On Location peels back the curtain on some of your favorite films, television shows, and more.
F1: The Movie has all the hallmarks of a summer blockbuster: thrilling pace, a snappy soundtrack, a classic narrative climax—and superstar actors. Crucially, it’s also the never-seen-before coming together of two cultural and entertainment powerhouses. Starring Brad Pitt as racing legend Sonny Hayes, Javier Bardem as a Formula One team principal Ruben Cervantes, and Damon Idris as an impulsive young gun driver, the movie not only heralds the mega moment the sport is having, but also does what no racing movie has done before—immerses itself completely into the world of the sport. In real time.
So much so that the Apple Original Films flick was officially licensed by Formula 1, and production integrated into the racing calendar. Director Joseph Kosinski, armed with the dynamic, immersive shooting style seen in Top Gun: Maverick, followed a high-speed schedule on the track; and Pitt and the movie crew were regularly sighted at a number of races during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, shoulder to shoulder—or should we say nose to tail—with actual drivers and their cars. The garages and the crowds provided readymade sets, and the fictional APX GP team, for all intents and purposes, became the 11th team in the 10-team sport, dismantling and shipping out their cars and garage from race to race alongside the others.
This means that you’ll see almost every F1 driver on screen—Lewis Hamilton himself came on as producer—as well as team bosses. Even Roscoe, Hamilton’s beloved bulldog, makes an appearance. This access to real-life racing is catnip forfans, who might also note throwbacks to other racing films like Le Mans or Days of Thunder (Jerry Bruckheimer is also a producer on F1.) However, F1: The Movie has the potential to appeal to a much wider audience that just enjoys an immersive, fast-paced romp in which you can get behind a back-of-the-field team—no matter the odds.
We got on a call with the film’s London-based production designer Ben Munro and asked him to take us through the thrills of trackside action and spill the tea on off-track locations—from a Bedfordshire pub to a coin laundromat in Florida and some actual F1 team headquarters.
A scene from Apple Original Films’ F1: The Movie, now in theaters and IMAX.
Courtesy Apple
What is your own relationship with Formula 1?
Like many young boys, growing up, I enjoyed watching it. It was a world that seemed so glamorous, so exciting. Those were the Ayrton Senna days, Nigel Mansell, Schumacher… So, when I first got the call, it was like, wow, okay, this is mega exciting, the little boy in me is able to kind of come out again. Of course, the sport is so different compared to what it was like so there was much to learn.
How many races did you film at? Were there some that appealed more to Joseph (Kosinski) and the team than others?
I want to say it was nine races. Let’s see, we started at Silverstone, then went to Hungary, then Monza, Spa in Belgium, a splinter unit to the Dutch Grand Prix and Japan, Mexico City, Abu Dhabi, then Las Vegas, and back to Silverstone. It wasn’t always perfectly linear, but the choices were made by Joe [Kosinski] to have the races that had the most pertinent story points. Of course, there are certain tracks which are especially iconic, yeah? Silverstone, where F1 started; Spa in Belgium, because of the Eau Rouge (one of the most iconic and challenging corners on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps); Japan because the fans are extraordinary; and Abu Dhabi because it’s the last and the story had to end there.
