Apple Studios’ biggest theatrical success this year, if not in their entire history, F1 The Movie has also managed to become the highest-grossing film featuring Brad Pitt, and the recent re-release ensures that the steady flow of cash is going to keep going for some more time. A visual spectacle to be enjoyed on the big screen, the film follows the story of nomadic racecar driver Sonny Hayes, who receives the unlikely chance to feature in the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1, in order to help a struggling new team survive. While F1 The Movie has its fair share of flaws, the performances and the overall execution, especially of the racing scenes, are breathtaking to say the least, making it a must-watch for any fan of high-intensity sports dramas.
Spoiler Alert
What is the movie about?
F1 The Movie begins with the protagonist, Sonny Hayes, waking up to loud banging on the door of his camper van, which interrupts a dream he had been having about driving an F1 car in Jerez, Spain. The inside of the van makes it evident that Sonny has long lost control over his life, and he barely survives, eating whatever he can readily get and crashing on the bed without caring for the mess all around. Heck, he even wears socks from two different pairs, only because he can’t be bothered to look for a complete set! But as the racing overalls reveal very soon, it is not like Sonny lives a purposeless or dejected life, as he is actually competing in the prestigious Daytona 24-hour race at the very time that the film begins.
Although he is clearly way past the prime of his life, being in his 50s at the moment, because of which anyone hardly expects a decent performance from him, Sonny Hayes is still at the very top of the game, and he skillfully takes his Peak Geico Chip Hart Racing car to the lead in the endurance race before handing over the wheel to a teammate. His drive during the night shift ultimately becomes instrumental, as the team wins the race the next morning. But Sonny is not amidst the celebrations, and he even refuses to take the cup with him, accepting only the money he has earned from his participation. Soon, he decides to set out to compete in a new racing category after seeing an advertisement looking for drivers for the Baja 1000 off-road race in Mexico.
This is when an old friend, Ruben Cervantes, comes looking for Sonny and presents a unique proposition to him. Years earlier, in 1993, Sonny Hayes was an up-and-coming driver in Formula 1 when Ruben was his teammate and, therefore, biggest rival, as per the characteristic of the sport. But a horrific crash in the Spanish Grand Prix, at the Jerez circuit, had ended Sonny’s career before he could achieve any wins in the sport, and Ruben now gives him the chance to return to F1 as a sort of final redemption. Ruben has his own reasons for making this proposal, though, as his racing team, APXGP, has been struggling ever since its entry two-and-a-half years ago, without ever scoring any points.
If APXGP cannot score any points by the end of the current season, with 9 races left, the board will surely force Ruben to sell the team, bringing a crashing end to his F1 dreams. Thus, he wants Sonny to drive for the remainder of the season and save his team from being shut down, and although Sonny is initially not interested, the prospect is indeed quite appealing to him.
How does Ruben and Kate’s joint plan bring the drivers together?
Sonny Hayes’ return to Formula 1 is not very well accepted by the team’s other driver, Joshua Pearce, who is understandably frustrated at the fact that he is treated as the 2nd driver only because of Sonny’s experience from more than 30 years back. Sonny is clearly not very well acquainted with the modern practices of the sport, and Joshua immediately treats him as his main rival. This is even more frustrating for the young Brit, for despite his past as an ex-racer who had gambled all his money away, Sonny is still extremely fast on the track. First, the two crash out at the British GP, despite being the last two cars on the grid. Although Sonny helps Joshua and the team score their first ever point at the Hungarian GP, the two have a serious falling out in the next race, at Monza.
Despite the track being under damp conditions, Sonny advises, or rather outright orders, Joshua to stay on the dry tires so that the British driver can take advantage of every other car stopping to change tires and win the race in the process. He literally guides Joshua in driving around the track but soon pushes the young racer a bit too much, which results in a horrific crash. Not only does Joshua lose 2nd position in the race, but he also narrowly avoids serious injury and is unable to compete for the next 3 races. The world, and Joshua himself, holds Sonny responsible for the crash, and he is also frustrated at seeing the veteran racer finally score points and get recognition while he is away. Thus, in the very race that he returns to, at Spa, Joshua pulls an extremely risky move, which results in his teammate’s crash.
As the tension and bitterness between the teammates is at its highest, the technical director of the team, Kate McKenna, sits down with the two of them informally, and it is later revealed that this had been a joint plan made by her and Ruben. During this night out, just before the Las Vegas GP, Kate makes Sonny and Joshua play poker with her and also make each other give honest evaluations of each other. This ultimately paints a clear picture of how each driver sees their teammate, which, in turn, reveals both their individual weaknesses. Joshua lacks patience and the maturity to wait for the perfect moment or race strategies, and he is instead driven by a youthful brashness that is harmful in his profession. Sonny is too indifferent and dismissive, especially about the feedback that others around him have for him with regard to his life and career. It is this discussion that makes the teammates open up to each other and finally build a trust that comes into play later on.
What is the conspiracy in the works against APXGP?
In the latter half of F1 The Movie, Sonny learns of a grand conspiracy, or a sabotage, in the works against the APXGP team. Right before the Las Vegas GP, the FIA authorities informed the team that a crucial aerodynamic upgrade that Kate had painstakingly developed for the cars, which had immediately made the team much quicker, was under investigation. The authorities suspected that the upgrade had been developed and fitted onto the cars in a personal facility, and not in the team’s official facility, in contravention of the rules. They clarify that the suspicion is based on a set of documents that clearly seem to be forged versions of APXGP internal information, according to Kate and Ruben. While the FIA makes the team remove the new upgrade and run the race using their older, much slower cars, they later rule that the documents were indeed forged and the upgrade had been completely legal.
As he is engulfed by anger and rage during the race because of this strange new situation, Sonny ends up crashing the car horribly, which leaves him dangerously injured. It is also now that Ruben learns that Sonny’s crash in 1993 had caused numerous terrible and permanent internal injuries to the man, because of which he was told by the doctors to never race in any format ever again. Sonny had never revealed this to anyone, and had simply walked away from the sport to eventually drown his sorrows and gamble away his wealth. Now, Ruben refuses to let Sonny race for the team anymore, since a crash could very easily result in loss of vision, paralysis, or even death, considering the internal condition of his body. This is when Peter Banning, one of the board members of the APXGP team, pulls Sonny aside and offers him a personal deal.
As it happens, Peter Banning has been trying to sabotage the team for some time now, as he wants Ruben’s job, both because of the fame and the money that the position of an F1 team owner will bring him. Towards the beginning of the film, it is revealed that Peter has no interest or knowledge about the sport, and so his move is purely driven by financial and egoistic motives. He has been able to convince the board members to support his plan of taking over the company, rebranding it, and starting afresh in the sport, removing Ruben from the role of owner, instead giving him the insignificant post of an ambassador. But the only condition for such a deal to go through has been that APXGP should not be able to win any races in the current season. While winning was out of the question earlier because of the slow car, their chances had improved when Kate had brought the upgrades. Therefore, Peter had forged the internal documents and filed a false complaint to the FIA to ensure that his own team would not be able to win.
At present, Peter offers Sonny the chance to become the team principal, basically the manager, of the new team that he will be running, which will not only bring him even more recognition but also a fat check, the latter of which Peter personally promises. However, Sonny’s character has two very specific attributes as seen throughout the film, which go directly against this cruel sabotage plan. Firstly, he does not race for money but for the sheer passion of driving. Secondly, he is actually very dedicated and even protective towards Ruben Cervantes and seemingly towards everyone that he considers a friend. Thus, when the time for the final race of the season comes, Sonny tears up the last paycheck that he had received so that Ruben cannot technically fire him from the role of driver, as per the rules. Merely weeks, if not days, after surviving the horrific crash, Sonny returns to drive for APXGP to personally try to ensure that the team gets a win and Peter’s villainous conspiracy is quashed.
Do Ruben and APXGP remain in F1?
F1 The Moviepresents a thrilling finale, with extensive coverage of the last race of the season, at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, with APXGP necessarily having to secure a win in order to remain in the sport. In the first phase of the race, Joshua manages to take the lead momentarily, despite starting from outside the top 10, by not pitting to change tires while the rest of the grid makes stops. He does eventually have to make the stop and finds himself in 6th position, while Sonny makes his way up the grid quickly. But in an extremely lucky change of fortune, Sonny crashes after making contact with George Russell’s Mercedes, and this brings out the red flag, meaning that the race is temporarily stopped, with all the drivers returning to the pits and maintaining their positions.
The red flag rules allow for repairs and adjustments to be made on the cars, and Sonny’s rear wing is thankfully replaced right in time. The race stewards also confirm that the crash was not illegal, since Sonny had built an ill reputation for intentionally causing crashes to benefit his team’s race. When the race resumes, the APXGP cars are in 3rd and 4th, with Lewis Hamilton leading the race. During the qualifying session, which is broken into three stages and takes place on Saturdays before the races, it is important for every team to manage their tires, since there are only a limited number of sets available for the race weekend. Since neither of the APXGP cars had made it to the final qualifying stage, they both have new sets of soft tires to use, which are the quickest. In contrast, the soft tires on Hamilton’s and Charles Leclerc’s cars in 2nd are a few laps old, which immediately gives Sonny and Joshua the advantage.
Sonny ultimately sacrifices his chance at winning the race as well in order to let Joshua take the lead, but the British driver ends up colliding with Lewis Hamilton, and both of them are out of the race. As a result, Sonny Hayes, the driver in 3rd, gets a clear field ahead, and he holds on to the lead to secure a historic first win, not just for himself but for the APXGP team as well. As a result, the board members obviously cancel their plan of putting an end to the team, not only because the newfound success of APXGP will quickly bring in profits, but also perhaps because such a move would draw public flak. Thus, in F1 The Movie’s ending, Ruben Cervantes and his APXGP racing team both manage to remain in Formula 1.
What does Sonny decide for himself in the end?
Despite this triumph, Sonny Hayes decides to retire from F1 after just one win in the sport, and try his hand at some other racing series, which is soon revealed to be the Baja 1000 off-road tournament. As is revealed throughout the film, Sonny actually does not care about fame or money but is purely driven by the joy and thrill that he receives while racing. After the horrific crash in 1993 and the gambling that followed had ruined his life completely, he had found the courage to recover emotionally by seeking comfort in this joy of racing. This is why he kept traveling from one place to another, racing in various formats and series, without sticking to any one of them. While his time in Formula 1 definitely gives him a sense of redemption, after having initially crashed out of the sport more than 30 years ago, he decides not to stay on. Sonny knows that he will soon get bored of F1, the internal politics, and the media attention that are part of the sport, and so he leaves to thoroughly enjoy himself in the Baja 1000.
Are Sonny and Kate together?
After clearly growing interested and attracted towards each other, Sonny Hayes and Kate McKenna, the technical director of APXGP, hook up with one another, spending a night together. There are clearly romantic feelings on both sides, but they do not get much chance to explore any possible relationship during the racing season.
During F1 The Movie’s ending, Sonny and Kate promise to keep in touch and to meet each other again “down the road,” but they do part ways. Despite possibly having love between them, or at least very genuine feelings, the two characters do not stay together. However, we can definitely expect to see them once again if a sequel is made, which is extremely likely given the overwhelmingly positive business it has been doing. In such a case, we can perhaps expect to see Sonny Hayes in a managerial role for APXGP, with some more focus on Joshua Pearce, an interesting and likeable character who can surely take the lead next.
