F1 The Movie follows retired driver Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) as he returns to the track to help a former competitor managing a F1 team (Javier Bardem), and an up-and-coming driver climb the ranks (Damson Idris).

As someone who knows nothing about Formula 1 (despite the admirable education efforts of ex-boyfriends), I was just hoping this movie had some fast cars in it.

Not only are the cars fast – but they feel speedy, and a little scary. The risks of driving a high-speed vehicle are ever present throughout the movie, with me flinching at every near crash.

This film is made by the same creative team as Top Gun: Maverick with the funding of Formula 1 and Apple, which means this the highest tech movie ever.

Everything looks incredible. If you thought the plane shots in Maverick were cool, it takes a step up here, with the racing scenes shot at real Grand Prix tracks around the world.

Everything feels exciting and larger than life, and each race is dynamic and feels different – impressive considering there are tons of races featured. There’s even a split screen moment, which took me back to the high stakes of my Mario Kart days.

The story is stock standard, but it works. The rivalry dynamic between Sonny and rookie driver Joshua Pearce is kept entertaining enough by Pitt and Idris to drag the plot for its two-hour 37-minute runtime.

Director Joseph Kosinski always delivers exposition that is easy to follow but not dull and often does so during action scenes as to not drag the pace. As someone who knows nothing about these competitions in general, I never felt lost or confused about what was happening.

Idris matched Pitt well, playing a young driver who has lost himself in the social media fame game a bit.

As with most action movies, Kosinski and writer Erhen Kruger could have put a little work into their female characters.

But I give points for the obligatory love interest being a top F1 engineer (even if Pitt has to tell her how to do her job), and also another woman lowkey tells Pitt off for being nice to her to make himself look better (iconic).

While it’s no Barbie, it was more feminism than I expected from a dad/car movie.

Kerry Condon as Kate, the car engineer (who also has to teach Pitt to be a team player), is very charismatic, and the dynamic between her and Pitt’s character delivered a lot of laughs.

I am probably not the target audience of this film, yet I still had a pretty good time.

I saw this with my dad (more of the target audience) and his review was: “This is what you go to the movies for”.

Although this will likely be available on Apple+ in three-four months, I’d really recommend seeing it on the big screen. The sound design is top tier, the score is by Hans Zimmer, it’s a classic action/sports movie made with peak technology.

For fans of racing, Top Gunn: Maverick, or newbies to the formula one scene, you really can’t go wrong F1 The Movie. 7/10

F1 The Movie
■ Sports; Cert M, contains offensive language; 2 hrs 35 mins
■ Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
■ Director: Joseph Kosinski