Word on the beat

This sequence gave us three very distinct circuit characteristics to further piece together the competitive jigsaw of how the 2025 cars compare.

Miami confirmed with more certainty two things suggested in earlier races: that if the circuit layout doesn’t punish the Red Bull’s narrow balance window too much, Max Verstappen can spoil McLaren’s party – in qualifying. Secondly, the higher the rear tyre demand, the bigger McLaren’s race advantage becomes.

But around the faster Imola, when the tyre challenge changed from core temperatures to those of the surface, we saw that the Red Bull party pooping could extend to the race. One more piece of the jigsaw.

Then came Monaco where the combination of slow corners and a low-grip bumpy surface took the Red Bull out of the competitive picture but allowed for a dramatic return to form for Ferrari.

The Miami International Circuit’s layout asks a lot of the rear tyres with several key traction zones just after heavy braking from high speeds. Combine that with the highest track temperatures of the season to date – and McLaren was able to finish over half-a-minute clear of the opposition on its way to an Oscar Piastri–Lando Norris 1-2. This despite it taking 14 laps for the first of them to find a way around pole-sitter Verstappen.

Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. Lando Norris and Max Verstappen — Scene at the start by the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. Norris has Verstappen in his sights, but the outcome at Turns 1 and 2 will be predictable

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Both Sprint winner Norris and Sprint pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli were in reach of pole for the Grand Prix – right up to the final corner of their final laps. But it was Verstappen who actually sealed the deal, for the third time this season. With Norris alongside him on the front row, Verstappen blocked the inside line down to Turn 1 but, braking late, he locked the inside front wheel, taking him out wide over the exit kerbs, giving Norris better momentum as they accelerated up towards the quick left-hander of T2. What followed was an illustration of how drivers are interpreting the new-for-’25 driving guidelines (see panel, right). Verstappen – legitimately, under those guidelines – left Norris no room on the exit, obliging the McLaren to take to the run-off, the lost momentum as Norris rejoined losing him three places. So it was briefly Antonelli who took up chase of the Red Bull before Piastri passed the Mercedes on the fourth lap and set off after Verstappen.

“Verstappen – legitimately – left Norris no room on the exit”

The world champion hung on for the next 10 laps against a barrage of Piastri attacks, the pair frequently side by side into Turns 11 and 17 at the end of the two DRS zones, but Verstappen always forcing his rival to go the long way round. But here’s where the McLaren’s superior control of its rear tyre temperatures was telling; Verstappen steadily lost grip as his rear temperatures crept up and, struggling for traction out of the final turn, he was pincered to the inside by Piastri into Turn 1 on lap 14. Verstappen braked late but from such an acute angle ran wide on the exit, allowing Piastri to make a clinically easy pass. From there he simply disappeared up the road.

Meanwhile Norris was having a busy race from his compromised opening lap, but was chasing Verstappen down by the time Piastri took the lead. With the Red Bull’s resources largely spent, it took Norris only four more laps to find a way by at the end of the back straight. In those four laps Piastri had sprinted 8s clear, the back of his victory task essentially broken.

A VSC (for Oliver Bearman’s broken-down Haas) came just after Verstappen (and Antonelli) had pitted but before the McLarens and George Russell had. This increased the McLaren advantage by around 10s and allowed Russell to leapfrog past Antonelli and Verstappen to go third. Verstappen was no faster than the Mercedes on the hard tyre used for their second stints and Russell was able to maintain his position.

Norris meanwhile was much happier with the McLaren’s balance on the hard tyre than Piastri and managed to close half of that 8s deficit down. But that wasn’t enough to prevent Piastri recording his third consecutive victory.

Oscar Piastri leads at Imola — Piastri leads but not for long at Imola. Too cautious on the brakes, he’ll box in Russell and give Verstappen his chance

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That run came to an end as Verstappen triumphed in F1’s final visit to Imola. Although he’d lost out on pole by three-hundredths to Piastri, he was able to correct that with a stunningly committed move into the Tamburello chicane on the first lap. Piastri was covering Russell’s Mercedes on the inside and braked early – which opened up the opportunity for a late-braking Verstappen on the outside to vault from third to first in one move. But although this replicated the Verstappen-Piastri order of the early laps of Miami, that’s where any similarity ended.

The tyre challenge here was very different to that of Miami. There it had been all about how the McLaren uniquely maintains the core of its rear tyres in the ideal temperature window, probably largely to do with its ingenious brake duct design. Around the faster curves of Imola the challenge was all about keeping the surfaces adequately cool, a function largely of limiting high-speed sliding. The Red Bull with its excellent high-speed corner performance was able to do that very well and it was Piastri’s right-front which began to give out long before Verstappen’s.

“Regardless of the VSC and safety car, his victory was emphatic”

Red Bull had also put a significant upgrade on its car here, focussed specifically at opening up its set-up window to achieve good balance across a wider range of corner speeds. With that great high-speed grip limiting the sliding and the benign balance spreading the loads nicely, the Red Bull around Imola was at least as fast as the McLaren – and on race day perhaps even slightly faster for the first time this season.

Piastri chose to pit as early as lap 13, confirming him to be on a two-stop strategy. Verstappen and most of the others stayed out. This was the crucial strategic parting point. The front-right was the limiting tyre and the practices had suggested that although a one-stop was feasible, if that tyre became too hot it would be impossible to bring it back without a massive loss of pace. In which case a two-stop would be required. Piastri, fearing the onset of that as he’d given chase in the turbulence zone to that quick clear-air Red Bull, surrendered any hold on this race as he made that first stop. Because it entailed horrific traffic delays as a lot of slower cars stayed out.

Norris had under-qualified and spent the early laps finding a way by Russell’s Mercedes. He moved up to second as team-mate Piastri pitted. His tyres were fine, good for a one-stop, he believed. But he was already 10sec behind Verstappen. Every time he tried to cut into that gap, Verstappen could respond. Driving no faster than needed, the Red Bull ace could maintain that margin over an aggressively-pushed McLaren. Regardless of the VSC and safety car which would subsequently mix things up, Verstappen’s victory was emphatic.

Max Verstappen wins Imola — Verstappen’s second grand prix win of the season. Give him a sniff and the champion remains a threat

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In fact the VSC only increased his lead, as he was able to pit under it whereas Norris had pitted a lap before it had appeared.

Piastri was briefly the lead McLaren again but, wedded now to the two-stop, needed to come in for his second set of hard compound tyres and so fell back behind not only Norris but also Alex Albon’s Williams. Although Piastri caught and passed Albon, by the time he did so he was 14sec behind Norris who in turn trailed Verstappen by 18sec after 43 laps, with just 20 to go.

A safety car to clear Antonelli’s broken-down Mercedes allowed Verstappen to harmlessly move to a two-stop so as to be on fresh tyres for the restart. Norris did the same, so putting him back behind Piastri. Verstappen on new tyres vs Piastri on used was no contest on the restart and the latter’s focus switched to defending from Norris who on his newer rubber forced his way back into second with a committed move around the outside of the Tamburello chicane. Thus were the top three places decided.

Lando Norris locked up Charles Leclerc — Norris locked up into Ste Devote under pressure from Leclerc, but kept his head and his lead

At the safety car, fourth placed Albon had pitted, as Leclerc stayed out (as he had no suitable tyres left) and Hamilton pitted. So upon the restart Leclerc on very old tyres was defending hard from the new-tyred Albon, with Hamilton close behind. After several attempts, Albon tried to go around Leclerc’s outside at the Tamburello chicane and, under the new driving guidelines, Leclerc raced him to the apex, running Albon out of road, with the Williams obliged to run through the gravel – allowing him to be passed by Hamilton, who then put a DRS pass on his team-mate to go fourth. With the stewards investigating the Tamburello incident, Leclerc reluctantly handed the place back to Albon, as advised by his team. Fourth and sixth place for Ferrari was a rescue of sorts on home ground after they’d failed to make it out of Q2 the day before.

But prospects for the Scuderia were way brighter at Monaco – the unique demands of which allowed yet another piece of the jigsaw to be placed. Leclerc was his usual dynamite self around his home streets, a venue which has favoured something in Ferrari’s DNA for the past five years. But after setting the track alight through the practices he was pipped to pole in the dying seconds of qualifying by Norris’ McLaren.

“On a track where there’s only low speed corners the car is good”

In recent years this hasn’t been a great track for McLaren and Norris’ pole represented something of a breakthrough. The MCL39 was better on the brakes than the Ferrari which in turn was better on acceleration out of the slow turns. It also handled the kerbs better and Leclerc was mighty in his fifth gear commitment through Tabac. But by the end of the lap its rear tyres were running hotter, giving the McLaren better traction out of Rascasse and Noghes.

Leclerc was visibly crestfallen at missing out on pole by just over 0.1s on what was probably going to be one of the very few opportunities to win with the car in its current state. “On a track like this, where there’s only low speed – basically no high-speed corners – the car is good. On most tracks, we have to take compromises in order to not lose too much in high-speed corners. Here we don’t have to set up the car in a way where we compromise because we just focus on the low speed. And when we are on these kinds of tracks, it seems that there’s some performance in the low speed from the car. But we are a little bit stuck at the moment on other tracks, so I don’t think we can apply it to any other tracks other than Monaco.”

Lando Norris wins Monaco GP — Victory at Monaco is always a career landmark. It was also Norris’s first win since the opener

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Piastri looked a little more ragged than his team-mate in the final session, nudging the wall a couple of times on his way to third on the grid, with Hamilton fourth fastest, 0.3sec adrift of Leclerc but taking a three-place grid penalty for impeding Verstappen. The Red Bull driver was the first beneficiary of the Hamilton penalty, lining up fourth, struggling to get the temperatures of the front and rear tyres equalised on the tricky C6 compound. Also benefitting from the Hamilton grid drop was the Racing Bull of impressive rookie Isack Hadjar and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

The stipulation of a two-stop minimum made little difference at the front on race day as the McLaren drivers engaged Leclerc in a close contest, with Norris always ahead and Piastri unable to pass the Ferrari. Unable to compare on performance, Red Bull offset its strategy instead, starting Verstappen on hards to the mediums of the others. This allowed him to lead for a few laps after the McLarens and Leclerc had pitted, hoping for a safety car to leapfrog him to the front. The medium compound tyres which were fitted at this first stop would then do 50 laps, to the penultimate lap of the race. The lead trio were right on his tail for the last few laps, having made up their pit stop loss but Norris looked reluctant to get too close to the Red Bull, knowing it would have to pit out of his way, releasing him to victory, McLaren’s first around these streets since 2008.

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First F1 conquered the small screen with Drive to Survive. Now it is aiming to do the same with the silver screen with a star studded movie release. In production for well over two years the new film, set for release in the UK on July 25, is already being talked about as the summer’s big blockbuster.

With a budget rumoured to be around $300m and Brad Pitt in the lead role, there is speculation that it may eclipse even Ford v Ferrari, the surprise motor sport hit of six years ago and the film that brought Le Mans to the mainstream masses.

An Apex GP car, centre, front, mingles with real F1 racers at the 2024 Hungarian GP — An Apex GP car, centre, *front*, mingles with real F1 racers at the 2024 Hungarian GP

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Details of the film’s plot are being kept under strictest secrecy. However, the bones of it are as follows: ageing racer Sonny Hayes (Pitt) was the best of his generation in his heyday during the 1990s until a horror crash ended his competitive career. The film picks up 30 years on when Hayes – “a nomadic racer-for-hire” – is approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), owner of a struggling F1 team that is on the verge of collapse. Ruben convinces Hayes to have one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world.

He is pitted against a cocky young hotshoe racer Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), setting up a finale where, as the publicity has it: “In Formula 1 your teammate is your fiercest competition—and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone”

So far so Hollywood of course. But what sets this film apart from previous attempts to dramatise the sport is the close cooperation between F1 and Apple Original Films, the makers, and the extraordinary lengths they went to to recreate the realism of racing. From filming live at grands prix through 2023 and 2024 to involving all 10 teams and their drivers who appear in the film as themselves.

Formula 1 has been asked to cooperate with Hollywood before. Twenty six years ago Sylvester Stallone made multiple visits to the paddock for his film Driven, released in 2001, but the tie-up didn’t quite happen. If you’ve watched Driven, eventually based on Champ Car instead, you might say F1 dodged a bullet. But that scenario could easily have made the sport wary of letting anyone have the keys to circuits to try and create a movie based on the series.

film cars are actually F2s — Film cars are actually F2s

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F1 director of media rights Ian Holmes was just starting out when Bernie Ecclestone was showing Stallone around. But in the two decades since then, he has seen first-hand a change in mindset around the sport, and when the Joseph Kosinski-directed idea of an F1 film came across his desk – initially through Lewis Hamilton’s then-manager Penni Thow – it soon became clear what a potentially huge project was being proposed.

“I think the people [convinced us],” Holmes says. “And we shouldn’t ignore Apple. It’s a big company, they don’t do things by halves, top of the level… It quickly became apparent that this is a very serious, very big opportunity, which remarkably removes any scepticism. The contractual process was quite convoluted and complicated, but it’s a big old project with a lot of investment taking place and everyone had their positions to protect.

“But I think while we hadn’t really done anything like it, it was obvious very quickly that this was a big deal and needed to be taken seriously and done right. And it certainly has been.”

Thow’s introduction came after Kosinski had already been in touch with Hamilton about wanting to make a racing movie, with the seven-time world champion his starting point when it came to aiming for authenticity. Hamilton put Kosinski – the Top Gun: Maverick director – in front of Mercedes, and momentum built.

Who are you calling plastic supporters? The Apex fans make their presence felt at last year’s Mexican GP

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“I started talking with them about wanting to capture the speed of this sport,” Kosinski recalls. “And it was actually Toto [Wolff] who came up with the idea of rather than making a movie car that was fast enough to achieve these speeds, he said why don’t you start with a race car – a real race car – and then work the cameras that you need into that?”

An actual F1 car was soon ruled out on the grounds that it is so complex, differs depending on the constructor, and no team was likely to have the capacity to build multiple versions. Not to mention the cost. So attention turned to a Formula 2 car, where a spec Dallara chassis could provide the platform to add cameras and F1-style bodywork, all while being slightly more driver-friendly for the actors and avoiding any intellectual property concerns between rival F1 teams. But it still needed plenty of research and development to ensure the movie car could operate at high speeds.

Mercedes Applied Science helped with the design, which was far from a simple process, but Kosinski wanted lead actors Brad Pitt and Damson Idris to physically drive the racing cars at full speed as much as possible.

“Early on we understood that with the proportions, we couldn’t make an F2-size car look like an F1 car unless we changed the wheelbase,” Mercedes composite design engineer Juan Villalba explains. “So we had to change the wheelbase. That was a bit of a nervous moment to see how we can actually do this and make it robust, but we found a way [with a spacer].

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) and team-mate Noah Pearce (Damson Idris) walk the walk with real F1 heroes at Silverstone

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“Also I think the front wing was one scary moment as well, because we didn’t have time to get a nose, so we had to make something work with an existing [F2] nose, and that was challenging. Remember these are not show cars, they were cars that were to be driven at pretty much the same speed as the F1s. As you can probably imagine, the wings on the cars, when they go at speed on the straights, the aero loads were huge. It was a lot of work to make sure that the front wing, for example, was able to live with an existing nose. All these sort of problems were coming up all the time.

“We changed the floor, we probably generated too much load, and we didn’t want to overwhelm the car itself, because the car is being designed for different loads.

Director Kosinski brought some of his techniques from 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick to use in F1

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

“We wanted to make a car that looked fast… but not too fast, stable… So it was a bit of a strange scenario to be in, but it was mainly just so you can have a car that can visually look like an F1, but still can be driven at speed.”

“Six cars in total were produced and proved to be capable of strong pace”

Six cars in total were produced – through a combination of Mercedes and movie specialists – and proved to be perfectly capable of lapping at a strong pace, all while carrying camera equipment that would allow Kosinski to capture multiple angles of the drivers at work behind the wheel, both up close within the cockpit and also the surrounding environment of the circuit.

Mercedes Applied Science modified the F2 car to make it look like an F1 racer; note the Mercedes branding

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“We had to develop a brand new camera system, taking everything we learned on Top Gun: Maverick and pushing it much further,” Kosinski says. “You know, you can’t put 60lb 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.”

With high-performance machinery in place, the actors themselves also had to be able to hustle the cars just as any professional driver would. To try and truly portray the violence of driving a single-seater at close to Formula 1 level, Kosinski needed Pitt and Idris behind the wheel to capture legitimate reactions, so the pair went through intensive training at the Winfield Racing School at Paul Ricard, along with other locations, under the tutelage of stunt drivers Luciano Bacheta, Craig Dolby and Duncan Tappy.

“If only we could reach Mark Hughes” – the Apex pitwall.

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“A stellar cast and crew needed to be in the F1 paddock at weekends”

But even with the actors developing their driving skills, and the technical ability to capture everything required, a stellar cast and crew still needed to be incorporated into the F1 paddock at race weekends in order to film.

A project lead from F1’s side was identified and installed in the form of former McLaren director of communications Tim Bampton to help facilitate all of the discussions that would be required with the production team.

“We know an awful lot more now than we knew [when we started],” Holmes says. “I quickly realised that I wasn’t going to be able to co-ordinate things, but only now knowing how far off the mark I was in terms of ‘no way!’ We were looking for someone to be the point person of all things Formula 1. And it wasn’t my bright idea but that’s how Tim came to be. I sat down with Tim and we both agreed it was a good idea. I think even Tim didn’t know quite what he was getting into. He now looks like a proper producer. He knows all the terminology and everything!

F1 director Joseph Kosinski, left, and cinema-tographer Claudio Miranda

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“But appointing Tim was essential, because it mushroomed into a phenomenally big operation. To have someone like that who’s got so many contacts across the sport – teams, us, various other entities – bringing Tim in, I think, from an operational point of view, was super-important.”

Bampton’s role was extremely wide-ranging. To deal with so many different stakeholders was a major challenge, particularly when it came to filming at tracks. Certain elements were relatively simple, as existing broadcast contracts meant ticket holders already accept they could be part of filming at a live event when they attend a grand prix. Even though the film-makers would make it clear they were capturing footage for the movie, no additional agreements were required on that front.

To be allowed to film in a pitlane or on the grid at various races, however, was a different matter entirely, and this took plenty of collaboration.

“The promoters were absolute partners in this movie,” Bampton explains. “We marshalled and facilitated that with the promoters, and obviously the relationship with the promoters is F1’s relationship, and those are incredibly important relationships for us. So we wanted to make sure they were comfortable, but all the promoters understood the benefit of it.

Principal photography started at the 2023 British GP – Pitt is joined by Javier Bardem who plays the Apex owner

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“We worked as a kind of triangle of the movie production, Formula 1 and the promoter. We took the time up front to explain the vision and what they were looking to achieve, and enable the locations team to work with our circuit engineering team and our race operations team, and the various constituent elements of the Formula 1 operation itself, and the promoter – of course, there’s a great relationship there already – so that moved the path quite a lot.

“But the promoters were absolutely important stakeholders. I mean, of course, once we came to anything to do with on-track action or operating within the paddock, it was in our hands, but we kept the promoters very close to what was going on in general, and they were all massively supportive.”

The FIA also needed to be involved to provide clearance for track running, with the production operating to military precision in order to get the required shots within far smaller windows than would usually be the norm on a closed set.

“It was like a live stage play in front of hundreds of thousands”

“It was a very unique way of working,” Kosinski admits. “Rather than having a whole day to shoot a scene like you normally would on a movie, we had these nine or 10-minute slots. So it was like a live stage play, but in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators, while shooting at 180mph, literally.”

Filming locations included Silverstone, the Hungaroring, Spa, Suzuka and here at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi

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Scenes ranged from on the grid at certain races, to parc fermé and podium shots, all of which would either run the risk of interfering with a grand prix start or the post-race procedures. Bampton sees the first such weekend at Silverstone in 2023 as “critical” to earning the trust of the paddock that the film could be executed without disruption, even if things didn’t go entirely to plan.

Both film cars were due to pull away with the rest of the grid on the formation lap, but F1 and the FIA could not afford for any delays if they failed to do so.

“The request from [the production team] was to have the cars on the grid and then we had to look at how to make that work,” F1’s circuit operations and logistics head James Boughton says. “We had discussions with the FIA because it’s very much in their world, they’re responsible for the Formula 1 track activity and safety, so we’re crossing into their territory at that point and we had to get clearance for them to do what they wanted to do.

It’s been 47 years since an American last won an F1 world title... perhaps this is the only way they’ll get the crown — It’s been 47 years since an American last won an F1 world title… perhaps this is the only way they’ll get the crown

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“They were never comfortable with the idea of the two cars pulling away at the back, but when we explained the reasoning behind it they said, ‘OK,’ and we said, ‘We have a back-up plan if it doesn’t work – we go through the crash gate.’”

“Real racing drivers were involved, adding to the authenticity”

With Silverstone successfully handled, the Formula 1 teams and the FIA were then more open to each future request and the production could film during a number of race weekends from that point on. That allowed the real racing drivers to be involved on many occasions, adding to the authenticity of the fictional team being a part of the paddock.

Kosinski reveals that having that level of buy-in from the sport itself was one of the highlights of the entire movie project, and allowed him to achieve his goal of directing the most realistic Formula 1 film he possibly could.

The film will be released in the UK on June 25 – a few days before the Austrian Grand Prix

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“Working alongside Lewis and all the other drivers on the grid, and having them embrace us – asking to be part of that family in that world… And to say you’re making a movie, there’s going to be some reticence there,” Kosinski admits.

“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 accept 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. There’s just no way this film would exist without that.”

Certainly the drivers appear happy with the result which was shown to them at the Monaco GP. All apart from Max Verstappen who skipped the screening. “I’ll download it on Apple,” said the world champion, perhaps not exactly sticking to the script.

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