“Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski will be directing the new movie titled “F1” that is slated to release over July in the summer. Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a fictional former Formula One Driver in the 1990s until a crash changes his life. In 2020, he now owns APXGP, a struggling fictional Formula One Team. He finds himself back on the grid racing against his rival teammate Joshua Pearce(Damson Idris), a rookie who is looking to make his mark in one of motorsport’s most daunting racing competition.
Although Brad Pitt’s racing team is completely fictional, it uses real racing footage and all of the actual Formula One teams. This will give it that realistic feel and the intensity of how amazing Formula One really is.
Formula One is an open-wheel single-seat motorsport. Formula One started in 1950 and has grown in popularity over time. F1 is different from other motorsport racing because there aren’t a lot of overtakes (passing/moving up) and there are many turns at often high speeds. It’s also an extremely expensive sport with the value of a Formula One car costing millions of dollars.
The sport itself is considered extremely dangerous. The impact of a crash can reach over 50G. To put it in perspective, an average roller coaster reaches 2 to 5G. Despite this, drastic measures and steps to ensure the safety of everyone involved have improved in the past decade. Like the Halo, introduced in 2016, is a safety device that is designed to protect drivers’ heads in the event of a crash. Since its induction, it has been credited with saving numerous drivers’ lives.
In 2019, Netflix announced a sports documentary called Drive to Survive. In its first season it gained mass popularity among American viewers. Drive to Survive takes you behind the pit wall and does a great job of engaging the audience. Many moments captured display the adrenaline and drama of being an F1 driver, mechanic, team principal, engineer, etc. For many years, F1 has been trying to make its way to America. It seems as though they finally cracked the code. There are so many advantages like increase in viewership, revenue and more american drivers in F1. Reaching an American audience was a huge milestone for F1 as it was able to add a second and third race in the US, Miami and Las Vegas.
The 2025 F1 season marked the end of Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen’s dominant era. He still is very much a title challenger but with McLaren having finally found their pace, they are looking a lot better than Red Bull so it’s going to be a tough year for Verstappen. Oscar Piastri, the youngest of the two McLaren drivers, has surprisingly won more races than Lando Norris. Norris was very consistent last year and had a very promising start to the year but has been struggling to match Piastri current pace.
This year has seen six new rookies on the grid. Starting with Jack Doohan who took Esteban Ocons seat at Alpine after he left for Haas. It was a bold move and he failed to make an impact with several 15th place finishes and DNFs. Doohans’ best finish was 14th. As I was writing this article, it was announced that he was dropped by Alpine F1 Team for Franco Colapinto. Colapinto drove as a replacement driver last year for Williams Racing when American driver Logan Sargeant was dropped. So, it’s nothing new to him to be replacing someone again. I was very surprised that out of all the rookies he never got a seat at the start of the season, but here we are.
Isack Hadjar took Liam Lawson’s seat who replaced Daniel Riccardo halfway through the 2024 season at Visa CashApp Racing Bulls(VCARB). Hadjar has shown a lot of promise with several top 10 finishes and his passion, humbleness and perseverance have kept him in his seat and I have no doubt that he will have a great career.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the youngest driver on the grid this year at 18 years of age. In fact, Antonelli received his driver’s license just a few months before making his F1 debut. Kimi Antonelli replaced 7-time world champion driver Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes F1 Team. Given that he is 18, there is no way he is expected to live up to Hamilton’s legacy. Well, at least not in his first season. However getting his first pole position in Miami was a major accomplishment and he has been the most consistent rookie driver this year.
Gabriel Borteleto was a huge surprise, taking a seat at Sauber. Borteleto last raced for Invicta Racing in F2. With all of the drops I’m sure he is shaking in his boots. But, with Sauber not being very competitive, he could use the experience and I’m not sure what will end up with Borteleto.
Liam Lawson came in to replace Daniel Riccardo at VCARB and ended up impressing. However, this year he was upgraded into the Red Bull of Sergio Perez who was dropped after a season of historic lows for Perez. The move drew backlash during the first two races as Yuki Tsunoda(believing he was snub of the seat having been stuck in Red Bull’s secondary team for years) was performing way better. Well, they switched drivers and Lawson ended up in the VCARB. Extraordinarily, the same thing happened, Lawson started doing better and Yuki is struggling at Red Bull. Some might say that the 2nd seat at Red Bull is cursed.
Ollie Bearman was a reserve driver for Haas and Ferrari and ended up at Ferrari for a race due to an appendix injury to Carlos Sainz last year. He ended up finishing 7th and scored points. It was a pretty impressive debut and he secured his seat for this year at Haas replacing Nico Hulkenberg who went to Sauber.
Lastly, Lewis Hamilton shocked all F1 fans when he announced he would be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari. In a historic move, Hamilton seeking his 8th world championship joined the tifosis of Scuderia Ferrari. Hamilton is currently tied with Michael Schumacher for the most world championships with 7. Michael Schumacher had also driven for Ferrari and led them to many constructor and driver championships. This move came after Carlos Sainz ‘contract expired and was not renewed. Sainz ended up joining Williams and Antonelli replaced Hamilton at Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari sees him pairing up with Charles Leclerc, a much younger driver. Hamilton is also being replaced by a teenager which ties into the movie, because Sonny will team up with Joshua Pearce; a young rookie like Antonelli, who challenges Sonny. Personally, I’m really excited to see it and as the hype builds for the movie, so will the 2025 Formula One season as the movie is releasing the weekend of the Austrian Grand Prix.
