Five lessons EA’s next F1 game can learn from the upcoming ‘F1’ movie

Hollywood is soon to have its next stab at capturing the drama and spectacle of Formula One, and as we saw in the recent trailer it’s shaping up nicely so far.

Among those watching with the keenest interest would have been EA and Codemasters, the publisher and developer of the licensed F1 videogame series. After pioneering a narrative-led mode called 'Braking Point' in recent releases, it must have been hard not to feel at least a bit threatened by the sight of actual Brad Pitt in a big budget Formula One cinematic production. The next iteration of Braking Point is expected in F1 25, and with the movie due out next summer it’s safe to say the bar will have been raised considerably higher by that release window.

But as we learned from the “pink Mercedes” Racing Point RP20, in the F1 world if you can’t beat them, you join them. We’ve identified the key learnings (ie ‘ideas to pinch’) for the F1 series developers which they’re free to implement on TG’s recommendation, gratis.

Pitt’s character Sonny Hayes was an F1 driver back in the Nineties whose career was cut short by injury. He subsequently plied his trade in other categories before being called back to the F1 grid some 30 years later. While this sounds like something Johnny Herbert would scribble onto a napkin to entertain himself on the plane over to another weekend of pundit duties, we’re assured it really is the plot of the upcoming film.

You know what that means, don’t you, Codemasters? It means you’re going after the grey pound now. Your next Braking Point protagonist should be at least in their early fifties, bare minimum. Herbert’s not the only formidable talent to see his powers lessened by injury during a riskier era of motorsport, so the writing team actually has numerous options here. To our eye though, 55-year-old Mika Hakkinen is the perfect choice.

Technically he never actually retired from Formula One. The flying Finn simply took a sabbatical at the end of 2001 and has yet to return, so it’s – ahem – entirely plausible that he’d find a drive back in F1 a quarter-century later just like Mr Hayes does. If nothing else, it solves the likeability questions hanging over erstwhile protagonist Aiden Jackson.

Last time out in Braking Point, Aiden Jackson and Devon Butler drove for struggling midfield outfit Konnersport. Over the course of the story you gain a lot of insight into the team, including the power struggle between team principal Andreo Konner and owner Davidoff Butler.

The F1 movie blows Braking Point away for realism in this area though, because its fictional team Expensify Apex Grand Prix has a sponsor in its name.

If we’ve learned nothing else from Visa CashApp RB this year – and we haven’t – it’s that the trendiest place to slap a sponsor name isn’t on the sidepod anymore, it’s right in the team name. Grammar be damned.

The only way Codemasters can hope to return to winning ways with the next instalment of Braking Point, then, is for Konnersport’s commercial team to put pen to paper on some serious sponsorship deals and take to the grid as BantaBetz Slurp Energy Konnersport(TM).

The most striking shots from the F1 movie so far are from its onboard cameras, as Pitt drives a modified F2 car bearing additional F1-style aero elements on various tracks from the current calendar. And it’s not just that we’re watching Tyler Durden razzing around Silverstone in his sixties, it’s the way those shots look.

The field of view is much wider than you’d see in broadcast footage of the sport, or in Codemasters' F1 games which take a lot of visual cues from those broadcasts. And the benefits of going that wide are immediately apparent: it looks fast. Because you’re watching so much more periphery whizzing past, it really conveys the velocity with which modern F1 machinery cuts through the air.

Basically, the next F1 game should look like a ‘90s skate video. Dust off the fish eye lenses and let’s really feel how fast we’re going.

F1’s trailer begins with Sonny Hayes explaining that Red Bull, Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren all have Apex – sorry, Expensify Apex Grand Prix team – beaten on the straights, and that “our shot is battling in the turns". When quizzed about the safety implications of a car built for combat, Hayes says “Safe? Who said anything about safe?”

Were it anyone of a lesser acting pedigree than Brad Pitt delivering that patent nonsense, you wouldn’t be quite as inclined to nod along benignly. The inner voice telling you that numerous governing bodies have said plenty about safe, including the FIA, FOTA, GPDA and Liberty Media, would not be as easy to silence. And that’s the power of an A-list actor.

Codemasters have just seen a masterclass in how to style out an awkward narrative conceit: just throw a big name at it. If the next edition of Braking Point doesn’t read like the cast list from Ocean’s 11, they’ve missed a trick.