F1: The Movie (2025)

Plot of F1:  Team owner of the F1 APXGP team, Ruben Cervantes hires Sonny Hayes, an almost star from the 90s, and now a driver for hire, to be second driver in his team. Ruben says their car is a shit box, and they need some serious help if the team is not to be bankrupted.  Despite some problems Hayes’s aggressive driving techniques begin to make changes, and with some trickery they begin to  win points. He advises Kate McKenna who is technical director about alterations to the design which will help them, and in time the two become close. Meanwhile Joshua Pearce, now the team’s number one driver, is advised by his manager (and cousin) to bale out before the team fails and he does not have a seat for the 2024 season. Also one of the shareholders in the company which owns the cars is up to no good intending to get rid of Ruben and sell the now successful team to a group of financiers, as long as Hayes is on board as team principal.

Content: Sex between Hayes and McKenna decorously implied, some drinking at parties.  Hayes is recruited by Ruben after we have seen him in the winning Porsche at the Daytona 24 Hour race. Once he joins up there are a succession of races mostly in Europe, nearly all involving intentional and unintentional crashes. He is mostly assisting the younger driver of the team, Joshua Pearce, who at one point is in a serious crash, Hayes rescuing him from his burning car. Of course, we know that in our reality F1 cars are unlikely to catch fire due to the  construction of the petrol tanks. At various moments real F1 drivers and team leaders get brief walk-ons. There is an exciting sound track and a lot of noise.

A View: Let’s face it, this Formula 1 took place in an alternative reality even though it appeared superficially to be happening in our 2023. There are a lot of errors pointed out by experts, but the only one I really noticed was the exhaust noise from the 1993 Lotus. Definitely not a Ford V8. A lot of ladies objected to the portrayal of Kerry Condon as the tech director, since her car was said to be no good, but ‘no good’ means one second a lap slower than the leader. Time it! It was still extraordinary. In all of this the plot was a bit desperate and real life F1 is probably a bit more exciting. But the races were well filmed and I was really with it when Hayes starts from last on the grid, taken back to an event in which I participated at Brands Hatch, last on the grid because my car had broken down on the first lap of practice. When the flag went down I overtook about 90% of the field before we’d got to Paddock. Those were the days. But back to this alternative reality, probably a watch even if you are, or are not, an enthusiast.

Fun Fact: There are a few, but the stand out is the fact that actress Simone Ashley, who had participated for the duration of the filming as Joshua’s girlfriend, finally only appeared briefly as herself, the rest on the cutting room floor.