APX GP: The F1 Movie

Ahead At The Apex had their first work retreat the other day, to go and see F1 - the movie, directed by Joseph Kosinski, with producers including Pitt and Hamilton, starring Pitt and Damson Idris as the two APX GP drivers, and featuring a heap of real F1 racing action with a fictional team in the mix. The question we've been asked since is: is it any good?

Well the answer to that isn't simple, and be aware, this article may contain some spoilers. So if, like us, you didn't want to know anything about the film before you go and see it, then stop reading and come back later. You have been warned.

Due to copyright and not wanting to give away too much of the film, the rest of this blog post will not contain images from the film.

Ok, so the plot of the film. Well it's the story of a relatively new, former-driver owned team in Formula 1 who are a bit up against it. They've had a few seasons to give it a go, yet to score a win, and their shareholders are running out of patience. So to try and save the day, their team owner brings in his former teammate Sonny Hayes to reinvigorate the team, and perhaps secure that win to keep the team alive. The story progresses with Sonny learning a few things, teaching them a few things, getting involved with the team, getting over some of his fears, and eventually the team is saved. The plot is pretty predictable, it's classic redemption story arc kind of thing, but it wasn't obvious how the team would be saved from the outset, so that was pretty good.

The best bits of the film, at least for us F1 fans, was the racing. The scenes were a combination of staged shots of real F1 cars alongside the purpose-built APX GP F2 cars, and superimposed real racing - yep that's right, they took real F1 race footage and replaced a car with the APX GP car to give a real feeling of Formula 1 on the big screen. This left us with a couple of thoughts: firstly, this is perhaps the best depiction of motorsport in cinema that we have ever seen (and yes, we are including Rush and Le Mans '66 in that list), and secondly, F1 needs to be shown on IMAX screens more often because wow, that was truly epic to see. The noise, the massive screen and high resolution were truly something to behold.

The racing quality, therefore, was pretty good. There were some liberties taken for cinematic effect, gear changes where there shouldn't have been, engine noises that didn't quite lineup with the motion of the car, collision noises that weren't quite right, but that's easy to overlook if you were just watching it at home for the second or third time. Watching it intently on a big screen with the mindset of "I'm going to talk abut this on a blog and podcast in the next two weeks", however, meant I did notice, and it has stuck with me.

It was clear, at least for us, that the expert correspondent from F1 had been a driver. Even if we didn't already know that it was Lewis Hamilton who had worked with the team to produce this movie, we could tell. The elements of a team and a race weekend that heavily involved the drivers, were done perfectly. The team briefing before the races, for instance, was a key series of events in the film, and it was done very accurately. The conversations were casual, jokey, but also with heavy focus on how the team should work together in each event.

One thing I did pick up on, however, was that during these meetings, you could see what I assume was free practice going on in the background. That would be fine, if it wasn't free practice for Formula 1 - so why were they all sitting having a meeting while that was going on? Minor thing, can get over it a little, but these are the little details that you should be getting right.

The team perspective, however, was pretty poor. The entire concept is that this new team needs to win a race within 3 years. When was the last time that happened? Not even Red Bull achieved that, nor Mercedes. We're still waiting for Haas to achieve a win. It just doesn't work like this in F1, so why make it the plot. You could have chosen points, maybe a podium, but a win? Really? Similarly, there's elements of the team management and shareholders that just doesn't seem very realistic, and I expected Lewis to know these details, or at least ask someone who did. It just didn't feel right from that element.

This was highlighted by the development of the car. They make a big deal out of this throughout the film, but realistically they get one upgrade halfway through the season, and that's it. They don't develop, they add one small bit of floor and gain a huge performance upgrade. That's not true to real life, and it doesn't make sense in the story, you could have had it unlock a new direction for the team, and they continue, anything but that.

Right, I'm going to be a bit critical and nerdy now, it's my blog and my opinion here, so don't take this as gospel because it's not, it's just opinion. There are so many things that just detract from a great story that are really hard to overlook. Firstly, Sonny repeatedly turns up at tracks on foot coming down the pitlane. That just wouldn't ever happen. He also trains for all of 2 days, and gets back in an F1 car and is less than half a second off his teammate. It rather undermines the training and lifestyle these drivers go through to be able to drive these cars.

There's about 5 punctures in the film, 3 in one race. We just don't see that many in the real world, and especially not for one driver, even if it was intentional. Similarly, there's a huge crash that doesn't bring out a safety car, or even a yellow flag, and yet a small bit of rear wing off the racing line brings out a red flag. I know it's for drama and suspense, but it just doesn't feel like real F1 at those points.

The final scene involves Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, featuring a bit of George Russell too. That's not much of a spoiler as it was filmed during the end-of-season test after Abu Dhabi 2024 and posted all over social media. What is a bit weird, though, is that Lewis takes on both APX cars and they keep hyping him up like he stands a chance in that 2024 Mercedes. It felt a bit like an ego-boost for Lewis, and a chance to promote his old team, new team, and teammates at both of those teams in his last real drive for Mercedes. It just, again, didn't feel realistic, particularly in this modern age of F1 where DRS overtakes are so frequent and the Mercedes wasn't anything special on the straights last year.

Finally, and I have saved the most nerdy until last. There are reshoots, obviously, but the problem with reshoots in a film like this, is that the cars change from year-to-year. There's a bunch of filming that takes place at Silverstone, both the 2023 and 2024 Grands Prix. The problem with that is, there are fundamentally different teams and drivers on the grid for these scenes. For instance, Alfa Romeo became Kick Sauber in the interim. Nyck De Vries left AlphaTauri during that time. McLaren ran a chrome livery in 2023 and didn't in 2024. It rained in 2024. There were just some elements where I spotted drivers were in different cars or positions that only a real F1 nerd would spot, but most won't.

Not that Formula 1 needs help at the moment, with the sport seeing a 4-fold increase in market value since 2017 and the continued record-breaking attendance at each Grand Prix weekend, but yes it will. Much like Drive To Survive, which I also watch every year despite its flaws, the F1 film will attract a new audience to the sport. The racing scenes are thrilling, and well worth seeing in IMAX. They'll probably stand up pretty well on a good TV at home too, so that's a bonus. The story is exciting enough that it will draw in casual fans, and hopefully they stick around because that can only be a good thing for the sport.

The problem F1 might have is that currently it can get quite boring during a race. The first few laps are pretty thrilling, but once the order settles down, it can be quite difficult to get going again. What we really need is a 2021 title fight all over again, just after this film so that viewership continues to increase. If Lando and Oscar could please give us that, then the F1 film will be a success in bringing in new fans of the sport.

This is just my opinion, for a more detailed review stay tuned for our podcast next week! You'll get to hear both of our opinions in much more detail.