In the narrative of Formula 1’s recent global surge in popularity, the success of 2025’s Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt served as a huge peak.
After years of production development and filming within grand prix race weekends, as well as intensive training for Pitt and co-star Damson Idris to drive the cars, “F1 The Movie” turned into one of the biggest box office hits of summer 2025.
Pitt starred as Sonny Hayes, a former F1 driver who had his career cut short by injury before making a shock return with the struggling APXGP team, where he is partnered with an up-and-coming driver, Joshua Pearce (Idris).
The film was developed by Apple Studios, distributed by Warner Brothers, directed by Joseph Kosinski, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (both from “Top Gun: Maverick”). It brought in $630 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of Pitt’s acting career and the highest-grossing sports movie of all time.
“F1 The Movie” also stands as the most successful release by Apple Studios to date, and has received four Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture. The film also won a Grammy earlier this month after one of its songs, “Bad As I Used To Be,” by Chris Stapleton, was named Best Country Solo Performance.
All that success has naturally led to questions about a potential sequel. Bruckheimer directly addressed the topic when speaking to the BBC at the Academy Awards luncheon in Los Angeles earlier this week.
Bruckheimer said they were “working on a sequel,” but the BBC report stated he offered no firm details on a potential timeline for a second movie or casting options.
What Bruckheimer meant by “working on” is open to interpretation, but thoughts are clearly in mind for Hollywood to make a second dive into the F1 world. It’s a logical consideration given the first film’s success, both commercially and in light of its awards recognition.
The APXGP car lined up on the grid at the 2023 British GP (Gongora/NurPhoto)
A sequel is something that F1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali, showed an openness to when appearing at the Apple TV press day earlier this month in California. Domenicali said he could “never say never,” but that F1 had to “digest (some) more the success of this movie, because it was something unique.”
Domenicali added: “If you want to think of a new one, it has to be really very good.”
Beyond its commercial success, the film also helped expose F1 to a huge new audience beyond its typical fanbase. It is logical that the sport would want to repeat this.
F1 has also integrated the APXGP story into its wider ecosystem. The team is featured in the official F1 video game, and a Lego version of its fictional car has been developed as part of the F1 range that features the real teams. The movie is very much now a part of F1’s identity.
A sequel would also have a natural appeal to Apple, which strengthened its ties to F1 beyond the movie by becoming its exclusive broadcast partner in the United States from 2026. This is a five-year deal worth in the region of $750 million.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said at the press day that Apple had “24 F1 movies this year on Apple TV,” referring to the full slate of 2026 races. Cue said live F1 race action was “the best unscripted drama that there could be in the world.”
Embarking on a second movie would likely again require input from the whole F1 paddock, which played a key role in helping APXGP embed within tracks around the world when shooting was taking place on live race weekends through 2023 and 2024.
APXGP had its own garage in the pit lane and paddock hospitality unit alongside the actual teams, as well as two functioning cars developed by Mercedes that temporarily lined up on race grids for filming to take place ahead of the actual competitive events. They would also complete live laps to help filming in front of fans at some races, taking a slot within a race weekend’s scheduled on-track running.
Pitt also appeared on the podium alongside Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi, shooting a scene shortly after the checkered flag of the real-life grand prix.
The factories of three teams — Williams, Mercedes and McLaren — were also used as shooting locations.
Brad Pitt joins the Ferrari team during its season-ending team photo at the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP. (Clive Mason / Getty Images)
The drivers also made cameos in the movie, interacting with Pitt in scenes filmed in the paddock, as did senior F1 personnel including Domenicali, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown.
Presuming Bruckheimer’s current thoughts for a sequel do advance, there’d likely be an eagerness from all stakeholders in the F1 paddock to sign on to play their part in facilitating filming, much as they did the first time around. The familiarity with the process would also help.
But multiple team sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Athletic that at this stage they are yet to get any official communication regarding plans or thoughts for a second movie.
As Domenicali noted, there isn’t a need to rush into a sequel given the long ‘tail’ the film is currently enjoying.
Lewis Hamilton, the most successful driver in F1 history, served as a producer on the movie and worked closely with Bruckheimer and Kosinski to ensure it was as authentic as possible. Speaking last July, shortly after the first film was released, he warned against rushing into making a sequel.
Hamilton said the first offering “needs to simmer for a while.”
Yet the fashion in which that has happened since, with “F1 The Movie” still riding high as the #1 film on Apple TV more than two months after it was released on the streaming service, will have only added impetus to thoughts of a sequel. So would success through the ongoing awards season, especially if it were to win an Oscar.
All told, there’s a long way to go before F1’s second visit from Hollywood is definite. But Bruckheimer’s comment is the clearest indication yet of the desire to make it happen — one the sport would surely reciprocate.