‘Massive’ Brad Pitt F1 movie predicted to have bigger impact than Drive to Survive

Brad Pitt will play a driver named Sonny Hayes in an upcoming F1 movie.

Brad Pitt’s upcoming movie on Formula 1 — fittingly titled ‘F1’ — is still in production, but the hopes riding on the film’s impact are growing all the time.

Now, Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali has shared just how impactful he believes the film will be — and it could very well outshine Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive.’

Stefano Domenicali: F1 will “hit a target that is not yet present”

In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Stefano Domenicali expressed his confidence that F1 will have a massive impact, perhaps even bigger than the one occasioned by Netflix’s Drive to Survive docuseries.

“I think that if Netflix was big, I think that the movie – and we discussed in Hungary the plan of commercialisation and promotion – will be massive,” Domenicali stated.

“We’re going to hit a target that is not yet present.”

According to the Formula 1 boss, that is because Brad Pitt’s film will be unlike any other racing movie to hit the box office.

He stated that the goal of the film was to “do something unique,” albeit “in the context where we cannot touch the racing itself, because that’s the sport, with different cuts, with different elements, we are doing a movie.”

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Domenicali admitted that there have been some certain challenges in maintaining live racing action while also filming a movie but that “when you’re going to see the movie, you’re going to understand what it will be.”

In terms of the film’s direct impact on the sport of Formula 1, Domenicali also noted that the film has introduced the series to a bevy of new audiovisual equipment that could also further enhance the actual race broadcasts.

The assertion that F1 will outshine ‘Drive to Survive’ is a bold one. Part of DTS’s impact resulted from its accessibility; anyone with a Netflix account could binge hours of real-life content from the comfort of their homes, then translate their newfound knowledge of the drivers into active fandom.

There will inevitably be a certain fictional element to the story shared in F1, but any well-told fictional story can create a huge cultural impact — especially when the technology used to create that story is so impressive.

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