Everything we know about Brad Pitt's F1 racing movie including story, cast, trailer and release date

Start your engines because Formula One racing epic F1 is coming to the big screen in 2025. An all-star cast fronts this immersive, tyre-burning action movie, one that deploys real-world Formula One locations and drivers for an added sense of realism.

Scroll down for everything you need to know including story, cast and release date.

What is the story of F1?

A former race car driver attempts to stage a professional comeback as a member of the (fictional) Formula 1 team APXG.

Who stars in F1?

Oscar-winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) plays the central character. In an interview with Sky News, Pitt revealed that his character once had a "horrible crash" and "craps out and disappears" as a result. The F1 racing circuit at Silverstone is the place where he aims for a triumphant comeback.

"They're 21-22 on the grid — they've never scored a point," Pitt says of the film's fictional F1 team, "but they have a young phenom, played by Damson Idris, and they bring me in as kind of a Hail Mary and high jinks ensue."

As mentioned, rising British star Damson Idris (Farming) plays Pitt's teammate and Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) plays the team's owner.

Oscar nominee Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) also features in the cast.

Who is directing F1?

F1 is directed by Joseph Kosinski who scored a monster hit with 2022's Top Gun: Maverick. The film pushed the boundaries of immersive IMAX cinematography with its dynamic in-cockpit sequences and was further boosted by star Tom Cruise's insistence that all the actors take to the skies for real.

The result was a thrilling popcorn blockbuster that many declared to be better than the 1985 original. The film grossed more than $1.5 billion worldwide, was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture and won the Academy Award for Best Sound.

The pressure is on Kosinski to reinvent the world of Formula One as he did with Naval aerial combat in Top Gun: Maverick. He's working with the same cinematographer, Claudio Miranda, and, in an interview with Deadline, describes the film as "the next generation from what we did on Top Gun", adding: "Everything is much smaller and the big innovation that is that we’re now able to control the movement of the cameras on the cars.

"We’re not locked into these kinds of fixed positions we had on Top Gun. Now we have real-time control of panning and focusing them while shooting through a very extensive RF network that we’ve built around the tracks."

Is Jerry Bruckheimer producing F1?

Yes, F1 is produced by Hollywood legend Jerry Bruckheimer. Since his early days with co-producer Don Simpson on the likes of Flashdance (1983), Bruckheimer has cemented himself as one of Hollywood most powerful movie moguls.

Bruckheimer has actively shaped the look and feel of Hollywood blockbusters, having thrown his weight behind the original Top Gun, the Tom Cruise stock car racing drama Days of Thunder (1990), numerous collaborations with director Michael Bay, including The Rock (1996) and Armaggedon (1998), and Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (2003-2017).

Bruckheimer's glossy MTV-aping visuals have exerted a longstanding influence on the contemporary movie landscape. He now reunites with Top Gun: Maverick filmmaker Joseph Kosinski to deliver what he's describing as the ultimate racing movie.

Bruckheimer says: "The most important thing is you tell a great story and an emotional story, that’s always the priority, but going back to the first conversations with Lewis, he said that there has yet to be a film that really captures what it’s like to be in a Formula 1 car, so that’s been a goal, to put the audience in one of these incredible machines."

Was F1 filmed at Silverstone?

F1 was filmed at the legendary British racing circuit Silverstone during the 2023 Grand Prix. In the same Deadline interview, Kosinski says his cast and crew were so embedded in Silverstone track day life they became "the eleventh team".

"We’ve got Brad and Damson actually driving the cars, which is pretty spectacular in itself," he explains, "but to do that in front of a live audience and at the speeds they’re doing it and figuring out a way to capture it… The logistics of it are unlike anything I’ve done before.

"We’re shooting at the actual Grands Prix, there are certain aspects of this film where we’re working in very, very tight windows, shooting on the track, between practice and qualifying sessions, in front of hundreds of thousands of people."

Has F1 been shot with real racing cars?

Joseph Kosinski explains: "At one of our first meetings, [Mercedes team CEO, Co-Owner and Team Principal Toto Wolff] said: ‘You should build this off a Formula 2 car, but make it look like a Formula 1 car,’ so it’s a Formula 2 chassis and engine.

"We worked closely with Mercedes and their design team and aerodynamicists to develop a custom body that resembles the latest generation Formula 1 car. They’re built specifically for this movie. They also have 15 camera mounts built into them, including the recorders and the batteries and the transmitters. They’re made for shooting movies, but they are fundamentally race cars."

Will F1 be shown in IMAX?

According to Kosinski: "It’s shot for the big screen and will have an IMAX version that has over an hour in full IMAX, you know, full-screen format, so you’ll get that expanded picture. We’ve always approached it as a theatrical film."

Are real-life Formula One racing drivers involved in F1?

According to Autosport, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr., Sergio Pérez and Benoit Treluyer all appear in the movie as themselves.

Is Lewis Hamilton producing F1?

Yes, Silverstone 2024 winner Lewis Hamilton is acting as the film's producer. He's also been involved in the scriptwriting process and has drawn on his personal highs and lows as a veteran Formula One driver.

“We want everyone to love it and to really feel that we encapsulate what the essence of this sport is all about – that’s our goal and I hope we can do you proud," Hamilton tells Autosport.

"[Hamilton] is the first person I contacted three years ago," Kosinski recalls. "I knew for us to make it as authentic as possible, someone on the team who lives it day-in and day-out would be invaluable.

"Lewis has been an incredible partner; he jumps on Zooms with me between races to go through the script, line by line, turn by turn, you know, tire compound by tire compound, to make sure that we are getting all the details right. Beyond that, on a creative and story level, he also has input."