‘F1’: How Joseph Kosinski Turned Real Races Into Hollywood’s Most Exhilarating Set
The director talks about the challenges of making his racing drama, and the support from F1 itself: ‘They really did embrace us like we were an 11th team’
Art & Crafts: Under the Hood is a custom Ankler series exploring the craft behind the movies and TV we love. Produced by Ankler Media executive producer of brand experiences Jennifer Laski, the series is presented by Apple Original Films & F1.
For filmmaker Joseph Kosinski, realism is paramount when it comes to making blockbusters — and it’s clear from his recent output, including best picture nominee Top Gun: Maverick and last year’s global smash F1, that audiences agree.
But for the Apple Original Films hit starring Brad Pitt, Kosinski, director of photography Claudio Miranda and the actors upped the ante. Shooting at actual F1 races around the world, the filmmaking crew often had less than 15 minutes to shoot one or two scenes at Grand Prix events ranging from Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi. In Vegas, it was a track that had “no safety margin.” If Pitt and co-star Damson Idris made any mistake, Kosinski says on the latest episode of Art & Crafts: Under the Hood, “they would go right into a concrete barrier.”
During regular filming schedules, the actors and crew have 15-25 takes to get it just right, but at official F1 events, Kosinski would go to his cast and say, “We’ll probably get two takes, maybe three at this.” He compares it to live theater — at a budget and scale much higher than any play.
“When you have the right cast, and you have the right crew, the pressure of those situations, I feel, brings out the best,” Kosinski says. “You have 150,000 people in the stands watching. You’ve got all the F1 teams around you … Those are moments that I think, when I look back, I’ll never forget.”
Related: How F1 Captured Brad Pitt Driving 200 MPH in a Formula 1 Racer
Set in the world of Formula 1 racing, F1 centers on Sonny Hayes (Pitt), who returns to the sport 30 years after a massive crash derailed his career to bring a struggling team and its hotshot new driver (Idris) to glory. Not only did Kosinski shoot F1 during live races, but the movie also features several prominent drivers, including superstar Lewis Hamilton, who co-starred as a primary antagonist in the final race and served as one of the Apple movie’s producers. (F1 was distributed in theaters through a partnership with Warner Bros. around the world.)
When he started on the project, Kosinski first reached out to legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with whom he’d worked on Top Gun: Maverick, because Kosinski knew that the “scale and scope and complexity” required fell directly into the producer’s skillset. Kosinski also reached out to Hamilton, a seven-time F1 world champion.
Hamilton gave the film its bona fides in the racing community. Though the F1 world had been cautious about a Hollywood crew’s arrival, by the end of production, “they really did embrace us like we were an 11th team,” Kosinski says. Hamilton also provided Kosinski with the inspiration behind F1’s thrilling climax.
“What Hamilton’s chasing when he drives is a moment that doesn’t happen very often, a feeling of achieving this kind of flow state,” Kosinski says. “He described it as the car disappears around him.”
As anyone who has seen F1 — a recent best picture nominee at the Producers Guild Awards, and a blockbuster hit with more than $631 million in global grosses — knows by now, that’s the same state Hayes professes he hopes to reach before the final race.
“As soon as he said that,” Kosinski adds, “I instantly knew how to shoot that final scene where Sonny Hayes drives his last lap.”
Apple Original Films’ F1 is streaming on Apple TV.