Warning: Main spoilers for F1: The MovieF1: The Film director Joseph Kosinski revealed that an alternate ending to the film’s closing race was staged at one level, which featured a completely totally different winner. The record-breaking motion sports activities drama options Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Javier Bardem, and Kerry Condon as the important thing members of a last-place Method One racing workforce.
Brad Pitt portrays Sonny Hayes, a former Method One driver impressed by an actual British racer, who revolutionizes the workforce’s racing technique and helps them climb out of the basement within the F1 standings. Damson Idris performs Joshua Pearce, a proficient however boastful rookie driver who chafes in opposition to Hayes’ tutelage.
Within the film’s closing race, the veteran Sonny clears a path for his teammate to maneuver into first place and win the race outright, however an accident permits for Sonny to race forward to victory. In an interview with GQ, director Joseph Kosinski revealed that they really staged an alternate ending wherein Joshua wins the race.
“We actually did shoot an ending with Damson winning as well… Where he went up there, and held [the trophy] up,” says director Joseph Kosinski, earlier than questioning himself. “Did we shoot it with the cameras? I feel like we just staged it to try to throw people off.” Followers might’ve in all probability guessed that Sonny would win that closing race, anyway — it is just about the rule of any satisfying, popcorn-friendly sports activities film that the hero goes to beat the chances and emerge victorious … However who cares? Motion pictures are extra in regards to the journey than the vacation spot. “That’s where the entertainment is. I mean, anyone can guess the end of a movie,” Kosinski says.
Even when it was by no means truly shot, it is necessary to notice that Kosinski and his workforce went so far as staging the ending, that means there was at the very least some consideration of the result versus merely attempting to idiot onlookers. Nonetheless, primarily based on Kosinski’s feedback, it appears Sonny Hayes’ victory was firmly set in the long run.
How F1: The Film’s Alternate Ending Modifications The Film’s Payoff
It Modifications How Sonny Hayes’ Character Arc Concludes
Sonny Hayes’ story in F1: The Film is one among redemption. His once-promising profession was reduce quick by a devastating crash, which relies on a real-life accident, and for the final thirty years he is chased the fun that comes with high-speed racing, though out of the highlight he as soon as claimed.
Sonny’s victory within the closing race, whereas predictable because the anticipated consequence of any sports activities drama, acts as a cathartic conquering of a mountain for Sonny. By luck and circumstance, he discovered his approach again into Method One, which is considered the highest-caliber racing there may be. His victory offers a much-needed ending to his character’s arc.
F1: The Film – Key Particulars
Launch Date
Director
Funds
RT Tomatometer Rating
RT Popcornmeter Rating
Metacritic Metascore
Metacritic Person Rating
6/27/2025
Joseph Kosinski
$200 million
83%
97%
68/100
7.7/10
The alternate ending possible would have seen him sacrifice himself (metaphorically) within the closing race in order that his youthful teammate, whose profession is simply starting, might obtain victory and get on the trail that Sonny by no means bought to finish. It could have been an admirable flip for his character, and made good narrative sense in that Sonny’s time had handed, and the second belonged to Joshua.
Nonetheless, the late accident within the race that permits Sonny to win offers a measure of finality that his character appears to have been chasing since he was a younger man. Whereas Sonny has received loads of different races in his profession as a driver, attaining victory in a Method One Grand Prix was the exclamation level that redeemed his long-ago career-ending damage.
Kosinski Picked The Proper Ending, Even If Each Would Work
Frankly both ending would have been completely acceptable, as Sonny’s most important goal within the film was to assist the APX F1 racing workforce obtain victory. If he made a play that allowed Joshua to put first, that may be seen as a victory, and supply an ideal character second for him as a veteran actually and metaphorically clearing a path for his teammate.
Associated
F1 The Film Director Addresses Whether or not Put up-Credit Units Up A Sequel
Director Joseph Kosinski spoke in regards to the ending of the adrenaline-pumping F1: The Film, and shed some mild on the post-credits scene.
Nonetheless, Kosinski undoubtedly picked the fitting second, and his feedback completely encapsulate why. The fun of a very high-quality film’s conclusion is not born out of shock and shock, however slightly the satisfying conclusion of a personality’s story. To have a story shut out in a gratifying approach, whether or not you may see it coming or not, is the important thing to a superb ending.
In fact, Sonny profitable is akin to Rocky Balboa upsetting Apollo Creed in Rocky II, or the US Males’s hockey workforce beating the mighty Russians in Miracle. Realizing that the underdog will beat the chances does not dampen the impact if it is executed correctly, and Kosinski managed that superbly in F1: The Film.
F1
8/10
Launch Date
June 27, 2025
Director
Joseph Kosinski
Writers
Ehren Kruger
Producers
Brad Pitt, Chad Oman, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jeremy Kleiner, Lewis Hamilton, Joseph Kosinski, Dede Gardner
Damson Idris
Joshua ‘Noah’ Pearce
Supply: GQ
