Formula 1 Racing into 2025 but somehow we are still stuck in the past

By Dulant Pang on Unsplash

Sports and entertainment stand as two commanding creative industries. For anyone with a creative spark, these fields offer endless possibilities. What makes them even more fascinating is how they constantly influence one another from amplifying trends to setting cultural tones and doing it all in real time with just a click. Today, we’re diving into one of the hottest summer 2025 releases: the F1 movie. A high stakes blockbuster that blew past box office expectations but some estimate underperformed when it came to one crucial element: the representation of women. Despite the star power and production value, the film fell into tired tropes that felt out of touch with the very industry it aimed to celebrate. As creatives, it's our responsibility to hold projects accountable when they miss the mark. We shouldn’t be here to reflexively clap for a celebrity’s vanity project, but rather we should clap back against old stereotypes that we are all tired of contently observing even in 2025.

So, what’s the F1 movie actually about?

Starring Brad Pitt and directed by Joseph Kosinski, F1 is a fictional story set in the world of Formula 1 racing. While not based on true events, it tries to blur the line between reality and fiction by filming at real Grand Prix races and using actual F1 drivers and crew members as extras. With a reported $200–300 million production budget and another $100 million spent on marketing (per Variety), the mission was clear: deliver the most authentic racing film experience ever.

And in many ways, it succeeds. Critics have praised the film’s cinematography, thrilling racing sequences, and overall entertainment value. But when it comes to portraying the culture of the sport and its evolving inclusivity, it falls short.

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Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

The representation of women in F1 is, frankly, a mess. For example, Kerry Condon, who portrays Kate McKenna the technical director of the fictional APX GP team, is set up in the film to be the first woman in F1 history to hold such a senior technical role. Emily Selleck, in her piece for Motorsport notes, "She’s brilliant, spunky, and apparently, bad at her job: the car she designed is described as a “s**tbox,” and the team hasn’t scored a single point in nearly three seasons." Enter Sonny Hayes, Brad Pitt’s character a retired driver returning after thirty years to save the day. And, surprise: the second he touches the car, everything magically starts working. Because of course, a washed-up man is the key to fixing what a highly qualified woman couldn’t.

Instead of propping up this outdated narrative, the film could’ve taken inspiration from real-world figures like Susie Wolff, the current Managing Director of the F1 Academy, who is actively championing the next generation of female talent in motorsport.

And the mistakes don’t stop there.

Another female character, portrayed by actress Callie Cooke, is credited on IMDB as “Jodie” but notably listed on Wikipedia’s F1(movie) page as “Jodie, a clumsy APXGP pit stop tire gunner” which might tell us all we need to know about her character development. Jodie is noted for dropping the tools and botching the pit stop. Sure she improves, but the bar for competency, as far as the female characters in this movie are concerned, has been placed so low that it is hardly worth mentioning. This could’ve been a moment to spotlight real pioneers like Emmie Jones, the first female mechanic at Red Bull Racing, who made history in 2022.

Instead, we get background women swooning over Hayes, a man who’s been out of the sport for decades and yet somehow commands all the attention and glory.

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Then there's the Simone Ashley situation.

Simone Ashley, beloved for her role in Bridgerton, was actively involved in the film’s promotion for over a year only to be cut entirely from the final version as specified by Elle. The director claimed her storyline “didn’t make sense,” but many have raised eyebrows, especially considering his track record. In Top Gun: Maverick, for example, actor Manny Jacinto (a person of color) was also cut without much explanation. So it begs the question: why can certain people especially persons of color be so often confined to sidekick or expendable roles that can be erased from blockbusters without much thought?

The reality of women in F1 tells a different story.

Formula 1 is slowly but meaningfully evolving. The F1 Academy created in 2023 is a dedicated initiative focused on developing female drivers and increasing women's participation in motorsport. Programs like Discover Your Drive aim to introduce motorsport to girls at a young age, and women like Susie Wolff are leading that charge.

Behind the scenes, women are already making their mark as engineers, strategists, stewards, presenters, journalists, and more proving that gender has nothing to do with capability. As Females in Motorsport powerfully put it:

“Successful women line the grid as engineers, media officers, stewards, strategists, presenters and drivers in feeder series’, so seeing them portrayed as aimless spare parts until the super cool, super important men toddle along is genuinely devastating.”

The myth that women can’t thrive in motorsport isn’t just outdated it’s flat-out wrong. And portrayals that ignore this progress don’t just feel lazy; they feel like a step backward.

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Representation is still in crisis.

According to The Guardian, “female-led films hit a ten-year low in 2023. Of the year’s top 100 movies, only 30 were led or co-led by women down from 44 in 2022 despite the massive success of Barbie.” In sports media, the trend is similar: coverage and representation of women athletes and professionals remain disproportionately low, even as public interest in women’s sports continues to grow.

Formula 1 itself still faces systemic barriers when it comes to gender equality due to stereotypes, limited access to opportunities, a lack of visible role models, and the steep financial costs associated with breaking into the sport. Which are precisely the issues the F1 Academy is trying to dismantle. Yet the fanbase is changing. According to Forbes, F1 has seen a surge in popularity among women. In November 2022, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali shared that “40% of global F1 fans were women an 8% increase since 2017, when Liberty Media acquired the sport for $8 billion.”

Since then, Liberty Media has leaned heavily into marketing strategies to attract new audiences. Social media campaigns, the success of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, and targeted initiatives aimed at promoting women’s participation in motorsport have sparked a growing interest among young women from bloggers and journalists to aspiring drivers. Even beauty giant “Charlotte Tilbury recently became the first female-founded brand to sponsor F1, using its global platform to highlight the F1 Academy’s talented drivers and spotlight the growing presence of women in motorsport, both on and off the track.”

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So why didn’t the film reflect that?

With all the resources at its disposal from real tracks, to real racers, and even Lewis Hamilton as a producer, the F1 movie had the perfect opportunity to elevate the stories of the women shaping the sport’s future. The real-life sport is actively investing in women financially, culturally, and strategically through initiatives like the F1 Academy, global sponsorships, and increased visibility across media platforms. And yet, the film chose to lean into a regressive narrative that does more harm than good.

Representation matters. Not just for viewership, but because stories shape how we see what’s possible. And when a film with this much visibility chooses to ignore progress and glorify the past, it sends a message loud and clear: some stories are still not worth telling. We expected better. And we’re going to keep expecting better, because the future of storytelling should include all of us.