F1 is the rare electric racing movie that easily demonstrates racing’s intensity, fun, and artistic value through characters deeply embedded in their craft (to unhealthy degrees). From fast-paced, swivel-camera’d laps around the track with racers to the in-between moments of intense emotional intertwinement and conflict—particularly between central star Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) and his teammate, Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris)—F1 demonstrates as much as film could the breakneck intensity the world’s top racing league requires. Thirty years after a major racing accident with his old racing buddy Ruben (Javier Bardem) that forced him into retirement, a now taxi-driving Hayes is reapproached by his old friend, who now owns a Formula One team called APXGP and wants Hayes to help them win a championship. More humble and self-aware than most drivers, including his new and overly cocky teammate Pierce, Hayes comes in and surprises the crew, his friend, and car tech director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon) with his back-of-hand knowledge about cars, the road, how it all works, and tricks to win out on technicalities. With nothing but his skill and his team to get by—as even APXGP’s own board member Peter Banning (Tobias Menzies) wants them to lose—Hayes must beat the odds and find his tranquility on the pavement, no matter what the cost.

Director Joseph Kosinski perfectly captures the beauty of top-league racing, convincing and hooking even the most lap-uninterested viewers of the sport’s high-octane fun—and the massive physical and emotional workload it necessitates through thoughtfully rounded characters. Filmed at actual Formula One events and dotted with loads of actual F1 team owners or racers such as Christian Horner and Zak Brown, F1 strives in accurately invoking many of the (presumably) same feelings viewers get watching an actual race. As Hayes and Pierce skirt along different tracks, rubber burning and metal scraping all the way with their team’s owner, tech director and other crewmembers jolting around in excitable nervousness, quick cuts between swivel shots of drivers and the road, close-ups of different car parts operating, and fast reactions reflecting the second-by-second insanity such races inflict makes F1 an explosive ride from beginning to end. While pacing suffers particularly in buildup to the final race, adrenaline inducing tire burnout is well balanced with a working man underdog of a racer, an arrogant, over zealous teammate, a smart but underappreciated tech director, and a rich old-timer who believes they can all make the big leagues.

Hayes is a typical working man of a racer; Pitt carries himself in his generic t-shirts, wrinkly flannels and work-worn jeans with an experience-gained confidence, especially as he compares himself to more professionally attired partners: “You consider that a suit?” he asks Ruben, eyeing his tie before gesturing to his own generic undershirt and saying, “This is one too.” Such a simple, dedicated charm outlines everything he does, from car work to confrontations with others, making him an irresistible front man and a stubborn mule when put to the test. Though not unaware of appearances, Hayes blurs out any unnecessary noise to focus on what he wants most: to race, and to fly. While his love of the road is immediately clear—“It’s not about the money,” he tells the more business savvy Ruben and a new associate early on before the film cuts to his first Formula One interaction in thirty years—why he loves it is F1’s very heart: it’s a bet to find peace, even if only for a moment.

Life can be cruel and unpredictable, as a reporter rudely reminds viewers and Hayes himself in rehashing Hayes’ past divorces, gambling problems and big accident. Unlike his teammate (more on that wonderfully unlikeable but redeemable arse later), he accepts himself for the gambler he is and takes it to chase his peace: “It’s rare, but for a moment, at over 200 mph, everything falls silent and it feels like nothing can touch me. It’s like I’m flying… and I’ll chase that for as long as I can,” an even more rarely decently dressed Hayes says to his tech director, who warmly smiles at his passion in return (a heartwarming gesture thanks in part to Condon’s unwaveringly reliable presence). It’s hard not to root for somebody willing to go above and beyond for something so simple, especially when they play dirty bets on the road as he does to make races even more unpredictably intense (and fun!). Such care-free, straight shooter risk taking is exactly what irks Hayes’ cocky teammate, Pierce.

Pierce immediately comes off as the racer stereotype: with his solid color jumpsuits, high-tech training routines, his mother and cousin firmly behind him and nothing but praise, he’s confident that he’s the best of the best. But when Hayes enters the picture, easily outmaneuvering Pierce’s best times with half-second margins on the track and in simulations, things fall apart: “I won’t step back for some old timer,” he belts out, Idris maintaining a revealing posture of fake strength to hide unmissable insecurity through slyly trembling eyes and an overly defensive tone. His ego can’t take competition. Conversely, Hayes has zero patience for such arrogance, especially when unearned. At every chance he gets, he tries to impart wisdom in a backhanded tone with a thicker accent, which understandably only pisses Pierce off. On track, however, they discover their shared individualism in their desire to win gets in their way; they try to outmatch each other as much as other racers to nothing but losses. As Ruben makes clear later, “this is a team sport, you don’t win when against yourself,” that’s a big nada in Formula One. Despite their stubbornness, they each come to terms with that in their own time, but through sticky situations of (literally) explosive sabotage that leads to, in the extreme, Pierce’s hospitalization and Hayes’ regret in making them chase one of his riskier bets. Through their rivalry, F1 demonstrates some of the league’s most cutthroat components whilst using it as a catalyst to make both drivers better at their craft in the long run to sizzlingly entertaining results.

Thus, while a half hour could’ve been shaved off especially towards the end buildup that stumbles over rushed obstacles to “complicate” the final race, F1 is a blood-pumping, oil-boiling, and grandiosely fun time on the racetrack with stunning performances all around and a kickass balance between humor, dedication, passion, and risky fun. For racing fans, cast fans, and Formula One-specific fans, F1: The Movie is a phenomenal cinematic reconstruction of this world renowned corner of the racing world.

Opens Friday, 6/27 at Kendall Square Cinema, Apple Cinemas Cambridge, Capitol Theatre, and theaters everywhere