F1 movie trailer divides fans of motor racing sport

Some F1 fans are questioning a line of dialogue featured in the teaser

The first trailer for Brad Pitt’s Formula One movie, titled F1, has been released.

However, the reaction has been mixed amongst fans, with some stating they “expected more” and that the teaser simply “felt like B-roll”.

The teaser begins with dialogue from the Fight Club star and Banshees of Inisherin actor Kerry Condon, who plays Pitt’s racing team’s technical director:

After the release of the teaser on Sunday (7 July), fans began to point out the hypocrisy of Pitt’s brash dismissal of safety in a line of dialogue (”Who said anything about safe?”) – especially as Formula One prides itself on its safety measures through the supervisation of the FIA.

“That opening line is awful on so many levels”, one commenter shared.

One joked: “Let’s remove the halo! That thing weighs down the car! Let’s remove the brakes. Who needs that anyway?”

Still from the F1 teaser trailer (Apple TV+)

The song choice for the trailer was also a huge point of contention for fans across the internet.

On 27 June, composer Hans Zimmer revealed at the Austrian Grand Prix that he would be doing the soundtrack for the movie.

Yet the trailer uses the famous Queen track “We Will Rock You”, much to the dismay of fans who were hoping to hear some of Zimmer’s score.

“Hans Zimmer scores this ... and you pick we will rock you to be playing for the entire trailer?” One X/Twitter user wrote.

One fan stated that the song choice made the trailer feel fan made: “The recent trope of injecting 70’s/80’s music into trailers is so painfully obvious here, the music doesn’t match the tone at all, feels like a fan trailer with that song…”

There were those who were left excited for the film., though with one X/Twitter user remarking: “For those who don’t know. This is the director of Top Gun Maverick and Oblivion. This movie gonna be insane”.

“MASTERPIECE INCOMING!!!” another exclaimed.

The film, directed by Top Gun Maverick’s Joseph Konsinski, follows Brad Pitt as a former driver who makes his F1 comeback with the fictional team APXGP. The 60-year-old star is joined by Damson Idris as his team mate.

Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies, and Callie Cooke also star in the film, alongside many familiar faces to F1 fans.

Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Fernando Alonso, and Carlos Sainz are among some of the F1 drivers seen in the teaser.

F1 arrives in UK cinemas the 25 June 2025.