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F1 Movie Trailer and Women in Formula One Media Studies
F1 Movie Trailer and Women in Formula One Media Studies
Formula One driver, Lewis Hamilton, is producing the first ever Formula One film. The film stars Brad Pitt playing Sonny Hayes who drives for APXGP team. The film was recorded during the 2024 race season with real fans and the actual race. The trailer shows Sonny’s life before F1 briefly then when he’s in F1 and establishes Sonny’s relationships. You can tell this film is made mainly for Formula Racing fans as they are the ones who will understand the trailer the most.
The theme and patterns in this trailer is Sonny’s rivalry with his teammate Joshua “Noah” Pearce. From the trailer we can tell that Sonny is the new driver for APXGP and quickly becomes the first driver. However, anytime we see Noah, he is unhappy looking at Sonny and they show them about to physically fight, twice. With the constant repetitiveness of seeing their reactions to each other, it’s clear they are rivals. From what we see, Sonny gets added to the team and everyone surrounds him with gratitude while Noah stands there alone watching. Because of this we see two sides of Sonny, a cocky egotistical driver but also a nervous driver needing support. Two characters say that people see Sonny as a never was, implying that when he was in Formula One, he wasn’t good. His teammate even asks him “when the last time you won a race (Sunday, Daytona), Oh I’m sorry I meant Formula One” which Sonny replies, “same you.” You can refer that both Sonny and Noah have yet to win and are seen as the underdogs. The creators want us to know that these two are not like other teammates in F1 who respect and support each other like Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Having background knowledge on Formula One, Sonny and Noah’s relationship is heavily inspired by Lewis Hamilton’s relationship with Nico Rosberg when they stopped supporting each other. With Lewis Hamilton being a producer on this film you can see where they asked him for help or ideas he pitched. Other fans have connected how they race each other in the trailer to Esteban Ocon and Piere Gasly with both duos crashing into each other. And even Sonny coming out of retirement to drive alongside s newer driver is very similar is Ferando Alonso. Who came back from retirement to race for his friend's team he bought and drive alongside the son. Like Ferando and Sonny, they are both old compared to the rest of the grid. Both Sonny and Ferando retired from F1 raced in a different league then went back to F1 just because they were asked. The only difference is Ferando is a world champion, Sonny (assuming) never won a race. We even see Sonny racing next to an Alpine car, meaning he is racing to get points, not to win. In Formula One, if your car isn’t as good as a Ferrari, McLaren, Mercades, or Redbull you can’t win a race unless they all crash. So instead, you’re racing other teams like Visa Cash App Redbull, Alpine, Aston Martin, or Kick Sauber for points (10th place and higher).
Formula One has quickly gotten bigger in America since the 2023 season when Max dominated. Now the movie coming out in July 2025 will bring in even more fans to the sport. However, fans are unhappy with one of the B-plots in the film. Sonny has a women engineer, which is not why fans are upset. Fans are upset that she is Sonny’s love interest. Instead of making her a powerful, smart women who could have had a husband outside of Formula One, the trailer shows her and Sonny making out in a room. Fans are especially upset with how this is going to affect the women who already work in Formula racing. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Esteban Ocon is the first driver in history to have a women engineer starting the 2025 season, the same season this movie comes out in. Some fans have even gone to Lewis Hamilton saying, “the fuck are you guys thinking.” Some fans completely forgot about Laura Mueller signing with Haas until the first race weekend when she spoke on the radio. And like all male dominate sports, some fans were not happy saying, “it doesn’t sound right I don’t like it” referring to Mueller’s voice. Once this movie comes out how else is Mueller going to be affected? Will fans say she slept her way to the top? Formula One article wrote about Mueller’s promotion, and they talked to Haas boss Ayao Komatsu asking him why it was her. Komatsu replied, " “We don’t care [about] nationality, gender – it really doesn’t matter because what matters is work. How you can fit into the team, how you can maximise the performance. I believe it is the right choice.” When it was announced by the Formula One Official Instagram, most comments are positive, but others like John Tucker say, “DEI in F1 is already ridiculous” when DEI laws are only in Japan and South Korea. We already have fans not supporting a woman in a leadership role as how will look after the movie releases?
There is no doubt in anyone's mind that this can and will make it harder for women to work in Formula racing and even be a fan. Formula One does so much to get women into sports, more than any other male dominate sport, so why did the producers choose to send that development back? Formula Racing has F1 Academy, a racing league at the same level of F4 for women to get them into motorsports and sign with teams in or outside of Formula Racing.
Works Cited
F1. “Mueller Becomes F1’s First Female Race Engineer at Haas.” Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website, Formula 1, 21 Jan. 2025, www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/laura-mueller-becomes-f1s-first-female-race-engineer-as-haas-confirm-key.3gFdz46OphteLHNKnGAIM6.
“F1 | Official Trailer.” YouTube, Warner Bros., youtu.be/CT2_P2DZBR0?si=6pKpVpD7G8SWlRZc. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.
“Formula 1® on Instagram: ‘Haas’ Laura Mueller Has Become the First Female Race Engineer in F1’s History 👩💻 #F1 #Formula1.’” Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/DFFw_U4Ms7v/?img_index=1. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.
Formula 1: Drive to Survive - Season 7 Trailer Rhetorical Criticism
Formula 1: Drive to Survive - Season 7 Trailer Rhetorical Criticism
Formula One is considered to be the pinnacle of motorsports with the glamor, the cars power, and money. It is a spectacle. The show Drive to Survive is produced by Box-to-Box Films and is funded by Netflix. The show is a documentary series about the latest season of Formula One for newer fans or to introduce more people to Formula One. During the season fans will mock Netflix or make jokes saying “I cannot wait to watch it on Drive to Survive next year. The show is geared towards people in the states to gain more fans for the races in Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas. The series has inspired other sports to do the same type of documentary show like the NHL’s Face Off series made by the same production company. Each year Formula One has a new season in the series and is released just before the next season of racing starts. For die-hard fans, it is a recap of everything that happened in the past season. Season 7 came out just before the 2026 race season started.
We get a mix of drivers, team CEOs, and sports journalists speaking about what Formula One is and what happens in the sport. Newer fans are more trusting with what is being said compared to older fans would question why Netflix would talk about this over this. This series is to get new fans into Formula One, now it mainly directed to Americans because of the spike in viewership in the states. Newer fans will watch the newest season, see how much drama is involved and watch the next racing season. The trailer focused on rivalries more than anything, and not just driver rivalries. They focused on the team CEO’s, Zak Brown (McLaren) and Christian Horner (Redbull) rivalry. Older fans, however, will understand more what is happening race-wise. When Estaban Ocon said “our biggest rival is ourselves” then they show a clip of the Monaco race when Ocon crashed into his teammate on purpose and destroyed his own car. Older fans are going to be able to see and remember exactly what happened in each race clip shown while new fans are starstruck when a crash happens.
The 2024 season has had the most drama compared to the season before (2023) with Max Verstappen winning every single race. Fans were ready for another boring season with Verstappen winning every race again until Lando Norris won in Miami. Norris made Verstappen fight for the Worlds Drivers Championship and the press made it look like their friendship was over. However, that is not all that happened. Formula One does not care about the drivers themselves, they care about the money. Which is why 3 drivers were fired during the season. First was Logan Sargeant in WIlliams and replaced by Francesco Colapinto, then Daniel Ricciardo in Visa Cash App RB (also called Racing Bulls, or by fans- Sugar Free Red Bull) and replaced with Liam Lawson, and finally Estaban Ocon in Alpine replaced by Oliver (Ollie) Bearman. Including drivers who could not find a seat for the 2025 season; Valtteri Bottas in Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber and his teammate Zhou Guanyu, and Kevin Magnussen in Haas. Fans were very saddened from the drivers who could not get a seat for next season but happy to hear about the new rookies joining from F2. While the same fans were pissed from drivers getting fired. The hardest part about getting into Formula One as a driver is the fee to get into the sport, which is about $11,047. Not only were drivers fired but some drivers switched teams. The one driver who caused most drama from signing a contract was Lewis Hamilton set to join Ferrari in the 2025 season. Hamilton and Ferrari fans were so excited and happy but Merecedes and Carlos Sainz (the driver who was in Ferrari) fans were pissed and wanted Hamilton to retire instead. The reason this is a big deal is because Hamilton is the iconic 7-time World Driver Champion, and he is moving to the most iconic team in all of Motorsports. The trailer tells us this by Merecedes team CEO/Principal Toto Wolf using a tone in his talking about the switch. The trailer even brings up the scandal with Christian Horner (Redbull team CEO/Principle) messaging an employee without saying it older fans know. From that they show the rivalry happening between Christian Horner and Zak Brown (McLaren CEO) by Brown on the phone saying, “let's see if we can get him to crack.” Immediately after they show us Horner saying, “Zak is a prick.”
Box-to-Box Productions wants the fans and viewers to know there is more to the sport than just cars driving left and right. Many Americans are used to NASCAR just going in a circle at 199.46 mph (321 k/h. But Formula One is so much more than that. First off, the sport was made to entertain the rich and for the glamor of the cars. Formula One tracks go left, right, straight, up, and downhill going 233 mph (374.97 km/h). As Carlos Sainz says at the beginning of the trailer, the sport is tough. If the drivers do not perform well, they get fired and the next rich driver takes over. Formula One is a spectacle, it is entertainment and one of the only sports where the viewers and athletes know it is for entertainment. If you compare how the drivers in Formula One talk to the press and fans compared to NHL players, you see how respectful both sides are in Formula. NHL players avoid the press and snap at reporters when they lose a game while Formula One drivers are still upset yes, but they do not snap at reporters. The drivers know and will get bad repercussions from their team and fans if/when something happens if a reporter or fan do not deserve it. On that note of respect, the biggest thing to happen last season was Verstappen vs Norris for the WDC. However, the trailer makes it look like Horner is stressed about the competition instead of what the episode talks about (him messaging an employee). The trailer is trying to push the rivalry of Redbull and McLaren alongside drivers get fired. But there is someone the trailer leaves out. William's driver, Logan Sargeant, was the first driver to get fired. They showed Daniel Ricciardo, Racing Bulls driver and Sergio (Checo) Perez, Redbull driver who were both fired. So why don’t they show or even talk about Logan Sargeant? When older fans watch the trailer, this is what they question, why show this but ignore that.
Box-to-Box Productions has Motorsports journalists, drivers, team CEO’s and Principles to take part in in the show. As Daniel Riccardo says in an interview, “It’s real sweat, I’m a high-performance athlete, athletes sweat, sweat baby ki ki ki rah sweat sweat wo wo.” All the people speaking in the show know almost everything about the sport whether they are participating or reporting. These people know the statistics, engineering, training, and workload of this sport no matter what department they are part of. The way Netflix and Box-to-Box Productions edit the trailer you can tell what they want people to think of this season by. Horner and Brown’s rivalry with each other and the teams, along with Hamilton leaving Merecedes. William's driver, Alex Albon, even says after Wolf, “Good Lewis, good for his bank account.” Then they show Charles Leclerc (Ferrari driver), known as the pretty boy of Formula (along with Norris) saying, “I look perfect” and “We are the Kardashian’s of Formula One.” Which makes older fan wonder if they added that because he is in Ferrari or because his fan base is mainly women. Then you have drivers who are only shown like Oscar Piastri (McLaren driver), not even showing drivers like Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls, or speak once like Pierre Gasly (Alpine driver). One of the last things the trailer brings up very quickly is Sainz appendicitis surgery, then they show a Williams driver crashing. Sainz got surgery because of food poisoning and using his voice over saying “that’s most scared I’ve ever been in my life” makes newer fans think he crashed.
Everyone part of this production is either in the film industry or part of the sport. Older fans can easily tell what parts are from the film team and what parts are from the people in the sport. Which is why newer fans should watch the trailer with a grain of salt as they cannot tell the difference without watching the show and watching the season. By the time the next trailer comes out, the new fans from this season will be able to tell the difference. The trailer wants to get newer fans into the sport, so they want the audience to be nervous and anxious with how many crashes they show. The trailer uses clips from races, interviews, paddocks, and celebrations/podiums. These clips add to the spectacle and the joy to the sport with drivers smiling and teams cheering to show that this is a competition of the best. Old fans get excited when they see the clips and can tell immediately which race the clip was from. Norris’s first win celebration and podium old fans know it was round #6 in Miami. Even the crashes that make new fans worry, the old fans can tell who was in the crash, what around, if the drivers involved DNF or not. Old fans get excited watching and remembering the races while new fans get anxious from the music, clips, and tone of everyone is speaking in.
In the article “Drive to Survive” Drives New Fans to Formula 1? Studying Viewer Experiences of a Sports Documentary and Its Influence on the Sport’s Fandom by Dhwanii Shah and Anthony Lamont Williams talks about the fan experience from new motorsports fans, older F1 fans, and new F1 fans from NASCAR/the states. Drive to Survive gives older fans more information about the drivers and team members' lives. Especially when it comes to newer team members and driver replacements. Shah and Williams say “After reviewing the findings of the study, it can be concluded that Drive to Survive has mixed influence on Formula 1 fandom. This finding is consistent with Boyle and Haynes (2024) assessment of the ‘Netflix effect,’ where the dramatization of the series received mixed reviews from fans, drivers, and Formula 1 stakeholders alike. In particular, many believe that the series is revolutionary in the way that it has shown the backstory of drivers and teams, while also noting the problematic nature of the dramatization of the series (Boyle & Haynes, 2024).” Drivers' lives are in the media more than ever expect on breaks when little media work is done (or recording for the series). One thing fans from other sports in the states notice is how well the drivers are media trained compared to NHL players. NHL players after a loss will snap at the interviewers, press, and the media while F1 drivers are respectful and nice when the media is nice (which they mostly are). F1 drivers know their popularity and fan base (theirs and other drivers) can and will hate them if the teams do not say something and the driver apologizes. As someone who wants to work in sports media, I would much rather work in Formula compared to hockey because of how respected the media works are when they are respectful.
This article supports my claims that Formula is the pinnacle of motorsports. Shah and Williams have said, “Formula One (henceforth referred to as Formula 1) is regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport racing by The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.” Not only that claim but also that new and older fans are seeing these athletes as humans and seeing what happens behind the pit wall, the team meetings, and how the drivers need to be media trained. “Sport holds a significant place in society and in the lives of fans, as demonstrated by its widespread coverage in the media (Wann & James, 2019). It is such a central focus of television, radio, magazines, video games, newspapers, and internet sites that even those who are not fans cannot help but notice the amount of media attention that sports receive (Bellamy, 2006).” Formula 1 is broadcasted and raced all over the world, these drivers are watched by anyone who has internet access or race tickets. And now with Drive to Survive getting so big globally the media pressure is heavier. In the trailer, sports journalist, Jennie Gow, says “you cannot underestimate the mental pressure” referring to the media watching the drivers to mess up.
The reason this matters is because fans will forget these drivers are human and risking their lives for their entertainment. Some fans have gone as far as to wishing drivers would crash and die just because they like a different team. You do not see this in any other sport of fans wishing death to athletes just because. And this sport is raced and broadcasted everywhere. From Japan to London to the states to Australia, the world is watching these drivers every turn. Shah and Williams talk about the difference not between new and old fans but also in person verses channel viewers. Formula 1 is some of the most expensive tickets for all 4 days the teams are drivers are at the track (media day- Thursday, practice- Friday, qualifying race- Saturday, and the race- Sunday). Shah and Williams talk about, “while individuals who actively watch a sporting event either in person or through media channels are considered sports spectators (Wann & James, 2019). All individuals interested in sports but are outside the stadium rely on different media platforms. As a result, the media plays a crucial role in shaping narratives in the world of sports (Sarkar & Soni, 2023).” The media is why this sport is no longer to entertain the rich, now the world knows the names of these drivers. Formula 1 started in 1950 and by 1959 the first American race was added while NASCAR started in 1948. Formula struggled to get an audience in the states until the early 80s. Shah and William talked to Xee, a NASCAR fan, to explain how he got into Formula One. “Xee who were familiar with other motorsports. Xee explained his experience, ‘I was a fan of NASCAR and other motorsports, but I never connected with Formula 1, which is the pinnacle of motorsports until Drive to Survive opened my eyes to Formula 1.’ Familiarizing the sport through Drive to Survive allowed participants to understand and follow the sport.” Another fan talked to Shah and Williams about how his family got into Formula One, “And Joe talked about his fiancé’s experience and his father’s influence: I watched Drive to Survive on my dad's recommendation. And I got my fiancé to watch Formula 1 races with me too. She got into Drive to Survive, and she did not really come in with any motorsports knowledge and now she knows the teams, the drivers, and it is largely due to the exposure that Drive to Survive gives. I have seen it not only affect myself, but I have seen it affect other people, my dad too who is a big Formula 1 fan after watching Drive to Survive.” Just from these 2 fans Shah and Williams talked to for their article further proves how diverse fans are now with Drive to Survive.
Formula One was the second-most watched sport for the season this trailer is covering. F1 teams and drivers have fans from all over the world and drivers from all over. Formula One is considered to be the pinnacle of motorsports with the glamor, the cars power, and money. Money is how drivers get into this sport, if you have talent but cannot pay the fee to join, you do not get a chance. Formula One is the most diverse when it comes to its audience and team members, which makes finding a group of fans like you the easiest compared to being a cricket fan in the states. And the main reasoning is from Box-to-Box Productions and Netflix’s series, Drive to Survive.
Works cited
“F1 | Official Trailer.” YouTube, Warner Bros., youtu.be/CT2_P2DZBR0?si=6pKpVpD7G8SWlRZc. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.
Shah, Dhwanil, and Anthony Lamont Williams. “‘drive to survive’ drives new fans to formula 1? studying viewer experiences of a sports documentary and its influence on the sport’s fandom.” Communication & Sport, 3 Sept. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795241280209.
Women in Motorsports Photo Essay
Women in Motorsports Photo Essay
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