F1 ★★★½

CAR racing films are inevitably done well.

They have to be made with a certain level of technical skill and bravado to match the precision with which racing is conducted and capture the excitement of an actual event.

From 1967’s Grand Prix, through films like Days of Thunder, Driven and Rush, all the way to the more recent Ferrari, Gran Tourismo and Ford v Ferrari, they achieve at least some level of authenticity within the restrictions of a fictional narrative.

The latest example, F1: The Movie, has the added significant advantage of being officially sanctioned by Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, which gave the film’s makers as much access as possible to the tracks, cars, racers, facilities and all-round hoopla that makes up this most extravagant of sports.

Even though the result does, on many occasions, resemble an extended advertisement for the sport – not that it needs one – director Joseph Kosinski and his team make the most of their Access All Areas by achieving seamless integration of their actors and cars with footage taken on, near and over the real tracks at nine separate races around the World, supplemented no doubt by start-of-the-art computer generated imagery.

Brad Pitt is every inch the film star playing veteran driver Sonny Hayes who returns to F1 years after an horrific race accident, failed marriages and stints as a professional gambler and taxi driver.

The laconic but mercilessly driven Hayes, who shows off his fit, scarred and tattooed torso at the drop of a chequered flag, is returning for two reasons – to help out former colleague Ruben Cervantes, whose FI racing franchise is in danger of folding, and to achieve his ultimate quest for an F1 race victory.

He finds a team largely in disarray up against the might of McLaren and Ferrari with a car that doesn’t match the talent of its supremely talented, millennial driver Joshua Pierce, played well by Damson Idris.

The film is overlong – we didn’t need nine race locations and two crash breaks – and stretches credibility with Hayes being allowed to race at all considering his injuries, bending the rules without regard for safety and bedding his team’s technical director.

But when the engines start up and the race is on you are happy to forgive all that and enjoy the thrilling rides.

Watched at the cinema.