F1: The Movie - Review 

Rating: 5 out of 5

FORMULA One gets the Top Gun: Maverick treatment with similarly exhilarating results; a must for the big screen for the way in which it brings the race track experience alive.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, who also helmed that Top Gun sequel, F1 enjoyed unprecedented access to the sport itself, filming on race days at Silverstone, Las Vegas, Monza and Abu Dhabi (to name but a few).

It puts you in the car, around the paddock and into the garages, where testing and design is carried out - all with a view to highlighting the tactics, the deals and the training that goes into bringing each race day alive.

Lewis Hamilton serves as a producer and appears fleetingly throughout - but then so do all of the current top drivers, from Max Verstappen to Charles Leclerc.

It’s a glowing advertisement for this high octane, corporate driven sport - and the extreme wealth on display is, arguably, one of its less charming elements. As product placement goes, this is next level promotion.

All of which makes the need to deliver an entertaining, emotionally engaging film all the more important: which Kosinski and co-writer Ehren Kruger do.

Sure, F1 has some cheesy elements befitting the type of male egotism and bravado synonymous with a lot of this sport in general - not to mention a maverick approach to the actual rules of the sport (and safety features) which allow for the creation of more risk and excitement than most races generate.

But this only adds to the charm, enabling the film to expand its appeal beyond mere F1 enthusiasts.

Brad Pitt, as leading man, adds to this, delivering a performance of rugged, yet cheeky charm that mixes wily experience with likeable confidence and a certain vulnerability. He plays Sonny Hayes, a veteran driver who lost his way after a near-fatal crash 30 years ago, now drifting around in his campervan, signing up for races where he can and living one race at a time.

When his old driving buddy Ruben (Javier Bardem), now an under pressure team owner, comes calling with a plea for Sonny to help his ailing team win one race before the end of the season, in order to stave off the threat of a corporate takeover from financial backers such as Banning (Tobias Menzies), Sonny teams up with sceptical young team-mate Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) to engineer a miracle.

Along the way, Sonny must win his team over with some cavalier, risk-taking strategies, while also developing a tentative romance with technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon) and coming to terms with his own past demons.

To be fair, F1 The Movie does rely on some pretty familiar genre cliches to deliver its underdog tale. But it delivers them so well that you won’t mind some of the film’s cheesier elements.

The technical prowess on display is staggering: F1 does what it says on the label; brings you as close to being in a full speed F1 car as you’re ever likely to get. The camera work is exceptional - the race sequences are exhilarating and completely immersive. This is pure adrenaline rush cinema.

But this is a film that works as a complete package too, from its rousing Hans Zimmer score and soundtrack flourishes from Queen to Ed Sheeran, to its committed performances.

Pitt scores highest, his Hayes character effortlessly combining that trademark Pitt cool with traces of a latter day Robert Redford and Le Mans era Steve McQueen (there’s a nod to that icon’s one finger gesture at the end of that movie). But for all of his self-confidence, there’s also a nice line in self-deprecating humour and a sensitivity, as evidenced in his sparkling chemistry with Condon. There’s even a great deal of humour, whether displayed via his on-track insight or his camaraderie with Bardem.

But high praise must also go to the likes of Bardem as the ever exasperated (but somehow still appealing) team owner Ruben, Condon for expertly displaying both the sass and frustration of existing in a predominantly male world, and Idris for striking the right mix of cockiness, youthful arrogance and suspicion in his portrayal of Hayes’ sceptical protege.

Credit, too, must go to the creative team for striking a near-perfect balance between race action and character drama; while also bringing the races themselves alive with daring strategy, edge of your seat tension and liberal sprinklings of humour that make the sporting element of the film more broadly accessible.

For all the risks associated with bringing a film of this nature to the big screen (cost, access, originality in terms of it not being an IP and topic, which could still prove to be limiting in terms of audience reach), this confidently transcends any of its limitations to emerge as a huge crowd-pleaser that’s worthy of massive success.

Certificate: 12A

Running time: 152mins