Buried details in the “F1” Super Bowl trailer with Brad Pitt

If you thought that hype for Formula 1 in America reached a fever pitch during the peak of Netflix’s smash hit “Drive to Survive,” you’ll be in for a shock come this summer. Brad Pitt’s hotly-anticipated flick, simply titled “F1,” hits the big screen in June, and Apple TV+ is throwing some serious budget behind the movie’s marketing rollout. Case in point: the film’s second teaser trailer aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday night, where a 30-second spot costs a whopping $8 million (on top of the $50 million a year Apple pays to sponsor the halftime show).   

The teaser trailer didn’t offer us a ton of clues about the plot — no more than we’ve gleaned having seen the film’s crew shooting at real Formula 1 races the last couple seasons. But in the absence of IMDB-worthy information, we’ve done our duty to break down this fresh 32 seconds of cinema fodder, looking for whatever info we can glean.

Here’s what we found.

First, the trailer

A quick plot refresher

“F1” follows Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a former F1 driver who makes a surprise return to the grid several years after suffering a terrible crash. He’s recruited by the owner of the fictional APXGP team, played by Javier Bardem, who pairs him with Damson Idris’ character, rookie driver Joshua Pearce. Together, the two must work to elevate the 11th F1 team towards the top of the grid. Not that they would have had advance notice of Cadillac’s imminent arrival in Formula 1, but it certainly feels like foreshadowing. Here’s everything we know about “F1” the film, if you want to know more.

The film arrives in cinemas this summer

Photo by: WarnerBros

Playing “Spot That Track”

The smash-cut heavy trailer is short on identifiable details, but an eagle eye can see they’ve crammed in video from lots of tracks. The first clip shows Pitt during a race start at Silverstone — specifically in 2023 when he and Idris filmed multiple scenes throughout the race weekend. That quickly cuts to Pitt accelerating through Eau Rouge at the Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps (followed by him lying down, shirtless, in his trailer, because this is Brad Pitt). 

After a brief clip of Pitt and actress Kerry Condon, his love interest, looking out on the Las Vegas strip from a hotel balcony, the teaser heads to Abu Dhabi for the final race of the season. Pitt’s character collides with Esteban Ocon’s Alpine — though the next shot, a close-up of the front wing damage, appears to be taken from a scene at a separate track, possibly the Hungaroring.

After tensions flare in the APXGP garage (with Bardem’s holding back Pitt and Idris from fighting), a car goes up in flames on-track. Then it’s Pitt battling Max Verstappen into turn one at Monza, before the trailer cuts to Pitt flying into the gravel at Silverstone. Another smash cut shows an APXGP car flying into the catch fence in Las Vegas, where the crew were shooting into the early hours of the morning in 2024. 

The final images in the trailer feature fireworks at the Daytona International Speedway (in the movie, Pitt’s character raced in IMSA before returning to F1), most likely filmed during the Rolex 24 last January. Our closing shot sees Pitt on track in Las Vegas, featuring the teaser’s only line of dialogue: “Hayes attacks around the outside,” says a very David-Croft-sounding commentator. 

The biggest winners of “F1” so far

We’ve seen Pitt’s Sonny Hayes get crashed into, spin out, and nearly throw fists. But it’s the real-deal sponsors who’ve gotten some serious exposure during these trailers.

This latest teaser reached more than 100 million as it aired during the Super Bowl, and at publish time, has another four million views on YouTube. The fake Sonny Hayes’ very real sponsor companies — including watchmaker IWC, cruise line MSC, home and kitchenwares brand Shark/Ninja, and Expensify — all just received a Super Bowl ad with Brad Pitt. That might be worth as much as Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari suit. 

The questions we’ve got

While the clips of “F1” have done a great job building hype, plenty of question marks surrounding the film remain.

What sort of role will the real drivers play in the film? And how will the movie will tackle continuity? Will Logan Sargeant be on the grid in “F1,” since he drove for Williams when filming began? And what about Daniel Ricciardo, too? He came and went from the grid twice throughout production?

Here’s hoping the next trailer has a few more answers.