Before Brad Pitt’s F1 movie, rev up with these adrenaline-pumping racing films

Is your heart pounding? Can you hear the revving of the engines, that deep, guttural vibration that pulses through your whole body?

The F1 movie is almost upon us (next week!). Maybe it’ll be a high-octane thrill piece or maybe it’ll just be “Top Gun on the ground”, but it’s definitely going to have people talking.

Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a former Formula One driver who never fulfilled his potential before a big crash retired him out of the competition. He’s drawn back into the world when an old friend recruits him to his team and to mentor a young speedster.

It’s shot by the same director and cinematographer as those that worked on Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski and Claudio Miranda, and the team has spoken about building on the camera technology developed for the Tom Cruise movie to embed inside race cars so they could authentically capture what it’s like inside the cockpit.

But before the release of the F1 movie, and if you’ve already binged Drive to Survive, why not spend the next week prepping with these racing movies.

FORD V FERRARI

OK, this was the ultimate dad movie with its combination of racing cars, corporate rivalries and an underdog racing team, but the James Mangold’s drama is so well-composed it has wide appeal. Matt Damon plays an American car designer for Ford who is tasked with coming up with a winning car to beat Ferrari at the upcoming 1966 Le Mans, and he has the perfect driver in mind, Ken Miles (Christian Bale).

Watch it: Disney+

DAYS OF THUNDER

For a decade, Days of Thunder was better known as the movie on which Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman met, but now it’s more remembered for Tony Scott’s adrenalised racing sequences. Cruise plays a young driver who’s tapped for a NASCAR team but success and chemistry is at first elusive in the big leagues, until he checks his hubris and temper and learns that he doesn’t know everything yet.

Watch it: Paramount+, Stan

RUSH

For many F1 fans and even some drivers, the late James Hunt epitomised the sport. He was bold, brash and had an unquestioning confidence that made him a demon on the track. Hunt also had a legendary rivalry against Niki Lauda, which this Ron Howard movie explores with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl as the racers. The film is set during the dramatic 1976 F1 season, where the championship was won by one point.

Watch it: SBS On Demand

GRAN TOURISMO

This film directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9) has the distinction of being based on true events that were born out of a video game franchise. It’s a dramatised account of a real-life teenager, Jann Madernborough, who became a professional race driver after winning a competition designed to discover actual drivers among the world’s best Gran Turismo game players. The movie has surprising heart and the racetrack sequences are proper exciting.

Watch it: Digital rental

SENNA

Even the most stoic person will tear up at the end of this documentary by Asif Kapadia about Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian F1 champion who died on the track during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix on the famed Imola Circuit. Senna was a prodigious racer who, like many F1 drivers, got his start in go-karts as a kid and soon became a national hero and international superstar. He had an intense rivalry with Alain Prost and his death turned the sport around in terms of safety precautions. Senna was the last driver to die on a F1 track.

Watch it: Netflix

CARS

One for the small kids and the big, Pixar’s Cars spawned two sequel films, two spin-offs and the best ride at Disney’s two parks in California (seriously, it’s so fun). The animated film is centred on Lightning McQueen, a confident race car who becomes stranded in Radiator Springs, a small town off Route 66, where he learns that there’s more to life than winning a race. The voice cast includes Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Tony Shalhoub and George Carlin.

Watch it: Disney+

TALLEDEGA NIGHTS

Back when Will Ferrell and Adam McKay were still speaking to each other, they made Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (as well as Anchorman, Step Brothers, The Other Guys and more). Ricky Bobby has a win at all costs philosophy that has put him on top of the ladder, but his position is threatened when a French F1 driver joins the competition and is determined to beat him. The movie also features John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen and Gary Cole.

Watch it: Stan

LE MANS

As a competition, Le Mans holds a special place on the circuit and in the hearts of revheads. It’s an endurance race, held over 24 hours, and the allure of winning has even attracted F1 drivers including Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button. In this 1971 film, Steve McQueen plays an American driver who needs to prove something to himself after his involvement in a crash that killed another driver.

Watch it: Digital rental

RACE THE SUN

Admittedly, Race the Sun is actually kind of a cheesy, bad movie, but part of it was filmed in Broken Hill in Australia and it has a pretty great cast including Jim Belushi, an early career Halle Berry and a teenage Eliza Dushku. The story is loosely based on real-life events and is centred on a group of Hawaiian high schoolers who defied the odds to build a solar car and compete in the 1990 World Solar Challenge.

Watch it: Digital rental