"Not for the F1 Freaks" - F1: The Movie Review

WARNING: F1 Movie Spoilers Ahead

image credit: Formula 1

Better late than never, right? I figured that, while we wait for the F1 summer break to end, it would be a good time to finally get my review of the movie out. Is it over a month late? Yes. But do I care? No, not really. Now, if you're looking for a super in-depth review of every technical inaccuracy and what aspects of engineering the movie missed, I fear you are out of luck here. There are plenty of F1 junkies on YouTube and Instagram who can answer all of your burning questions on that front, but as for me, I mainly focus on the non-mathematical, non-brain-hurting aspects of the sport (minus Ferrari, who give me a headache just thinking about them). I'll discuss surface-level inquiries about the technical side of the movie, like how there's no way Sonny Hayes wouldn't have been insanely penalized for causing that many collisions, but that's where my expertise ends. All of my energy will be mainly focused elsewhere on the soundtrack, character development, and how closely the movie resembles an actual F1 race. So basically all of the important parts. For me, at least. Anyways, onto the review!

PRO: The Plot

I will start by saying that no, the plot wasn't very realistic to what F1 actually is. But if it were the sport would be way more entertaining. I wasn't bored for a second during the movie, and I felt the same rush watching Joshua Pearce climb his way up the leaderboard as I did when Nico Hülkenberg made his way to the podium in Silverstone. The movie was well-paced and nothing like what I was expecting when walking into the movie theatre, so I was pleasantly surprised. Certainly there were issues, such as the fact that nothing in those races made any sense. But it made for a fun time. I especially liked the reference to Magnussen being prone to causing accidents and racking up penalties. Although you can't tell me that Sonny would've gotten off scot-free from all of the accidents he caused.

I did enjoy the relationship developed between Sonny and JP, as I didn't think it felt forced or rushed by any means. While the crash may have been a little unrealistic, I liked how it gave Bernadette a larger role and highlighted JP's growth from where he had been when Sonny first joined the team. The ending was satisfying and not entirely far-fetched, which the beginning set up well. I'm glad that the storyline wasn't a retired F1 driver coming back to win a championship, like I had initially assumed, but rather a retired driver coming back to win just one race for the team. Do I fully understand why Ruben got an old, washed-up driver rather than a reserve or recently retired one? Nope! But that's Hollywood for you.

CON: The Plot

I know, I know, contradictory statement. Everything I said before is true, and the movie was entertaining to say the least. Didn't check my phone once, which is getting less and less common as more movies are being rolled out. But it was so far from what F1 is that it was hard for me to buy into. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far before it's just straight-up delusion. I mean, half of Sonny Hayes' plan was just Crashgate 2.0. You can't be the reason for like eight safety cars without raising a few of the stewards' eyebrows. I think that if you aren't an F1 fan, it was probably a better watch because, as Carlos Sainz says, it's "not for the F1 freaks." However, I do think that there is probably a whole wave of new fans who were disappointed upon watching their first real race; compared to the movie, they're a bit of a snoozefest. Unless you cheer for Ferrari. That usually is just a lot of crashing out for about an hour and a half.

Honestly, the biggest problem I had with the plot was the pivotal role of Sonny in the success of the entire team. He was the "Hail Mary" that Ruben was hoping for, but almost too much. Don't get me wrong, I can believe that he was meant to be this shining star until he got into an accident and that he's very good when it comes to cars. I can even believe that a 61-year-old could come back after three decades and win a race. But there was just way too much riding on him. What do you mean that his engineering ideas for the car worked better than the team's actual engineer? What do you mean the technical engineer actually listened to him after he was away from the sport for that long? What do you mean he could coach JP while also racing himself? He was just overall a little too "all-knowing" for my liking. He hasn't been around an F1 car in 30 years; there's no way he could've figured everything out, past the knowledge of everyone else on the team, in less than six months. Just a little too much of the saviour archetype for me.

PRO: Casting

Lucy Bevan, pat yourself on the back. I will admit that I was skeptical at first of the casting of Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes. Nothing against him as an actor at all. He just didn't strike me as an F1 driver. But after watching the movie and understanding the plot, it made a lot of sense. He was a fantastic Sonny Hayes. I hated his character, but he did an excellent job of portraying the lone wolf, jaded driver who couldn't commit to anything. Plus, Joshua Pearce's mom was right: "That's a handsome man right there." As for everyone else in the cast, it was all spot on. Damson Idris was, in my opinion, the best casting of the movie. His character was a rookie, so he was potentially a little too old to play the role. But he made up for it in everything else he did. JP was cocky, ambitious, and a smart-ass, which Idris got across in his performance. Compared to Pitt, you could tell he was meant to be the F1 driver between the two. The chemistry between the whole cast was also great, and despite not liking Sonny and Kate together, Brad Pitt and Kerry Condon were cute. And the dynamic between Pitt and Idris came across like how I imagine Alonso and Hamilton would've been if they were slightly more amiable towards one another. Javier Bardem, I also can't forget, was hilarious and probably my favourite character in the movie (I love you, Javier). He's basically Fernando Alonso in actor form, though, so how could he not be?

Movie Premiere in London, photo credit: Formula 1

CON: Representation of Women

I can't be a blogger for Girly Pop without addressing the elephant in the room: This movie sucked in terms of well-written, strong female characters. I know that the world of Formula 1 is dominated by men, and it probably will be until the world implodes upon itself. But recently, women have been taking the world of motorsport by storm. Laura Mueller. Suzie Wolff. Abby Pulling. Laura Winter. Lissie Mackintosh. Doriane Pin. There are so many empowering women involved now. And they're the well-known ones, but more and more women are becoming part of pit crews and engineering teams or are PR agents and social media managers. We're not as scarce as people think. The fact that there were really only three women in the movie isn't great, but it could've been excused if they were written and fleshed out as deep and complex characters. Unfortunately, they weren't.

Kerry Condon as Kate McKenna, image credit: IMDB

Kate McKenna held so much promise. Kerry Condon was a great casting decision, as I mentioned previously, and I liked the direction the character was going in. The first female technical director in history who was in charge of designing the winning car for APX GP. It had a nice ring to it. Plus, the backstory they gave her, where she left her husband because he didn't support her career, was progressive. I think it made her a role model for so many women, young and old, that nothing should stop you from getting what you want, least of all a man. But then, of course, because movies (and the world) should always revolve around men, she became the love interest of Sonny Hayes. Condon and Pitt had on-screen chemistry for sure, but it didn't make sense in terms of the plot. Sonny was too independent and Kate was someone who would never jeopardize her career like that. So why did they write it in? It's Hollywood, so I do understand they needed a love story at some point. I do wish they had kept Simone Ashley as Damson Idris' reporter love interest, because I would've loved more screentime for both of them, and it would make more sense with the story. But the love story isn't even what I'm most upset about. It would've been completely fine if Kate still maintained her role as a powerful, important woman in the film. But she didn't. After she and Sonny hooked up, her character lost every defining trait of herself and became his "long-term, long-distance, low-commitment, casual girlfriend" (Gerwig, 2023). I also didn't like that after he finished a race, Kate decides to "take him seriously" and listen to his recommendations for what to do with the design of the car. It felt like they were trying hard to emphasize that Sonny knew his way around cars, when it just discredited Kate and made her appear less competent than she was.

Jodie was the other main female character in the movie, as the only woman in APX GP's pit crew. Which is ridiculous in case you were wondering. Pit crews are male-dominated, but most teams on the grid have a few women working in them. And none of them are colossal screw-ups like how they painted Jodie out to be. Why is it that the movie only had three female main characters, and one of them was a love interest, the other couldn't do her job, and the third was a mom? Not rhetorical, I'm genuinely wondering. On top of all of that, it was subtly hinted at that Jodie had a minor crush on Joshua (he is quite the handsome lad, I'll give her that), who was nothing but rude to her almost the entire movie. Make. It. Make. Sense. The only part of Jodie's character I liked was when she told Sonny that she appreciated him standing up for her in front of the crew, but didn't want him to do it again because it made her appear weak. Other than that, though, the movie made her out to be this klutzy girl who wasn't good at her job. Which isn't the message the film should be trying to send out to girls watching the movie.

This is probably starting to sound like an essay, but I just need my point to get across. The movie had to do a better job with the representation of women. The only truly strong female character that didn't compromise herself during the movie was Bernadette, JP's mom. And still, she was written to develop his character further. Both Kate and Jodie had so much potential to show how hard it is for women to even get into male-dominated fields, and how they still thrived regardless. This was the perfect opportunity to provide support for every woman in F1, to show that we deserve to be in the paddock as much as anyone else. But it didn't, which was slightly disappointing as a girl who loves F1.

PRO: Insane Soundtrack

"I wanna let my hair down, yeah yeah yeah yeah." For about a week straight after I watched the movie, I was performing that song in my bedroom like I was Tate McRae. What an absolute banger. And that goes for the entire album of the movie. Whoever was in charge of choosing the artists should get a raise, because that might have been the most cohesive album to exist, and it had over fifteen artists collaborating on it! The dance techno-pop vibe they went with encapsulated what F1 sounds like in my head. I'm glad they included Tate, the queen of motorsport pop, although I do wish her song had a bigger moment rather than in the background of a club scene (although that scene is so me because I would also be asking for Carlos Sainz's number). Every other song had the perfect scene associated with it, and made for some pretty good edits of the movie over on Instagram. "Lose My Mind" is now my favourite Doja Cat and Don Toliver song, and "Messy" has made me a Rosé fan. My mom even liked that one, so you know it's good. Raye delivered, as per usual, with "Grandma Calls The Boy Bad News," which is my go-to karaoke song now, despite being much too hard for me to sing. If this movie doesn't win soundtrack of the year at the Grammys, I will indeed be boycotting (kidding, kidding).

Hans Zimmer has never missed while composing, and he wasn't going to start now. I don't think anyone could've created the score for this movie other than him. It might even be the best one he's ever made. Which is insane for me to say, considering some of his other movies. I mean, don't get me wrong, Inception, Gladiator, No Time To Die, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Rush are all great. But this movie might just be a step above. Oh, wait. Okay he also did Interstellar. So it's the second best movie score he's made. Still pretty great. To say it exceeded my expectations is an understatement, and I had some high expectations. It is Hans Zimmer after all; he and John Powell kind of own the world of music scoring.

Overall?

I give the movie a solid 7.8/10. It is a very good movie. From an entertainment aspect, it's about as good as a sports movie gets. In the theatres, my heart was racing and I was anxious to know how the movie would end, even though I kind of already knew (it is Hollywood after all). The only real issues I had were the lack of believability and inability to pass the Bechdel test. I will say a movie does not necessarily need to pass the test to be a good movie, look at every Christopher Nolan movie ever, but I do think the movie's treatment of women sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to the reality of women in the sport. Nevertheless, I will still recommend the movie to everyone I know. I just really want to know more F1 fans. So, if you find yourself in need of a movie to watch this weekend or to pass the time while F1 takes a break, I hope you'll pop into a theatre to catch a screening before it moves to streaming. Or just wait until it comes to Apple TV and you can see the movie while also binge-watching Ted Lasso. That's what I'm going to do.