Joseph Kosinski on the Full 'F1' Trailer: How the 'Top Gun: Maverick' Director Teamed Up with Lewis Hamilton to Capture Formula 1's Intensity

Since making his feature debut in a glow of sci-fi and action with 2010's TRON: Legacy, Joseph Kosinski can't stop feeling the need for speed. Just over a decade after his first film, the director was behind the helm of Tom Cruise-starring 2022 megahit and 36-years-later sequel Top Gun: Maverick, aka the movie that helped bring audiences back to cinemas in a big way after COVID-19 closures and lockdowns. Now comes another huge flick with ample adrenaline, dashing modes of transport aplenty and a zooming pulse, as well as another silver-screen must-see: F1, which isn't just set in the world of Formula 1, but was shot within it, including on real race weekends.

Kosinski came to his sixth feature — 2013's Oblivion, 2017's Only the Brave and 2022's Spiderhead are also on his resume — during the pandemic's early days, sparked by an obsession that's shared by many. Chalk up another win for Formula 1: Drive to Survive, then. Being interested in a sport, immersed in a TV show about it and driven turn that love into a movie isn't the same as having experience in it, though. Enter Formula 1's record-holder for the most amount of wins (and pole positions and podium finishes, too), seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. He's not just one of F1's producers, but also a crucial player in ensuring that authenticity is at the forefront of the movie.

Introducing Kosinski at a press Q&A, the IRL star driver himself called the end result "the most-authentic racing film you will ever experience in a cinema". The just-dropped full trailer for the film and its past teasers give viewers a sneak peek of how F1 strives to make good on Hamilton's promise. "Joe, Jerry [producer Bruckheimer], Brad, the cast and the whole filmmaking team put an incredible amount of effort to deliver a genuine Formula 1 racing experience unlike anything you've ever experienced before on screen," Hamilton continued.

"As you may have heard, the film was shot during the F1 races over the course of a season — and with Joe at the helm, audiences around the globe are going to feel like they're on the track and in the driver's seat. Watching Brad drive around at speeds over 180 miles an hour was really impressive to see, because it's not something you can just learn overnight. And the dedication and the focus that Brad put into this process has been amazing to witness."

Chatting ahead of hitting the track for his Ferrari debut at 2025's Melbourne Formula 1 season opener, Hamilton also called being involved with F1 "such a thrill for me — and I genuinely promise this film delivers on every level".

Photo by Scott Garfield, courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple Original Films.

The excitement on Hamilton's part is real. The same can be said for Kosinski, who also co-penned the story for the film with screenwriter and fellow Top Gun: Maverick alum Ehren Kruger. The filmmaker couldn't praise Brad Pitt's (Wolfs) driving prowess enough, too: "he just had that natural feel for grip in the car, and what we're doing on this film is dangerous. You have to be fearless, and when you see Brad driving, that's not acting. He's really concentrating on keeping that car on the track and out of the wall during all those scenes. So that's something that you just can't fake, I think. I hope the audience feels that when they watch the movie," Kosinski advised.

F1 tasks Pitt with playing Sonny Hayes, a former racer ("the best that never was", the new trailer notes) who returns to the sport as part of fictional team APXGP. Damson Idris (Snowfall) co-stars as his hotshot colleague Joshua Pearce — someone who Hayes clashes with, as the film's trailers illustrate — while Kerry Condon (Skeleton Crew), Javier Bardem (Dune: Part Two), Tobias Menzies (Manhunt), Sarah Niles (Fallen), Kim Bodnia (Nefarious) and Samson Kayo (House of the Dragon) also feature.

"This is a movie about friendship, teamwork, sacrifice, redemption," Kosinski noted, stressing that it's not just for Formula 1 diehards. "The story, I think, is universal. It just happens to be set in this incredibly exciting world of Formula 1." What were the filmmaker's biggest highlights in bringing the picture to fruition? "There's so many. It's hard to pick one, but I'll say working alongside Lewis and all the other drivers on the grid, and having them embrace us — because certainly asking to be part of that family and that world, and to say you're making a movie, there's going to be some reticence there. But when they saw how determined we were to make it authentic and represent their sport in the absolute best way we could, to have them embrace us and to be able to have them play themselves in the film, to be able to shoot on the track alongside them, showed a level of trust that was really remarkable," he continued. "There's just no way this film would exist without that."

The filmmaker also discussed his Drive to Survive inspiration, capturing Formula 1's genuine intensity, working with Hamilton and other names in the sport, challenges along the way, the sound of the film — Hans Zimmer's (Mufasa: The Lion King) score included — and more.

On Why Kosinski Wanted to Make a Movie About Formula 1

"Well, I think like a lot of people during COVID, I found myself starting to watch the races and found this great television show called Drive to Survive — and I found that it's an incredibly unique sport in that your teammate is also, in many ways, your greatest competition. And for me, that makes for a great drama.

I also loved how the first season of the show focused on the last-place teams, the underdogs, rather than the Ferrari, the Mercedes, the Red Bull, the teams that you see at the front of the pack. And I thought that there was an interesting story to be told about an underdog team in trying to not win the championship, but just trying to win one race against these titans of the sport.

So that's where it started. And lucky for me, I had a contact who was in Formula 1 that I could reach out to, so I did."

On Bringing the IRL Intensity of Formula 1 to the Screen

"The first thing I did was I reached out to Lewis Hamilton, and obviously he lives that sport every day. He's one of the greatest of all time, and I asked him to be my partner on making this film. So having Lewis gave me this incredible in into this world, and one of the people he introduced me to was Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes.

And I started talking with them about wanting to capture the speed of this sport — and it was actually Toto who came up with the idea of, rather than making a movie car fast enough to achieve these speeds, he said 'why don't you start with a race car and take a real race car and then work the cameras that you need into that'. So we did that.

We actually bought six F2 cars, real F2 race cars, and worked with Mercedes-AMG, the Formula 1 team and their engineers, to build real race cars that could carry our camera equipment, recorders and transmitters for making this film. So every time you see Brad or Damson driving in this movie, they're driving on their own in one of these real race cars on a real F1 track. So that's how we approached the making of this film."

On Getting Brad Pitt and Damson Idris Up to Speed to Do Their Own Driving in the Film

"Brad and Damson are both driving in this film, and in order to get them into these race cars, it required months, literally months of training. But the first day was really fun. It was me, Brad and Lewis Hamilton at the track together, all of us jumping in cars and driving each other around in sports cars — which was one of those things, I'll never forget having Lewis Hamilton as your driving instructor.

But what we learned, and what Lewis was really interested in, was seeing did Brad know how to drive, right? Because if Brad can't drive, this whole film wasn't going to work.

And what Lewis was very happy to discover was that Brad had a lot of just natural ability right from the start. And I don't know where he got that or if he was born with it — and he rides motorcycles, which I think has something to do with it — but he's just a very talented, naturally gifted driver, which for Lewis, after that first meeting, gave him a lot of confidence that we might have a shot at pulling this off."

On Collaborating with Lewis Hamilton and Other Formula 1 Professionals

"Lewis was instrumental in not only the technical aspects, obviously, but in the real formulative stage of the movie, formulating this narrative. We tell the story of Sonny Hayes, who's a veteran racer, and then Joshua Pearce, who's a rookie. Lewis has been both.

He's been the rookie, almost winning his first season in Formula 1 — and now with seven world championships, he's kind of seen it all. So his perspective on shaping the narrative of these two characters and giving me real insight into what it is that drives him, what makes these guys want to do this day in day out, it was really, really helpful.

We couldn't have made this film without him."

On Ensuring That the Film Isn't Just About the Racetrack Action, But Is Filled with Compelling and Authentic Characters Within the Formula 1 World

"It always starts with a great script and a great story. I knew that no matter how accurate or exciting the racing is, it doesn't mean anything if you're not telling a story supported with great characters. So it all starts with the script, and I worked with Ehren Kruger, who also worked on Top Gun: Maverick. He wrote an incredible script for us to start with.

And then the most important thing a director does beyond developing the script is casting. Casting is everything. And the group of actors that we pulled together for this film is pretty incredible. Javier Bardem and Brad together, their friendship, which is an old one — three decades old — really is the core of this story and of this film, and just seeing them together on-screen is really special.

Kerry Condon — yeah, she's incredible. She plays the team technical director, so she's the person in charge of designing the car and the engineers and the drivers. There's some healthy tension there on every team, and it makes for a great relationship between the two of them.

And then Damson Idris, who people might know from his television career, but maybe not from the movies — I'm really excited for people to see him here going toe to toe with Brad on a big screen and a big story.

So yeah, we have an incredible cast of supporting actors as well. And yeah, it's a great ensemble."

On How Filming on Location — and During Race Weekends — Impacted F1's Narrative

"I mean, the tracks, the location is one thing, but on race weekend it just becomes this whole different world. It's like a traveling circus. So we couldn't just shoot at the track without the race going on. It would've been the wrong dynamic. So we were actually there on race weekend with hundreds of thousands of people watching us finding these timeslots between practice and qualifying, that Formula 1 graciously afforded us.

So we'd get these ten- or 15-minute slots where we'd have to have Brad and Damson ready in the cars, warmed up with hot tyres ready to go — and as soon as practice ended, they would pull out onto the track. We'd have 24, 30 cameras ready, rolling, and I'd have to shoot these scenes in these very short, intense, high-speed windows. But the crowd you're seeing was really there in the stands. I don't think the crowd realised that Brad Pitt was in the car that was in front of them.

And so there was definitely this heightened quality to every race. We were also shooting dramatic scenes on the grid before races, so it was a very unique way of working, rather than having a whole day to shoot a scene like you normally would on a movie. We had these nine- or ten-minute slots, so it was like a live stage play, but in front of hundreds of thousands of people shooting at 180 miles an hour, literally.

So it was an adrenaline rush every weekend, but what we captured is something you can't fake, you can't stage. It's really happening, and I think the audience will see that."

On the Challenges of Shooting in Such a High-Octane Environment

"The big challenge was just the camera system itself. I mean, we had to develop a brand-new camera system, taking everything we learned on Top Gun: Maverick and pushing it much further. You can't put 60 pounds of gear onto a race car and expect it's going to perform the same way. So we took those Top Gun cameras and we worked closely with Sony, sizing them down to something about a quarter of the size.

And then on top of that, something I really wanted to do on this film was actually be able to operate and move the cameras while we were shooting, which was something we weren't able to do on Top Gun. So we have motorised mounts on the car as well. So you have transmitters that are transmitting the picture back. We've got transmitters controlling the movement of the camera. I'm sitting at the base station with Claudio [Miranda, also from Top Gun: Maverick], our cinematographer, looking at 16 screens. I've got camera operators on the controls for the cameras and it's calling out camera moves like a live television show while they're shooting.

So much research and technology and development went into just being able to roll a frame of footage, in addition to the training for the actors and the logistics of shooting at a real race. So it was a lot of prep to be able to pull this off."

On the Sound of F1, Complete with a Hans Zimmer Score

"Sound is a huge part of racing. So we have a sound designer, Al Nelson, also from Top Gun: Maverick. You're seeing a theme here, I guess, in terms of collaborators. He was there at the track recording all the real sounds of the real cars. We got microphones on the real F1 cars, which was, as you can imagine, very difficult to do because they count every gram that they put on those cars. So getting our recorders on the real cars was a huge aspect of getting it right.

And then the other type of sound, the score, we've got Hans Zimmer creating another epic theme and score, and he's got a lot to compete with sound-wise in this movie. So he really brought it. The score for this film is something I'm really excited for people to hear.

It's Hans. What Hans does, what few composers can do, is he can write a real theme, a real melody that you just can't get out of your head. And he's written another one here that I can't wait for people to hear."

F1 releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, June 26, 2025.