How F1 25 is recreating the best bits of Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 movie

Formula 1 is no stranger to Hollywood. As far back as the 1960s, the sport has been depicted on the big screen in films like Grand Prix and Rush, which centred on the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the fateful 1976 championship.

Next month sees the release of the first official Formula 1-branded film, in the imaginatively titled F1: The Movie. It stars Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a veteran driver who returns from retirement to mentor young rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) for the fictional Apex Grand Prix (APXGP) team.

The film is also directed by Joseph Kosinski, best known for Top Gun Maverick, and produced by Lewis Hamilton, so the racing scenes, shot during actual race weekends, including the British Grand Prix, should be spectacular. 

F1 25 will recreate the best bits of Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 blockbuster, with playable scenarios inspired by key scenes where you drive the APXGP hero car and complete objectives.

We played a snippet of the opening chapter at The O2’s Virgin Media Gamepad, where the APXGP car from the film was on display with its glorious black and gold livery. 

Getting to grips

At launch, both Iconic and Standard Edition players can access the opening scenario chapter from 27^th and 30^th May, respectively. After that, the remaining chapters can be accessed in the Iconic Edition as a preorder bonus, or Standard Edition players can purchase them separately in a DLC pack, although pricing has yet to be confirmed. 

However, to avoid spoilers, the remaining chapters won’t be available until 30^th June, with the film’s theatrical release set for 25th June in the US and 27th June internationally.

“The launch of the game is a preview chapter that all players can enjoy. It’s a light introduction to the world of the film. You get to meet some of the characters. And then the six scenarios that follow after that are taken from exciting bits of the film,” F1 25’s Creative Director Gavin Cooper explained.

After an extended live-action clip lifted from the film, the first chapter sets the scene. During a test run at Silverstone, you start by getting to grips with the car for two laps before trying to beat a time. We played as Hayes, aiming to beat Pearce’s lap time and prove he has what it takes to return to F1, but objectives will vary depending on who you play as.

Beating the lap time triggers another movie cut scene, revealing a key scene – let’s just say the lap doesn’t end well. For many players, this will likely be the first extended look at the film before it hits cinemas.   

“If you desperately want to avoid spoilers, watch the film first,” Cooper advised. “But because we’re just taking snippets, I don’t think we’re telling the overall story of the film. We’re not giving away the broader narrative.”

Driving the APXGP car

In the film, the team APXGP car was built as a Formula 2 car in the shape of a Formula 1 car. Driving it in-game, the car felt planted and grippy while hustling it around corners, though it will be fairly balanced with the rest of the field.  

“From our point of view, we’re not recreating how they shot the film, we’re recreating the narrative, so it plays like an F1 car,” said Cooper. “In terms of where it sits in the performance order, because you can take the APXGP team into My Team and Driver Career, it’s subject to the same rules that govern you bringing your own custom team in My Team.

“If anything, the narrative of the film has them as an underdog. So, if you’re coming in the bottom of the grid in My Team, that will be quite authentic to the film.”

As for how long it will take to finish, Cooper estimates completing every chapter will take “about an hour and a half,” depending on your skill level and how many times you play each event.

Movie magic

Although F1 25’s development team hasn’t seen the film yet, Cooper went on to explain the process and challenges of recreating the F1 movie scenarios in the game.

 “We got early access to the script so we could start perusing it and figuring out what the narrative highpoints are and thinking what would make good candidates for scenarios,” he explained.

“It’s a lot like game development. We started to see very early cuts of some of those sequences, which meant we had to potentially change our plans to match how the movie was taking shape. 

“Once we identified these specific bits we wanted to try and recreate, there was a whole design process where we tried to figure out ‘what’s the story of this bit of on-track action?’ ‘How can we tell that story with the tools we have in the game?’ ‘With the objectives, where do we cut back from footage to gameplay and back to footage?’

“We then tried to stitch together a plan for how the scenarios would pan out. Then it went to a designer to implement all of that and balance it for all the different difficulty levels.”

Its setup is similar to Braking Point, with each scenario cutting between footage and gameplay. The difference, however, is that Braking Point’s cut scenes are CGI. Merging seamlessly between live-action footage and gameplay was a different undertaking. 

“It was different doing it with real footage,” said Cooper. “The art and graphics teams spent a lot of work on the colour grading of these scenarios. We changed the colour grading of the on-track action to visually match the look of the film, so that transition is a lot more seamless.”

For those who remember it, The Grand Tour game, which has since been delisted, is perhaps a closer comparison as it also effectively merges live-action footage with gameplay.

These similarities between the movie scenarios and Braking Point are no coincidence: “Under the hood, the APXGP game scenarios are built on the same game code as the Braking Point scenarios,” Cooper revealed. “That really helped us get our heads around how these were going to work early.”

Could this pave the way for a classic scenario mode?  

We can’t help but wonder if this is setting a template for classic scenario mode recreating famous Formula 1 moments with historic cars and circuits, similar to MotoGP 22’s excellent Nine season mode.

While licensing is always a hurdle, a classic scenario mode could, in theory, adapt the same model. Codemasters isn’t ready to commit to this yet, but isn’t ruling out the possibility either.  

“We’re not quite in that headspace yet to think about what we might do in the future,” said Cooper. “But there are definitely things we can explore, especially if we see how well these land and resonate with players.”

F1 25 crosses the finish line on 27^th May for Iconic Edition players on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, followed by the Standard Edition release on 30^th May. For the first time since F1 2015, this year’s F1 game will skip the last-generation PS4 and Xbox One consoles.