Red Bull feared "villain" portrayal in F1 film

Red Bull was concerned about being portrayed as the "villain" in the new Formula 1 film, co-producer Jerry Bruckheimer has revealed.

The upcoming F1 movie has seen heavy involvement from the real-world paddock, with filming continuing to take place on grand prix weekends, including at the recent Mexico City Grand Prix where star Brad Pitt was pictured waving to fans.

The cars used for the fictional APXGP feature F1 bodywork bolted to F2 machinery, with Mercedes having created the unique vehicles.

Due to this involvement, the black-and-gold cars feature Mercedes and AMG logos, something that led to rival teams, including Red Bull, fearing how they would be portrayed in the production.

In conversation with outgoing Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei at the 2024 Investor Day event in New York, Bruckheimer said: “The interesting part is that, since we teamed up with Mercedes, the other teams said ‘wait a second, this movie is going to be about Mercedes and we’re going to look bad’.

“Red Bull said ‘we’re going to be the villains’. It took us three years to convince them that they weren’t going to be the villains and we finally got to a place where all the teams are really leaning into us to really help us.”

When the title of the film was revealed in July, it was met with a mixed reaction, with it branded as either alienating or a good piece of marketing by our writers.

Brad Pitt

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Asked why this simplistic titling was important, Bruckheimer said: “Because the greatest racing movies were Le Mans and Grand Prix, and now there’s going to be F1.”

F1 has a release date of 25 June 2025 in the UK but details on where the global premiere will take place remain unconfirmed with Bruckheimer joking, “That’s up for discussion.”

When Maffei said, “I thought we had an idea. I thought I knew, but OK,” Bruckheimer added:

“I think we’re going to show it to the drivers and to the F1 teams in Monaco and then we’ll have premieres in New York, London and a bunch of other cities.

“Brad is really invested in this movie. He doesn’t like to do press but I think we’ll take him on a world tour where he’ll be glad to show his efforts in driving and acting in this movie.”