{"id":4464,"date":"2026-08-01T12:09:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=4464"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:09:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:09:05","slug":"no-ill-never-watch-the-f1-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2026\/08\/01\/no-ill-never-watch-the-f1-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"No, I’ll never watch the F1 movie"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Build LEGOs and have fun.<\/p><\/div>\n

The movie, F1: The Movie, was released about a year ago. I still haven\u2019t seen it and I have no intention to do so.<\/p>\n

I still haven\u2019t told the full story of how I got into Formula 1, but this is the 27th season I have watched it. The sport has been a great help to me mentally and it\u2019s the only television I typically watch. When the movie was announced, I was looking forward to it. I figured, even if it was bad, it was an F1 movie and I\u2019ve seen some horrendous movies over the years. Surely, it wouldn\u2019t be completely terrible.<\/p>\n

Then, I heard Brad Pitt was going to star in it. I sighed deeply. I never bought into the \u201csexiest man alive\u201d thing with him. He\u2019s average looking and an okay actor, but nothing special. The main reason I decided not to watch the movie was because Brad Pitt is a domestic abuser. It\u2019s been well-documented<\/a> about how he physically and verbally beat Angelina Jolie as well as choking one of their children on a plane in 2016. Nearly all his children have removed \u201cPitt\u201d as their last name. Other stories of abuse in their home have gotten worse over time and I decided I didn\u2019t want to provide any of my money or tacit approval to such a person.<\/p>\n

This is the main reason I knew I was never going to see the movie. However, the human mind has this strange capacity to pick tribes and stick with them even if their leader is a garbage selection. The movie made a lot of money. It was the 9th highest grossing film of 2025. I don\u2019t dispute that. <\/p>\n

The only potentially redeeming quality of the movie might be that the film built an F1 car and on tracks around the world during F1 weekends. I thought this was kind of cool, until every 20 seconds of that season, the announcers were reminding us about the damned movie. I expected it would be a good movie and I would have regrets over keeping my principles and not giving my money to someone who willingly chokes children and beats their wives. Still, I held firm in my convictions.<\/p>\n

I recently read<\/a> some comments online, which reaffirmed I made the right decision. One commenter wrote the movie was \u201cobjectively bad\u201d with a simplistic, generic plot. I\u2019ve seen versions of that comment hundreds of times. Others said it was shallow with \u201cstereotypical romance blooming scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing I heard over and over is how the movie pushes the storyline of the character, Kate, as the first female lead engineer. I guess it\u2019s done to a ridiculous degree in the movie. Then, Brad Pitt, in his Sonny character, waltzes in. He hasn\u2019t driven a car in years, but decides to mansplain<\/a> to Kate about how things should go. Magically, what he said works and car improves significantly. Next, of course, they sleep together.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care who\u2019s starring in this movie. That\u2019s utter bullshit I don\u2019t want to waste my money on. Others felt the same way. One comment I read said the script \u201cwas all over the place.\u201d They also said there was zero character integrity and no realistic dialogue. For a film with so much backing, they should have been able to do more. Yet, all I hear is negative reviews. Maybe I surf to the wrong places online. Who knows. Again, abusive star doesn\u2019t not get my money anyway.<\/p>\n

…Plot was horrible, way too much focus on Sonny instead of Joshua, an incredibly unnecessary romantic plotline, engineering mumbo jumbo that is garbage that it made me laugh, a shitty ass team that was way over there asses. ABU DHABI HAD KICK AND ALFA ROMEO SWITCHING TIME AND TIME AGAIN<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This one quote had me chuckling quite a bit. Kick took over Alfa Romeo in 2025. There is no way both teams would have been on the track at the same time. Also, the cars were completely different colors.<\/p>\n

Besides the great visuals and music, I found nothing likeable in the movie. Even these two aspects stopped making any impact after the first 20-30 minutes because of the poor writing for me. So I resonate with you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These comments<\/a> on Reddit really summed it up while also making me smile.<\/p>\n

Terrible fucking move. Straight up cash grab on Brad Pitt and Formula 1 brand names. If anything it pissed me off because of how bad, lazy and amateurish it was made and what a wasted opportunity it was with F1 marketing and fanbase.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Poorly edited though. Way too many cuts and in general completely failed to convey what F1 racing would feel like.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There wasn’t a single part of this movie that conveyed the skill and passion involved in competing in sport<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story was also so predictable as to be groanworthy and the gender politics in it were remarkably gross. It felt like bland corporate schlock to me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the funniest comments<\/a> I read said, \u201clooked at IMDB before and then again right after watching, I could not believe this dog shit sits on a 7.6. <\/p>\n

The movie probably plays into the casual fan or the non-fan, or possibly the Drive to Survive (DtS) fan. Those people probably liked it. DtS brought in a lot of new fans. The concept is simple. Have a crew follow teams around for a season and make a documentary. They did. Sort of. They twisted stories and used audio clips from one race in their \u201cstory\u201d for another. If you had actually watched the season, you knew how much bullshit was there. I watched the first two seasons of DtS. From what I\u2019m told, it\u2019s complete garbage now. They\u2019re on season seven.<\/p>\n

F1: The Movie is an F1 movie made for non-fans. Apple TV has the rights to broadcast the races in the United States. This movie was their way of trying to get people hyped up enough to subscribe.<\/p>\n

This person\u2019s review<\/a> pretty much nails all the reasons I don\u2019t want to watch the movie besides the Brad Pitt factor.<\/p>\n

Pictures, effects and music are pretty cool. They are the only saving grace of the movie. Honestly the scenario is awful, the way they break so many rules of F1 despite making a movie about F1 is laughable (and I don\u2019t wanna hear about how \u201csometimes it happens in F1 too\u201d or \u201cit\u2019s an underdog story, it wasn\u2019t meant to be realistic, it would\u2019ve been a documentary otherwise\u201d), I don\u2019t care. It\u2019s not that hard to make a better scenario and one that fit better to the sport you\u2019re trying to adapt.<\/p>\n

Also the way it treats women is despicable. Women\u2019s place in F1 is already too scarce and few. There are two women in the movie, what do they do? Make mistakes, need to get comforted by men, the team principal somehow has to sleep with her driver despite that adding nothing to the story and oh, of course, he has to give her a solution she could\u2019ve never thought about car wise, \u201csaving\u201d her and the team. Mh I love a good dose of misogyny in my movies. Seriously, how can you produce that in 2025 given how everything already is? I know a lot of people don\u2019t care about women in F1 but come on. In all and for all, I won\u2019t rewatch that film ever again, it wasn\u2019t a good experience at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another<\/a> got a bit more technical over what they didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

It wasnt [sic] even that well shot. Half the time I had no idea what was going on in the action sequences because they only used narrow shots of part of the cars or only the drivers eyes and cut every 2 seconds, so before you realize what is even on the screne [sic] they already cut away. I only know what happened at the Pierce crash because I know what it was inspired by.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just the description<\/a> of this and I know what it was inspired by. It\u2019s another reason I\u2019m happy not to have seen the movie. From what people have written about the movie, most of what Brad Pitt\u2019s character does in his first race back would have had him immediately banned from the sport. I don\u2019t want to watch a movie like that.<\/p>\n

The inspiration for the illegal crashing is reference back to Crashgate<\/a> from 2008. It\u2019s a black mark on F1 and, unfortunately, tangentially involved one of my favorite drivers, Fernando Alonso. You can read in detail about it, but I\u2019ll give a quick summary.<\/p>\n

On September 28, 2008, during the 16th lap of the Singapore Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet Jr., deliberately crashed his car at turn 17, giving an advantage to his teammate, Fernando Alonso. The safety car was deployed. Alonso had started 15th in the race, but due to several factors with the safety car deployment, Alonso was promoted to first. He went on to win the race. Piquet said he just struggled with the car with a heavy fuel load, however, when he was dropped from the team the following year, he said he was asked by the team to deliberately crash in order to help Alonso.<\/p>\n

The Renault F1 team was given a suspended disqualification. Managing director Flavio Briatore was banned indefinitely. Pat Symonds, executive director of engineering for the team was given a five-year ban. It went to court and it\u2019s more intricate than this, but that\u2019s the gist of it. Alonso maintains he had no knowledge of this plan.<\/p>\n

For me, if you\u2019re going to make a movie where you have no knowledge of the sport or how harshly actions such as deliberately driving into other drivers is, then you shouldn\u2019t make the movie. Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was disqualified from the 1997 driver\u2019s championship for this kind of shit. It\u2019s rare in F1, but it\u2019s treated seriously. You could, quite literally, kill someone with that kind of behavior.<\/p>\n

To make a movie essentially mocking this and letting the character get away with it is disgusting. I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t see the movie. I\u2019ve seen crashes<\/a> that ended drivers\u2019 lives<\/a> and one where I thought my favorite driver<\/a> had died<\/a> in a fireball<\/a>. Don\u2019t. Just don\u2019t film this kind of shit like it\u2019s fun, funny, or a regular part of the sport. <\/p>\n

The best review of the movie, however, makes me give a huge thumbs up to whatever theater this person<\/a> went to.<\/p>\n

I absolutely loved the gigas Bavarian Pretzel I got seeing the F1 movie! It came in a 3\u201d thick pizza box with 3 dipping sauces and so much rock salt I needed a refill on my Cherry Coke. I can\u2019t even remember how much I overpaid for that thing but it was delicious and made the movie spectacular.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now I want a pretzel. Also, I abhor what Brad Pitt is so much I won\u2019t even pirate the movie to watch it at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The movie, F1: The Movie, was released about a year ago. I still haven\u2019t seen it and I have no intention to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[19,131,238,247,402],"class_list":["post-4464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-watchingreading","tag-abuse","tag-f1","tag-mental-health","tag-movies","tag-women"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4465,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464\/revisions\/4465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}