How Apple's F1 film "authenticity" claims really stack up

When Formula 1 drivers speak about not liking the media, what they really mean is 'don't ask us tough questions'.  

Concealment is part of the game in motorsport, sure, but most of the pack could barely contain their glee at witnessing a Hollywood film being produced in the championship's inner sanctum at Silverstone last weekend. 

It wasn't just those already predisposed to embracing the wider appeal of sporting celebrity – the presence of Apple’s production and actors for its so far untitled F1 film really got tongues wagging at the British Grand Prix. 

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Sadly for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, his cameo shaking hands with Brad Pitt and Damson Idris might already be heading for the cutting room floor after he “said their normal names” while doing so. 

But that moment was reserved for eagle-eyed spectators in grandstand seats opposite the Silverstone pit straight, watching on from the balconies of its hotel, or those standing on the grid behind the drivers lined up for the national anthem. 

On F1’s international TV feed, only looking hard right at the moment the Red Arrows overflew the grid – something Max Verstappen preferred to watch out for rather than any more of actor/musician Damian Lewis toe-curlingly butchering ‘God Save the King’ – revealed Pitt and Idris standing alongside the world champion and Sergio Perez.  

The pair then made their way to the rear of the grid with F1’s real heroes, which allowed photographers and Instagram-shot hunters to fully capture Pitt’s baggy overalls. More Kimi Raikkonen than Jacques Villeneuve, at least.  

Brad Pitt and Damson Idris joined the 20 real-world drivers on the Silverstone grid

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Eventually, he and Idris reached cars mounted with additional roll-hoop and suspension cameras designed to turn the vision of Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski into silver screen reality.  

Stunt drivers Luciano Bacheta – the MotorSport Vision-run FIA Formula 2 champion in 2012 – and former Superleague Formula driver Craig Dolby were behind the wheels of the fictional APXGP squad.  

The real F1 pack were briefed that, contrary to conflicting reports, they would indeed join the formation lap – albeit peeling off at Turn 1 and with one car apparently suffering a ‘problem’, per the plot. 

There was so much kit in APXGP’s garage and pitwall set-up, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur quipped that it was “even better than some [real] teams”

Again, F1’s international feed showed something else – the cameras focused on home hero Lando Norris leaving the line. Then it was polesitter Verstappen sweeping through Abbey where the next time by he’d lose the lead to the rocketing McLaren and its glittering, sadly one-off, chrome decals. 

The grid action followed the Mercedes-tweaked, Dallara-built Formula 2 cars being sent out across the Silverstone weekend to capture on-track action from the rest of the lap.  

Pitt told Sky Sports F1 that he was “really focused on the lines and what we're trying to create in these moments” during his driving experience. It also appeared as if film scenes set inside the specially constructed APXGP pitlane garage were captured during Verstappen’s run to a sixth consecutive victory and eighth of 2023 last Sunday. 

It's ‘action’ alright, with the finished project set for a release that could come as soon as 2024. And, speaking to the F1 press corps a week ahead of the British GP at the Red Bull Ring, Kosinski had promised “the most authentic” F1 film ever made. 

The two APXGP cars were fitted with cameras similar to those used in Top Gun Maverick

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Until we can be absolutely sure the awful motorsport movie cliche of a driver suddenly being able to press their accelerator harder or gearshift to find more power over a rival they’ve stared down at 200mph has been avoided in the first showings, all we can assess of that claim is what has been revealed and discovered so far.  

Such lazy writing would be ruinous for motorsport aficionados but, based on the production brought to Silverstone, so far Kosinski’s vow is stacking up.  

Shockingly, given Lewis Hamilton is one of the producers and has been tasked with assessing the script, APXGP looks just like a Mercedes B-team – albeit with a golden livery flash that unfortunately evokes more memories of the Rich Energy Haas sponsorship farce than the classic Lotuses of old. 

The real Mercedes squad and APXGP even ‘share’ sponsors, of which several of F1’s major partners have also been arranged to line the team kit, driver overalls and cars of the 11th squad Toto Wolff and Christian Horner are adamant the championship just can’t accommodate. 

There was so much kit in APXGP’s garage and pitwall set-up, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur quipped that it was “even better than some [real] teams”. And apparently during its testing and filming away from real F1 events, there have even been complaints about the tyres supplied by Pirelli degrading. It’s not real racing, but it can hardly get more F1 than that. 

Those motorsport film cliches make Autosport shudder, but ultimately no matter how much cash Apple splashes on this project, it lives and dies on its plot.  

On this, what we know so far is stretching credulity for knowledgeable F1 followers. Although this must be balanced against the understanding this probably won’t matter for most cinema-goers or TV streamers. 

APXGP had its own pit garage, described as being 'better than some housing the real-world teams'

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Pitt explained that his character, Sonny Hayes, is “a guy who raced in the nineties” and “has a horrible crash, kind of craps out and disappears, and then is racing in other disciplines”. 

“Then his friend, played by Javier Bardem, is a team owner,” the 59-year-old adds. “They're a last place team, they're 21st and 22nd on the grid, they've never scored a point. And they have a young phenom [Joshua Pearce] played by Damson Idris. He brings me in as a kind of a Hail Mary. And high jinks ensue.” 

What those end up being, we can only imagine right now. But no matter how much Benjamin Button overtones are crammed into Hamilton saying, “Brad looks like he’s ageing backwards”, the American’s age is a problem.  

There just hasn’t been a 60-year-old F1 driver, as Pitt will be in December, and attempts from racers aged only a few years younger haven’t happened since the world championship’s infancy, with Louis Chiron’s failed attempt to enter his home Monaco race in 1958 at 58 the entry age record. 

"I think it's going to look faster than it does on TV. Because I think it's something to do with the frame rate that we have to have" Lewis Hamilton

These days, a desperate team owner would be much more likely to hire a younger driver with little talent but bags of sponsorship cash in a bid to turn their fortunes around.  

That’s unless this film is going to explain how the cost cap and Liberty Media’s marketing efforts (including this project) have massively improved team financial health to the point where the most egregious such cases of late are no longer required. We rather hope it does. 

Pedantry is one thing and we know this film must appeal to a far wider group to be successful. But it was interesting to hear Hamilton explain “it's going to look faster than it does on TV” when Autosport asked how hard it would be for Kosinski and co to truly show what driving an F1 machine is like for those behind the wheel, perhaps in even greater detail than F1’s TV production already does. 

“I'm pretty certain our cameras are a lot better than what you're seeing when you're watching TV,” Hamilton replied. “I've seen all the footage of the camera positions. I've spent time with Joe, trying to make sure we've got the best camera positions and the frame rate is different, it's going to look fast. 

Hamilton is serving as a producer on the Apple-made film

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“I think it's going to look faster than it does on TV. Because I think it's something to do with the frame rate that we have to have.  

“But Joe is an incredible director. You’ve already seen what he's done with fighter jets, what he did with Maverick. So just think about what he's done with that in terms of the dogfights you saw from those jets, which was pretty epic. And bringing that technology and that viewpoint into our world, I think it's going to be amazing.” 

That might seem like an authenticity fail from one perspective, but it’s actually a boon to those that matter most in F1: the drivers. Because no game or TV camera – not even the excellent helmet cam – can truly demonstrate how the world changes going around tracks at F1 speeds. 

Hot lap demonstrations do provide a handy comparison for the lucky few – everything is just more sideways, the sensation of eyes and brain rotating utterly abnormally with the g-forces the overwhelming takeaway.  

The perspective of the track is much more visceral and dangerous. That is what Kosinski’s efforts will be about portraying.  

It raises questions about whether such camera technology might one day filter down to regular F1 TV broadcasts. Progress marches ever on, but at least for now that remains an aim, with the suspension-positioned cameras anathema to aerodynamicists, plus coming with a hefty cost barrier.  

It seems the APXGP crew will return at the next round in Hungary, as well as other races on F1’s calendar run in, culminating in an Abu Dhabi appearance.  

So, might this movie epic conclude with an F1 officiating storm, where a toxic battle concludes with a race director implementing rules in a way never seen before to set up the ultimate one-lap shootout climax that deprives a veteran star of more glory and establishes a new champion against the odds?  

No, that is just too far-fetched…

The APXGP drivers completed the grid at the British Grand Prix

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images