'F1' Movie Director Reveal How They Filmed at Actual Formula 1 Races

A Formula 1 movie is on the way, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris!

The upcoming film, simply titled F1, just debuted it’s first teaser trailer on Sunday (July 7), while the aforementioned stars were in attendance at the 2024 British Grand Prix, filming additional scenes for the feature.

More than a year in the works, the movie has been filming at actual F1 races, on the track and in the paddocks alongside the real life Formula 1 teams and drivers.

In a new interview, director Joseph Kosinski revealed how they have been filming during races and race weekends as the real-time events are taking place.

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“We’ve got Brad and Damson actually driving the cars, which is pretty spectacular in itself, but to do that in front of a live audience and at the speeds they’re doing it and figuring out a way to capture it…” Joseph told Deadline. “The logistics of it are unlike anything I’ve done before. We’re shooting at the actual Grands Prix, there are certain aspects of this film where we’re working in very, very tight windows, shooting on the track, between practice and qualifying sessions, in front of hundreds of thousands of people.”

“Last year, at Silverstone, we had a scene we shot on the grid. I think we had something like nine minutes to shoot a one, or one-and-a-half-page dialogue scene with three actors. It’s like a pitstop,” he added. “It really brings an intensity and everyone’s leaning forward in a way that maybe you wouldn’t on a normal shoot day on a soundstage, where you’ve got 10 hours to get right. Now, when you’ve got nine minutes, with all the actors you can just see the adrenaline going beforehand and you feel that in the performances.”

Joseph also revealed they created some new tech to be able to capture the footage for the film.

“At this level of performance, yes. We have bespoke cameras for this that are very small and light so that they don’t impede the performance of the car too much and that’s key because you don’t want to have a race car and then put 200 pounds of gear on it. Our camera mounts were designed with Mercedes as well. The cameras are specially designed by Sony,” he dished.

“It’s the next generation from what we did on Top Gun [Maverick, which he also directed]. Everything is much smaller and the big innovation that is that we’re now able to control the movement of the cameras on the cars,” Joseph continued. “We’re not locked into these kinds of fixed positions we had on Top Gun. Now we have real-time control of panning and focusing them while shooting through a very extensive RF network that we’ve built around the tracks.”

If you missed it, be sure to check out the first teaser trailer for F1, where you can see the footage those cameras are capturing!