actors are actually driving the cars, adding a layer of danger and intimacy almost never seen in these types of films. Kosinski described their fast day on the track, with Hamilton as their trainer: “What Lewis was really interested in was seeing was, ‘Does Brad know how to drive?’ right? Because if Brad can’t drive, this whole film wasn’t going to work. And what Lewis was very happy to discover was that Brad had a lot of natural ability right from the start, and I don’t know where he got that or if he was born with it. He rides motorcycles, which I think has something to do with it, but he’s just a very talented, naturally gifted driver.”

The F1 trailer hints at this high-speed atmosphere, playing into Kosinski’s great skill as a filmmaker — his ability to blend intense action with a more human element. With a cast rounded off with Javier Bardem and Kerry Condon, F1 promises a high-octane cinematic experience.

F1 will be released in Montreal theatres on June 27, 2025. 

---

For our latest in film and TV, please visit our Film & TV section.