Speed, Redemption, and Star Power: Brad Pitt Shifts Gears in High-Octane “F1” Trailer

Brad Pitt has got the pedal to the metal in the first look at F1, the upcoming racing epic from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski. 

Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a coulda-been Formula 1 legend who was on the cusp of greatness in the 1990s before an accident derailed his career. Thirty years later, Sonny’s a has-been, a racer-for-hire speeding off into the sunset of an unremarkable career, when he’s tapped by his former teammate, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), to come race for him and his struggling Formula 1 team APXGP. There are several problems, the first and most pressing being that Sonny is considered a dinosaur (at best) by the members of Ruben’s team, especially by Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), a young driver on Ruben’s team who is not about to bend the knee to some old man. Another problem is the pressure involved—APXGP team is on the verge of collapse, and unless they can pull off a major upset, and unless Sonny and Joshua can learn to be teammates rather than competitors, all of their futures are at risk.

Joining Pitt, Bardem, and Idris are Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, and Kim Bodina. Kosinski worked from a script by Ethan Kruger, his collaborator on Maverick. 

Speaking with Vanity Fair last year, Idris talked about how incredible it was to be involved in a film with such cinematic heavyweights: “I look to my left, it’s Brad Pitt. I look to my right, it’s Javier Bardem. I look at my hands, they’re shaking. And we shoot all of this epic stuff, and all the amazing drivers are there, from Lewis [Hamilton] to [Max] Verstappen to everyone.”

Idris also told VF that Pitt is a legitimate racecar driver. “Talk about a superstar. His humility is second to none. I don’t know if people know this, but he is really good behind that car. Really good. Too good, almost. He makes me nervous how good he is.”

F1 races into theaters on June 27. Check out the trailer below.

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Featured image: Caption: (L-r) DAMSON IDRIS as Joshua Pearce and BRAD PITT as Sonny Hayes in Apple Original Films’ “F1®,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures