Last year, the cast of the movie “F1” decamped to Britain’s Silverstone circuit for shooting, the big news at the time being lead actor Brad Pitt doing laps in a single-seater for some of the film’s scenes. This year, Brad Pitt returned to Silverstone for the weekend’s British Formula 1 Grand Prix, and on Sunday, Formula 1 uploaded the first trailer to its official YouTube channel. This is less a trailer and more a teaser — in 75 seconds, we get three lines of dialogue that are finished before 20 seconds have passed, the rest is a mood board of dramatic footage set to Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”
A few things are clear. Lewis Hamilton, who’s one of the executive producers and a consultant, said, “We want everyone to love it and to really feel that we encapsulate what the essence of this sport is all about.” However, because the movie has the backing of Formula 1 — and based on the hero car livery, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, team sponsor IWC, the real-life company Expensify, and plenty of other brick-and-mortar firms — we don’t expect the film to include anything that could be seen as remotely controversial to any aspect of the sport. Anyone who’s been a fan of Hamilton for more than six weeks knows controversy is part of what this sport is all about.
Also, there are going to be cameos, from the drivers on the grid to former Haas Team Principal Gunther Steiner. And if the opening lines of dialogue are representative, we know those who follow the sport are going to encounter some questionable takes on an F1 car.
The one-line synopsis is that Pitt plays a Formula 1 driver getting back in the car after an extended time off.
This isn’t “Rush” (nor should it be!), this feels like Netflix’s “Drive to Survive, The Movie.” It will come to theaters and then Apple TV in summer 2025.