How ‘F1: The Movie’ Compares To Actual F1 Racing

SportsMoneyHow ‘F1: The Movie’ Compares To Actual F1 RacingByMaury Brown, Senior Contributor

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights

More (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)NurPhoto via Getty Images F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt, is a summer adrenaline rush, but does it accurately depict what F1 racing is all

Let’s get this out of the way: F1: The Movie is the kind of action-packed fun you’d expect of a summer blockbuster

If you’ve never ed Formula 1 racing or only briefly known it, Netflix’s Drive To Survive, it may be your gateway into becoming a fan

As Top Gun ultimately became a commercial tool for recruiting people into the Navy, F1: The Movie is pure Hollywood, designed to market F1 to the masses

WARNING: SPOILERS For fans of F1, those who race, and the media that covers it, F1: The Movie could come as a disappointment

The storyline and the reality of what happens behind the scenes and on the track in Formula 1 diverge at the start and don’t end until the credits

What is irrefutably compelling and will keep most race fans engaged is the eye-popping on-track sequences and state-of-the-art camera placement that not only makes one feel they’re on the cars, but inside the eyes of the principal racing characters in the film

Given that sign-off came from the FIA, F1, Liberty Media, with Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff ducing, the movie’s incredible backdrop of actual race weekend access with real drivers Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclec, and more in cameos, gives the feel of it being at the F1 race schedule

Now living out of a van, Hayes gets ed by F1 team owner Rubin Cervantes, played by Javier Bardem, a seat opening with his struggling fictitious APXGP team

From the jump, this is where Hollywood and reality diverge

Pitt is box office gold

Perhaps it’s the lack of young action stars, but Pitt’s role is ing in the footsteps of Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise, as older stars still make moviegoers believe they can excel far beyond their prime

The current trend is to pluck drivers in their teens from F2 and develop them

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso is currently the oldest driver on the grid at 43

While the analytics and high- aspects of Formula 1 are touched on, the actual race strategy falls into the realm of the “wild maverick upends the team and F1 with his driving antics. ” Early on, Pitt’s Sonny Hayes makes intentional with other cars and the barriers to purposely bring out the safety car to help teammate Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris, get the inferior APXGP car closer to the pack on restarts

If the FIA stewards are trigger-happy with doling out penalties in the real F1, Hayes and the APXGP team would be susp and fined off the grid

At one point, Hayes pits for a tire change, and refuses to leave the box when the team has opted for a hard tire strategy over the driver’s stubborn demand for softs

A full 30 seconds later, the team relents, Hayes gets his softs, and off he goes

No driver could do this and not be sent packing the second they were out of the car

MORE FOR YOU While F1: The Movie is going to be a great marketing vehicle to bring in fans, for the industry, it plays hard against the role of women in the paddock

It’s a summer blockbuster. the aforementioned Days Of Thunder, there has to be a love interest, and it’s here that the plot sees Hayes and APXGP nical director Kate McKenna, played by Irish actor Kerry Condon, make the connection

While there have been cases of personnel that work with drivers form romantic relationships (in IndyCar the late Dan Wheldon married Susie Behm who worked for Keystone Marketing doing PR work for Jim Beam, which sponsored his car at the time), the notion that a romantic fling between a driver and nical director would be completely off-limits

And early in the racing sequences, tire-gunner Jodie, played by Callie Cooke, makes what seems a rookie mistake that only the sage male lead in Pitt can help her overcome her lack of confidence and shine

It’s here that the movie undermines F1’s efforts to lure women into the sport

It may all play well on the screen with regular moviegoers, but it does a disservice to F1’s sincere efforts to bring diversity to the paddock

So, is F1: The Movie the real Formula 1

It is a highly entertaining movie that, due to the incredible driving scenes, is a must-see at the theater

It has a chance at being one of – if not the – top box office draws of the summer

It will undoubtedly make new fans of Formula 1 and open-wheel racing, which is great for the sport

However, the movie is anything but documentary material

If F1: The Movie is the gateway drug to the world of Formula 1, the education of these new fans will be a long-standing part of the equation

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