F1 The Movie delivers plenty of immersive, adrenaline-fueled racing scenes, and the filmmakers employ a range of unique filming techniques to bring these scenes to life. Director Joseph Kosinski amazed audiences in 2022 with Top Gun: Maverick. The director created some of the best flight sequences in film history, surrounding viewers in aerial dogfights and placing them in the cockpit with Tom Cruise.

F1 The Movie is another technical marvel that brings audiences into the spectacular world of Formula 1 racing. It includes heart-pounding racing scenes and immersive sound, and F1 fans will appreciate how the film places viewers in the cars. It’s a remarkable achievement, but the filmmakers faced plenty of challenges to make it happen.

Kosinski and his crew needed to find new ways to immerse audiences in Formula 1 cars, while also capturing the environments of these races. They also had to find drivers who knew how to drive and perform at the same time. Fortunately, the F1 The Movie team found solutions to these problems, and the final product showed that their hard work paid off.

F1 The Movie Filmed Its Racing Scenes At Real Formula 1 Tracks With Professional Drivers

The Grands Prix Is Authentic

Part of Formula 1’s appeal is the arena and theatricality of the events. The races themselves are amazing, but the beautiful settings and crowd reactions make the sport even more exciting. Speaking with ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, Kosinski said they filmed the races at an actual Grand Prix for F1 the Movie, and had to maneuver to get everything they needed.

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 тιԍнт windows, shooting on the track, between practice and qualifying sessions, in front of hundreds of thousands of people.

One of the most challenging events to film was the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which partially takes place on the Las Vegas Strip. Speaking with ScreenRant, Kosinski said it’s a track that “only exists for three nights out of the year” and he only had a “15-minute slot” to shoot the scene.

“It was cold, the tires were cold, it was slippery. That track has no runoff, so the walls are right there. And I knew if I didn’t get my scene in that 15-minute slot, I was never going to get it. So, that kind of pressure to get the scene, and then get the scene that we did, as you saw in the film, that was high pressure for sure.“

Did Brad Pitt Really Do His Own Driving In F1?

Pitt Trained For “Almost Three Months”

F1 driving is incredibly difficult and dangerous. Drivers experience intense forces and speed, and have to make quick turns and jolts to avoid spinning out or hitting other cars. Fortunately, stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris were trained to do most of the driving in this film, committing to making the film as authentic as possible.

Kosinski says that Pitt and Idris drove Formula 2 cars and worked with Mercedes to “develop a custom body that resembles the latest generation Formula 1 car.” Producer Jerry Bruckheimer told ᴅᴇᴀᴅline that Pitt and Idris trained for several months to get it right, and Formula 1 legend Lewis Hamilton was impressed by their knack for driving.

Before the strike we trained Brad for almost three months — Brad and Damson — in various cars. They started in Formula 3 and then moved up to Formula 2. Lewis says they’re really terrific; they’re just natural, natural athletes. He was really impressed with them, with their driving.

How F1 The Movie Filmed The Racing Scenes

The Filmmakers Developed A Prototype Camera

For Top Gun: Maverick, Kosinski worked with Sony on a Rialto camera that could be extended and separated in a cockpit without changing the image quality. However, F1 The Movie introduced a new challenge since they didn’t want to weigh down the car. Speaking with Screencrush, Kosinski said they had to develop a “new lightweight miniaturized version” that had the same quality and could fit in a race car.

The things that didn’t work were the cameras we developed for Top Gun: Maverick were at that time about as small as you could get, and they worked in an F18 because that’s a big, powerful vehicle designed to carry heavy things. But that camera system did not work on a race car, because every kilogram you add to the car slows it down. That’s working against the whole point of shooting it for real.

So we went to Sony, who built the Venice Rialto system for Top Gun, and we worked with them for about a year to create a new lightweight miniaturized version that had the same image quality but was much smaller and worked in this race car.

They also worked with Mercedes to build six custom cars with “16 different mounting points” for cameras and “special bays underneath the radiators to hold the batteries and the recorders and the receivers.” The camera angles are all inventive, allowing audiences to feel the intensity of each moment. F1 The Movie is a technical marvel, but still has the heart and pᴀssion of the best summer blockbusters.