F1 The biggest torsion of the film? The tires are the stars in small groups, thanks to Pirelli

Spoiler warning: This article contains details on the intrigue of “F1: The Movie”.

When the spirits behind the new Formula 1 film, Jerry Bruckheimer and Joe Kosinski, participated in their quest to make the most authentic race film of all time, a very specific subject was inevitably to be important for the plot.

Tires are one of the most decisive factors in F1 races. The strategy that each team chooses to use and how its car and its driver can manage the life of the rubber serves as the greater controllable variable for the teams of each race weekend.

From the start of the shooting, Bruckheimer and Kosinski knew that Pirelli, the supplier of F1 tires, would have an essential role in the film.

But they didn’t just want to make sure that the tire strategy was properly explained in the film. For tailor -made cars built so that the actors Brad Pitt and Damson Idris lead for the fictitious APXGP team, Pirelli had to provide tires and help it ingest them, as well as for all the real F1 teams.

Mario Isola, the director of the Pirelli’s races and F1 chief, had his first meeting with the filmmakers during the pre-season tests in Bahrain in 2023. He said that it was “a surprise” for Pirelli to end up being so strongly involved in the film, with the initial reminder to create a tire that could be used on the APXGP car which had helped.

“The first step was to understand what type of tire we should use,” said Isola. Because filming requests would require the APXGP car to be carried out at a speed lower than usual, Pirelli examined if it were to create a tailor -made compound which would offer a sufficient handle, especially when the actors without racing experience were behind the steering wheel.

Pirelli designed a tailor -made compound, only to realize that it was not necessary later. “We could use formula tires two,” said Isola. “The F2 tires do not use tire blankets, so the handle level generated with cold tires was sufficient.” The slightly smaller dimensions of F2 tires also adapt to the modified chassis of the APXGP car.

Isola said Pirelli provided a thousand tires to support filming, using F2 tires when the car was running on the right track and then rose full -size F1 tires for garage scenes – again in the name of authenticity.

Just as the Italian tire manufacturer has a dedicated engineer assigned to each F1 team on the race weekend to support his preparations, a small team of three or four engineers was on site to help the film production team prepare tires with correct prescription, which set them up with the required pressures.

For the film’s collision sequences, Pirelli also provided information on how a tire would be cut and loses the pressure. “They wanted it to be very close to reality,” said Isola. “It was a great discovery when I watched the film.”

Unlike the F1 calendar structured with racing weekends and long planned private tests, some shoots had to be organized in the short term, especially at the time of the Sag-Aftra shot in 2023. “We had to be very flexible to be ready with tires immediately when they had the opportunity to film,” said Isola. “It was a great experience for our guys to understand what flexibility is sometimes!” The tires would be sent from Pirelli installations to Didcot, the United Kingdom and Milan, Italy, depending on where the shooting takes place.

In some of the film’s pivotal racing weekend scenes, the strategy meetings led by the technical director (played by Kerry Condon) include Pirelli infographics showing the planned strategy. These scenes set the foundations for the end of the film. When a red flag is called during the last race at Abu Dhabi, the fact that the character of Brad Pitt, Sonny Hayes, has an additional set of soft tires available after his car failed to reach Q3 plays a vital role in the closing scenes.

“I don’t want to spoil the end of the film, but it was interesting to see the conclusion of the race,” said Isola. “It was pretty nice.”

Sky Sports commentators, David Croft and Martin Brundle, tell the procedure throughout the film, faithful to the real world. They discuss the advantages of the use of a sweet tire at a crucial moment in the film – a scene written with the support of the experts and consultants of the production team to ensure that it was as faithful to life as possible.

“There are now a lot of technical elements in F1 and they are sometimes difficult to explain to people,” said Isola. “They found a very easy -to -explain language to spectators. Some technical things are not so friendly. ”

Kosinski, the director of the film, always wanted to carefully put on the needle between staying faithful to technical details without the new overwhelming arrivals. He felt that the role of Croft and Brundle was essential to find this balance.

“What you notice is that if you listen to their comments, very subtly, they cover the basics of Formula 1. They call a race so that if you connect for the first time, you get these fundamentals,” Kosinski said. “But at the same time, you get the details and the specificity that engages fans who know everything.

“I was really inspired by the way they call their real breeds. And so we have done a lot of sessions with them. I really think they are the little -known heroes of this film. They somehow wear an audience that knows nothing through this story, but do it in a way that seems very authentic and is really their own voice.”

The film will provide a boost marketing to the entire F1 ecosystem which will resonate in the weeks and months to come. As in real life, Pirelli’s brand extended beyond the tires in the film, covering the advocate of advertising on track, the APXGP car and even the costumes of engines and mechanisms.

“This reproduces what happened with the other teams,” said Isola. “We have said that all the teams had the Pirelli logo on mechanical costumes, the pilot race combinations, support the trailers, as well as on the car.

“If you look at the Pirelli stickers, there are more than other cars because they were on the front wheel. It’s not the same for other cars! But we were happy to have it.”

Isola watched the film in the first in New York earlier this month and thought it was a “big film” that would be “very good to attract new spectators” to F1.

“It’s a Hollywood film, as everyone said, but it’s very real,” said Isola. “I was impressed by the final result. And also the role of Pirelli in the film! ”

(Top photo: James Sutton – Formula 1 / Formula 1 via Getty Images)