F1 in IMAX: The Only Way to Feel the Speed, Sweat, and Star Power That’ll Blow Your Mind (and Maybe Your Horoscope)
Added on June 27, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
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In a cinematic universe full of sequels, trailers, and the occasional yawn, how often does a movie actually make you feel like you’re on the edge of your seat? Not often, right? Especially this year, when superhero flicks barely spark and indie dramas whisper instead of roar. But now, drumroll please—there’s F1: The Movie, a film that doesn’t just ask for your attention, it demands it—preferably in IMAX. And here’s a little astro-food for thought: with Mercury retrograde messing with communication and tech, maybe it’s fate that a film about precision, speed, and nerves of steel is revving into theaters—because who doesn’t need a little high-octane reality check?
Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a grizzled former Formula One champ making an unlikely comeback that’s as much about mentoring a hot-headed young gun as it is about defying the odds. Now, I know what you’re thinking—is this just Top Gun: Maverick on wheels? Well, sort of. It’s got the same dream team behind the scenes—writer Ehren Kruger, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, composer Hans Zimmer, and director Joseph Kosinski. Minus Tom Cruise, obviously, but with Brad Pitt filling those roaring shoes like a champ ready to own that IMAX screen. And honey, trust me, you want to see every shift, every heart-stopping twist, and every gritty G-force in all its thunderous glory on the biggest, loudest screen you can find—because this isn’t your run-of-the-mill CGI fluff.
Shot with such authenticity that real F1 drivers and modified cars took the wheel, F1 delivers a visceral, almost tactile experience. No green screen fakery here—just raw, unfiltered adrenaline. And while it skips the classic IMAX 65mm film, it more than makes up for it with digital wizardry tailored to fill your vision in ways a standard theater just can’t touch. Sound? Oh, it’s a 12-channel laser delight that will rattle your bones and float Zimmer’s powerhouse score right past your eardrums into your soul. Is it worth shelling out your hard-earned bucks now, before it hits your streaming queue? Absolutely. Sometimes, astrology’s divine timing means more than just star signs—it means you catch this on IMAX before you miss out forever.
How many movies come out these days and actually feel like an event? This year, I guess there’s been—uhhh—one? Sinners, right? Otherwise, what else has there been? Both Marvel movies—Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts were mediocre at best.
Okay, so there have been some good lower-key movies, but I doubt anyone was looking for the closest 4DX or IMAX screen playing A24’s Friendship orMaterialists, right?
Well, a movie is now out that’s not only worth seeing on the biggest IMAX screen you can find but—along with Sinners—reaffirms my faith in the big-screen blockbuster. And that movie is F1—or, as it’s very lamely titled, F1: The Movie (let’s just call it F1, though).
But why should you shell out your hard-earned dollars to see a movie in IMAX that was produced by Apple and will inevitably find itself a permanent home on streaming? We’re gonna tell you—so buckle in.
F1 stars Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, an over-the-hill former Formula One champ who, unexpectedly, makes a comeback to the sport thirty years after nearly dying in a gnarly crash. Sound a bit far-fetched? It is—but the movie explains it away by having him join the Apex team as a favor to the team’s owner, a former friendly rival from his heyday: Javier Bardem’s Ruben Cervantes.
Cervantes wants Sonny to mentor a talented young driver named Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris, who’s basically as hot-headed as Sonny was thirty years ago. Sound a bit like Top Gun: Maverick? Yeah—but that’s by design. It has the same writer (Ehren Kruger), producer (Jerry Bruckheimer), composer (Hans Zimmer), and director (Joseph Kosinski). Hell, the only thing it doesn’t have is Tom Cruise—who, one can only imagine, probably saw this movie and became hellbent on topping it with his conveniently announced sequel to Days of Thunder, because this is exactly the kind of movie you could picture him making.
That said, Brad Pitt is a pretty solid substitute. In middle age, he’s looking more and more like Robert Redford or Paul Newman in every new film. This is the kind of movie either of those guys—especially Newman—would have signed on for. Yet, as ruggedly handsome as Pitt is, does he command an IMAX theater trip like Cruise does?
I’d say yes—because like Top Gun: Maverick, they went all out to make F1 as realistic as possible. The movie was conceived, shot, and executed with direct involvement from the F1 world. They used Formula 2 cars modified to look like F1 cars, and races were shot at real F1 events—Silverstone, Hungaroring, Spa, and Monza—during off-hours and race weekends. Real F1 drivers were also involved, helping ground the movie in authenticity.
There’s no fake CG driving. The only CGI used was to tweak weather, add virtual extras, or pull off seamless camera transitions. Every bump, gear shift, and G-force twitch is visible in the actors’ or stunt drivers’ bodies—not faked with green screen. And that’s something you need to experience on an IMAX screen.
That said, the movie wasn’t shot on IMAX 65mm film like a Christopher Nolan movie—or parts of Sinners. Instead, it was shot with IMAX-certified digital cameras and custom racing rigs. That’s important because this isn’t one of those movies that gets an IMAX release but doesn’t look much different than it would on a standard screen.
In fact, F1 has different aspect ratios depending on where you see it. In a conventional theater, it’s shown in a 2.35:1 “scope” aspect ratio. In IMAX, it’s framed at 1.90:1 for the entire runtime. That’s different from a movie like Sinners, which shifted between 2.76:1 (an ultra-wide 70mm ratio) and 1.43:1 (which fills the entire IMAX screen) for specific scenes.
F1 is more of a middle ground. The 1.90:1 is the same ratio you’d get for IMAX-shot scenes in digital IMAX theaters, and while those are slightly letterboxed on full-size IMAX screens, it still fills the frame more than a standard release. The 2.35:1 version is framed differently, but the IMAX ratio especially shines during the racing sequences—especially the cockpit views.
The movie is also gorgeously shot by Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi, Top Gun: Maverick), meaning everything looks vivid and luminous on a premium screen.
The soundscape is a big deal too. IMAX offers 12-channel laser audio, compared to the Dolby Atmos 7.1 you’d get in a high-end regular theater. That makes the racing sequences thunderous, but also gives Hans Zimmer’s score some real breathing room—especially in the film’s emotional second half.
All this is to say: IMAX is the way to go for F1—especially because you’re unlikely to ever see it in 1.90:1 again. Apple will likely release the conventional version on streaming and 4K disc—if it even gets a physical release (fingers crossed).
Sure, the movie will probably look and sound great at home—Apple recently dropped a trailer customized for iPhones with a stellar mix—but it just won’t be the same. There may be gimmicks like 4DX and ScreenX, but there’s a reason the best directors shoot for IMAX: it’s a true cinematic experience.
So if you go see this—and you 100% should—IMAX, baby. It’s the only way.
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