Red Bull feared appearing as ‘villain’ in F1 movie
Mercedes’ involvement in the production of the cars featured in the F1 film has caused rival teams to worry.
Red Bull is worried about being portrayed as the “bad guy” in its 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 over grand prix weekends, including the recent Mexican Grand Prix, where star Brad Pitt was seen waving to fans.
The cars for the film’s fictional APXGP team were created by assembling F1 bodywork onto F2 cars. These unique cars were built by Mercedes .
Because of this collaboration, the cars feature Mercedes and AMG logos, which has led rival teams, including Red Bull, to fear how they will be portrayed in the film.
“The interesting thing is, since we’ve partnered with Mercedes, other teams have said, ‘This movie is going to be about Mercedes and we’re going to look bad,’” Bruckheimer said during a meeting with Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei at the 2024 Investor Day event in New York.
“Red Bull said, ‘We’re going to be the bad guys.’ It took us three years to convince them that they weren’t going to be the bad guys, and we finally got to a point where all the teams were really willing to help us.”
When the film’s title was announced in July, it received both positive and negative reactions.
When asked why this simple naming was important, Bruckheimer said: “Because the best racing movies were Le Mans and Grand Prix, and now it’s going to be F1.”
F1’s UK release date is June 25, 2025, but details of where the world premiere will take place are yet to be finalised.
Bruckheimer added: “I think we will show it to the drivers and F1 teams in Monaco and then have premieres in New York, London and some other cities.
“Brad really invested in this movie. He doesn’t like working with the press, but I think we’re going to take him on a world tour and he’ll be happy to show off his drive and his acting chops in this movie.”
