F1: The Movie
Damn that was a great movie. I’ve always liked Brad Pitt and have a passing interest in F1 as a cultural phenomenon. This movie really captured it well. The thrill of being a modern day gladiator in modern form. Competing against others and yourself at the dangerous edge of extreme speed. I also get why ownership of F1 teams are the sport of billionaires and big PE funds. It is expensive to run a team.
Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a former Formula 1 driver that never fulfilled his great promise but ends up driving at racing championships like Le Mans, NASCAR and even was a NYC taxi driver. He is literally a modern day knight errant traveling around the world but driving, not fighting.
But 30 years later he is recruited back to an F1 team run by his old friend Ruben as a Hail Mary. Ruben sells him:
“I’m offering you an open seat on Formula One. The only place you can say one day if you win, you are the absolute best in the world.”
Hayes is intrigued and asks his waitress:
“Hey, let me ask you something. Close friend of yours made you an offer that was 100%, positively too good to be true. What do you do?”
The waitress asks: “Well, how much we talking about?”
He responds: “Not about the money.”
She says: “So what is it about?”
He responds: “Hmmmmm.”
It took the rest of the movie to figure it out. It’s about ego. But also self worth. Pride. Proving beyond a doubt you are the top of the top. That you are beyond a doubt the best.
He also talks about Flow states:
“It’s rare. But sometimes, there’s this moment, in the car where everything goes quiet, my heartbeat slows, it’s peaceful. And I can see everything and no one…..no one can touch me. And I am chasing that moment every time I get in the car. I don’t know when I’ll find it again. But man, I want to. I want to. Cause in that moment, I’m flying.” Probably one of the best descriptions of finding flow.
And if you want to get a view into peak single masculine life, this movie is it.
“What the hell you smiling about man? Did you win something? There’s 20 other drivers still out on that track and you’re in here posing for that nonsense. Do you think any one of them respect us? Do you? They need to learn that no one gets past us without a fight. No one.”
“Plan C is for combat. Combat! Combat! Combat!”
He has to pull the team together, a younger hard charging driver Joshua Pearce who is troubled by the financial issues of the team, his future and the competition of the new driver.
His mom gives Joshua good advice: “Don’t mind that. Focus on you. You can spend your whole life worrying about other people but your time is right now.”
His mom asks him: “you still love it?”
He responds: “Of course I still love it.”
She says: “Remember what your father used to say: Put your head down and drive.”
Seems like great advice for all of us right now. Get focused. It’s Q2 and there is work to be done. And watch F1 and be inspired. It’s never too late to make a comeback.
As Sonny Hayes says: “Create your own breaks. Hope is not a strategy.”