After a long run in movie theaters and digital buy/rent windows, the blockbuster F1: The Movie is finally available to stream for free on Apple TV. If you aren’t an Apple TV subscriber yet, you can get a seven day free trial here for new accounts.
F1 stars Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, an elder racing driver who comes out of retirement to try help a fictional F1 racing team called APX GP win a race to secure their future in the sport. Damson Idris plays the plucky young teammate, Joshua Pearce.
The film is a run-of-the-mill sports movie plot, elevated by its cinematic visuals and sound. Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), the making of the film was inordinately expensive, racking up production costs in excess of $250m. But you can truly see the money on screen.
Many of the sequences include Pitt and Idris actually driving on track at high-speed for real. The production partnered with Mercedes to manufacture F2 cars that were adapted to fit in with the modern F1 car design and livery. These were then taken to race weekends throughout the 2023 and 2024 F1 seasons, with filming happening in downtimes between sessions.
When you see shots in the film of an APX GP car racing with other team’s cars, visual effects are used to composite and digitally replace cars as needed for the story. It all combines together to create some incredibly immersive scenes. Diehard F1 fans will be able to recognize manoeuvres from the actual races on which the footage is based. There’s also a plethora of cameos from drivers and team principals throughout.
Before its premiere, many industry analytics criticized the amount of money Apple had committed to make F1: The Movie. But the film resonated with movie-going audiences, and exceeded industry expectations, racking up more than $630 million at the worldwide box office. Obviously, Apple is now hoping that the strong theatrical reception will translate into a big splash on its Apple TV streaming service.
How to watch F1: The Movie
You can watch F1: The Movie using the Apple TV app on your device. You can get the TV app on iPhone, Android, iPad, Mac, the Apple TV set-top box, PlayStation, Xbox, Amazon Fire Stick, Roku and more platforms. It’s also available in a web browser at tv.apple.com.
To stream all the exclusive Apple originals including F1, you need an Apple TV subscription. You can also get it through the Apple One bundle, with Family Sharing to share one subscription with up to six people.
If you really don’t want to subscribe, you can still buy or rent the film on digital stores like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and more.
Future of original movies on Apple TV
After a series of box offices misses, many analysts speculated that if F1 had flopped in cinemas, Apple might have given up on doing wide theatrical releases altogether. That didn’t happen. But as of right now, Apple has not publicly dated any of its future film slate to get a worldwide box office premiere. However, in a recent interview, Eddy Cue emphatically said that they will do more and they are planning wide theatrical releases for 2026.
We’re also anticipating an F1 movie sequel to be announced at some point, and Kosinski is already signed up to do a UFO conspiracy movie for Apple.
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