Joseph Kosinski’s pulse-pounding racing drama F1, which stars Brad Pitt, Kerry Condon, and Damson Idris, concludes with an exhilarating race and twist that viewers may or may not have seen coming. The racing sports drama, which is now in theaters, features Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a washed-up yet still incredibly talented race car driver.

The movie features a number of real F1 drivers and several prominent league personnel, giving the racing world of F1 an incredibly realistic feel. Breathtaking race sequences that saw Damson Idris and Brad Pitt driving for real result in an entertaining and adrenaline-pumping blockbuster that Screen Rant‘s Mae Abdulbaki gave 8 out of 10 stars.

Hayes is recruited by his former F1 racing partner, Ruben Cervantes, to captain his last-place F1 team in a Hail Mary move to keep Cervantes from having to sell the APX Grand Prix racing team, which he owns. Sonny’s unorthodox and irreverent style puts him at odds with the team’s talented rookie, Joshua Pearce (Idris), and attracts the attention of the team’s technical director (Condon).

Over the course of the final nine races of the F1 season, Sonny’s aggressive and unusual suggestions to improve the team’s car and racing strategy see the APX team move up the standings with each pᴀssing race. After several setbacks and some sabotage, the APX team comes together for one thrilling final attempt at an outright victory in Abu Dhabi.

What Happens To The APX Team In The Final Race

They Come Together To Pull Off A Miraculous Victory

After losing their advantageous race car modifications thanks to some shady sabotage on the part of one of APX’s own board members, the APX team sees their car restored for their final race. Their team is also reunited, as both Sonny and Joshua have recovered from their respective crashes by the time of the final race, although Sonny is still feeling lingering effects.

The Grand Prix ends in a high-octane back-and-forth between the two APX drivers, who have fully discovered how to work as a unit on the racetrack, and several real F1 drivers. The race’s final three laps come down to a sprint between the two APX drivers and F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton, with Sonny making one final maneuver in an attempt to help push his teammate to victory.

However, some incidental contact causes both Joshua and Hamilton to skid out, opening the path for Sonny to fly through the final lap and win. In that moment, Sonny rediscovers the euphoric thrill and pᴀssion for racing that he has chased continuously since being removed from F1 after a grisly accident three decades earlier.

As the APX team celebrates their improbable victory, Sonny leaves the roar of the winners’ circle to pack his things, load his beaten-up van, and leave to find the next racing opportunity. It’s a somewhat unexpected turn, given that he had finally won the biggest race of his life, ascending the mountain he was unable to climb in his youth.

Why Sonny Quits The APX Team In F1’s Ending

Sonny Only Needs The Joy Of Racing

Sonny’s decision to leave isn’t all that shocking given what F1 shows about the character’s past and what he says directly, specifically to Kerry Condon’s Kate. For Sonny, racing has nothing to do with fame, fortune, notoriety, or prestige. He has raced his entire life simply because he loves it, which is why he keeps bouncing around and racing for different teams and leagues.

As he tells Kate on the balcony after their first night together, the peace and calm that he feels behind the wheel when it all comes together is what he’s seeking. He achieved that in the final lap with the APX team, as he flew around the course unhindered in first place.

He knows he isn’t the future of the team or the sport, and there is nothing more for him to gain after redeeming himself for his failure and injury in F1 as a young man. There is nothing more for him to accomplish with the APX team or really in F1, which is why he chooses to move on.

Interestingly, he notes to Ruben that despite the life-threatening injuries that still linger in his body, he’d be perfectly happy to die on a racetrack doing what he loves. That’s the driving force behind him heading to find another race to run, which he does in Baja California with the dune buggy-like Baja racers.

In some ways, Sonny seems to have essentially resigned himself to death already, perhaps believing himself on borrowed time after the accident that nearly cost him his life all those years ago. With the time he has been given, he refuses to waste time doing anything besides what he loves, which is racing in any form.

Why Did Board Member Peter Banning Forge Car Designs And Tip Off The F1 Authorities?

Banning Had His Eyes On The APX Team

Tobias Menzies’ APX board member begins the movie as an ally to Javier Bardem’s Ruben Cervantes, as the only member of the board who seems interested at all in the team’s success under his watch. However, Banning eventually makes his intentions clear to Sonny once the APX team starts winning.

Banning intends to take over the team once Ruben is removed from his role as owner, and wants to put Sonny at the head of the new team’s structure, essentially making a package deal for a new ownership group to get on board and make the team (and Banning) more profitable.

To hurry along the team’s, and therefore Ruben’s, demise, he forges designs for the modifications that Sonny and Kate put on the car to help with Sonny’s new “combat”-focused driving style. Despite those designs already being cleared with the F1 authorities, the new documents (conveniently sent in with an anonymous tip) cause the modifications’ legality to be investigated.

That makes them unusable in races until the authorities re-conclude that they are permissible, essentially returning the car to the “s***box” state that it was in when Sonny first joined the team. Banning’s plan of course unravels when the modifications are approved for the final race, and the APX team achieves victory, buying Ruben at least three more years at the head of the team.

How F1 Sets Up A Sequel


While F1 doesn’t actually introduce any direct threads that would lead into a sequel, the door is still wide open for the world to be further explored with the characters in it. While Brad Pitt’s Sonny Hayes has left for Baja by the movie’s closing credits, he could certainly return to Ruben’s team in a non-racing capacity, especially given his promise to see Kate “down the road”.

A sequel could be better off leaving Pitt out entirely, and instead focusing on Damson Idris’ Joshua Pearce as he attempts to rise from talented rookie to legitimate superstar in the sport. That could give Kerry Condon’s Kate an even more prominent role, while simultaneously introducing a new star as Joshua’s new teammate.

Box office projections for F1 look strong, but its lofty budget means the movie’s profitability will remain in doubt until the entire box office run is concluded. That should be the ultimate indicator of whether a sequel gets made, as the early Rotten Tomatoes scores for F1 certainly prove there is an appeтιтe from audiences for more.

The Real Meaning of F1 The Movie

F1 is admittedly light on meaning and heavy on adrenaline, and to be clear, that’s a feature, not a bug. However, there are some minor themes that the thrilling, albeit predictable, narrative delves into. Sonny is driven by his love for racing, and the movie strikes right at the heart of the “for love of the game” trope from many sports dramas.

It also hits on the sports movie trope of teamwork, and that nobody can get by on their own. The clash between Sonny and virtually everyone else on the APX team, but particularly Joshua, is slowly remedied over the course of the movie, until they are working as a cohesive unit by the final race.

F1 may not reach the heights of Kosinski’s other high-octane drama, Top Gun: Maverick, but it provides plenty of pulse-pounding action and likable characters in a true summer blockbuster package. The final race at the end of F1 will likely be recognized as one of the summer’s best cinematic climaxes, as it brought the movie to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.