As a Formula One fan and a massive cinephile, I was eagerly awaiting the release of F1 The Movie like I was personally going to get a cut of its box office success. I watched the film in the back of a pitch black theater during its release week earlier this year. The silver screen projecting close-up racing shots and the full Dolby Atmos spatial audio blasting the cars’ roaring engines took me from my cinema seat to the grandstands of an F1 race. F1 The Movie follows former F1 driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) who joins APX GP, a struggling team run by Hayes’ previous F1 teammate, to bring it to glory alongside rookie driver Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris). From a cinematic viewpoint, director Joseph Kosinski delivers a film that holds your attention with its vivid special effects and artful cinematography. The adrenaline incited by the actors, the shots, and the soundtrack (which will undoubtedly be on my Spotify Wrapped) in this film had me on the literal edge of my seat. Pitt plays the competitive and hardened Sonny Hayes, and his energy is matched by Idris’ portrayal of the overconfident Joshua Pierce.

The film was shot during actual race weekends and features cameos by some of the current F1 drivers and team principals, making it feel all the more realistic and exciting. From the roaring seas of red Ferrari fans in Monza to the glimmering lights of the Yas Marina, APX GP was fully integrated into the races, giving audiences a taste of what a real F1 weekend is like while still providing a unique touch of storytelling.

In addition to on-site filming, part of what makes the racing sequences feel so real is the involvement of Sir Lewis Hamilton, current Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver, as a producer. Sir Hamilton’s experience in F1 was integral to ensuring attention to detail, even down to the sounds of the car on different parts of the track. The APX GP car used in the film is a modified version of the cars used in Formula Two, which is a feeder series meant to prepare drivers for a potential future in F1 driven in some sequences by Pitt himself. The film does an excellent job of fully immersing the viewer into the action and making APX GP feel like a real F1 team.

If there are any negative qualities, it would be within the narrative itself. A central part of Hayes’ character is his undying passion for driving and yet we are not shown enough of how he got into it. It is implied that his dad got him into the sport, but Hayes’ whole deal is that he jumps from team to team because he is chasing this rush that comes only from driving, even after a life-changing experience almost made him quit. Seeing how his passion for racing began or hearing about how he got his start in F1 could have helped connect the viewer to him more, providing ample reason to root for him. Without a sufficient backstory, Hayes’ passion comes off as just empty words.

The film drops tiny bits of plot — how Hayes never touches his trophies, the way he always keeps a card in his pocket when racing, how he kneels beside the car before stepping into it — that should have been picked up and used to help us connect to Hayes more. Throwing in these bits of Hayes’ habits without demonstrating how they connect to his overall character or how they make sense within his arc is a waste.

Another issue with the narrative is the representation of female characters. A subplot within this film is Hayes’ relationship with the race engineer Kate Mckenna (Kerry Condon), whom they say is the first and only female race engineer. Not only did this relationship essentially contribute nothing to the development of the plot (i.e. the story would have been the same without the relationship), it put one of the only female characters in this film in an unnecessary position. Why is it that her role is reduced to a romantic interest? The only other female character on the APX GP team is a mechanic who essentially offers nothing to the story besides making mistakes in the pit lane and slowing the drivers down. Ultimately, these characters’ development was disappointing and underwhelming.

Now, as an F1 fan, it is unnecessary to comment on inaccuracies, since the film was never advertised as a documentary or an accurate representation of what F1 really is. However, when we were leaving the theatre, my mother posed an interesting question: “If they had changed the sport of the film, made it tennis or football or something else, would there be any difference?” To me, the film would have been pretty much the same. The formula of the narrative — former star athlete works with hotshot rookie to win gold using risky old school techniques — is nothing new, necessarily. In fact, I have seen some people compare it to Disney’s Cars, but as a die hard Cars fan since childhood, I have to say there is no comparison here, or even Kosinski’s other film, Top Gun Maverick. It is a tried and true formula for sports films, so no surprise there. What makes up for the somewhat cliché premise is the attention to detail that went into ensuring the film brought as much of the energy of F1 to the screen as possible.

Sure, I spent half of this article pointing out what I think is wrong with this film, but I have also seen it three times already, so clearly it is doing something right. All in all, F1 The Movie accomplished pretty much exactly what it set out to do: bring F1 to broader audiences through action packed racing sequences and an enthusiastic musical score.