This morning (afternoon for viewers at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone), we got our first peek at footage from the upcoming racing drama “F1.” Marking his return to the big screen after the massive success of “Top Gun: Maverick,” Joseph Kosinski once again aims to strap viewers into their seats and take ‘em for a high-speed ride.
Starring Brad Pitt as a former racer coaxed back to the Formula 1 grid to work with a younger teammate played by Damson Idris, “F1” boasts the distinction of shooting during actual Grand Prix races with real-life drivers and actors both behind the wheel. Speaking with Deadline for a recent interview, Kosinski shared the challenges of this highly complicated production.
“We’ve got Brad and Damson actually driving the cars, which is pretty spectacular in itself, but to do that in front of a live audience and at the speeds they’re doing it and figuring out a way to capture it… The logistics of it are unlike anything I’ve done before,” Kosinski said. “We’re shooting at the actual Grands Prix, there are certain aspects of this film where we’re working in very, very tight windows, shooting on the track, between practice and qualifying sessions, in front of hundreds of thousands of people.”
Many members of Formula 1, including Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes CEO, Co-Owner, and Team Principal Toto Wolff, worked with Kosinski and production to craft a car that would go fast enough to look like the experience of a Formula 1 car, but controlled enough for the actors to learn how to handle. What they came out with was a Formula 2 chassis and engine with a custom body that looks closer to a Formula 1 car: a completely custom vehicle with “15 camera mounts built into them, including the recorders and the batteries and the transmitters.”
“It’s the next generation from what we did on ‘Top Gun,’” Kosinski said to Deadline. “Everything is much smaller and the big innovation is that we’re now able to control the movement of the cameras on the cars. We’re not locked into these kinds of fixed positions we had on ‘Top Gun.’ Now we have real-time control of panning and focusing them while shooting through a very extensive RF network that we’ve built around the tracks.”
According to the official synopsis of the film, “F1” follows former Formula 1 driver Sonny Hayes (Pitt), who is lured back to the sport to partner rookie teammate Joshua Pearce (Idris) at the fictional APXGP team. In addition to Pitt and Idris, “F1” also features Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies, Sarah Niles, Kim Bodnia, and Samson Kayo.
“F1” releases, only in theaters in IMAX and other formats, on June 27, 2025.
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