The clearest real event behind F1 The Movie is Martin Donnelly’s 1990 crash at Jerez, which directly inspired Sonny Hayes’s backstory. The film then combines other racing history—including Alex Peroni’s airborne Formula 3 accident, Romain Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball and the 2008 Singapore Crashgate scandal—with fictional characters and an invented APXGP championship.
Short answer: F1 The Movie is fictional, but Sonny Hayes’s devastating crash is directly rooted in the real 1990 accident that ended Martin Donnelly’s Formula 1 career. The film’s later rookie crash combines visual and technical ideas associated with Alex Peroni’s 2019 Formula 3 crash and Romain Grosjean’s 2020 Bahrain fireball. Its intentional-crash plot also echoes the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix’s Crashgate scandal.
That makes the film a layered motorsport story rather than a true story or a biography. Sonny Hayes, Joshua Pearce and the APXGP team are invented, while several of the accidents, race venues, safety details and production techniques come directly from Formula 1 and wider open-wheel racing history.
The real events behind F1 The Movie at a glance
| Film element | Real-world connection | How certain is the connection? |
|---|---|---|
| Sonny Hayes’s career-ending crash | Martin Donnelly’s 1990 practice crash at Jerez | Confirmed direct inspiration |
| Joshua Pearce’s airborne crash | Alex Peroni’s 2019 F3 accident at Monza’s Parabolica | Strong visual match; not named by Kosinski in the cited interview |
| Pearce’s fireball and escape | Romain Grosjean’s 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix crash | Explicitly identified by director Joseph Kosinski |
| Crash effects and vehicle destruction | Dario Franchitti’s IndyCar wrecks, among other reference footage | Production reference, not a recreation of one specific accident |
| The deliberate-crash strategy | Formula 1’s 2008 Singapore Crashgate scandal | Thematic and plot inspiration, not a retelling |
Martin Donnelly’s 1990 Jerez crash inspired Sonny’s backstory
The most important real event behind the film is Martin Donnelly’s crash during practice for the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix at the Jerez circuit in Spain. Donnelly was a promising Northern Irish Lotus driver when his Lotus 102 hit the barriers at an estimated 160 mph. He was thrown from the car and left motionless on the track. The accident ended his Formula 1 career, as Formula1.com’s account of the crash details.
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This is not simply a resemblance noticed by fans after the film was released. Brad Pitt said, “We based Sonny’s past on Martin Donnelly’s crash,” and Donnelly provided footage and advice to the production. Formula1.com’s interview with Pitt confirms the connection directly.
Lewis Hamilton was involved in finding the real-world reference. He initially contacted Donnelly about using the incident, and then showed Joseph Kosinski footage of the crash. Donnelly told the BBC that the production had also considered Gerhard Berger’s fiery 1989 crash at Imola before Donnelly’s footage became the foundation for Sonny’s history.
What the film borrows from Donnelly—and what it invents
The film transforms Donnelly’s career-ending accident into a Hollywood comeback story. Sonny survives, steps away from Formula 1 and returns to the grid decades later. Donnelly survived his crash too, but he did not make the same successful return depicted in the movie.
Donnelly later tested a Jordan at Silverstone in February 1993, but his injuries included nerve damage and a difference in leg length. He eventually abandoned his attempt to return to Formula 1. The film’s team dynamics, personality conflicts, championship campaign and triumphant comeback therefore belong to Sonny Hayes, not Donnelly.
Some of the smaller character details also came from Donnelly. He advised the filmmakers about the period garage environment, and Pitt reproduced Donnelly’s superstition of entering the car from the left side and putting his left leg in first. Those touches add authenticity, but they do not turn Sonny into a fictionalized biography of Donnelly.
Joshua Pearce’s crash combines two different real accidents
The film’s spectacular crash involving rookie Joshua Pearce has more than one source. Kosinski told British GQ that the sequence drew on two separate accidents: a Formula 3 car launched by a sausage kerb at Monza and Romain Grosjean’s fiery 2020 Bahrain crash.
That distinction matters. The movie does not reproduce one real crash from start to finish. It combines an airborne trajectory, a violent barrier impact, a large fire and a prolonged escape into one fictional sequence.
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Alex Peroni and the Monza sausage kerb
The airborne portion of Pearce’s accident strongly matches Alex Peroni’s September 7, 2019 Formula 3 crash at Monza. Peroni’s Campos car struck a sausage kerb on the outside of the Parabolica, was launched into the air and landed on the barriers and catch fencing. He survived the incident but was diagnosed with a broken vertebra. Formula1.com reported on the crash and the subsequent removal of the kerbing.
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Kosinski did not name Peroni in the cited interview. The identification comes from the unusually specific match between his description and the Monza accident: a junior open-wheel car catching a sausage kerb and being thrown into the air at the Parabolica. It is best described as a strong apparent match, rather than as a direct quotation in which the director says, “This is Alex Peroni’s crash.”
The movie enlarges the scale and consequences for dramatic effect. Peroni’s real accident involved a particular track-limit kerb and a driver who survived; Pearce’s fictional wreck follows a much more elaborate trajectory and is integrated into the film’s championship drama.
Romain Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball
The fire in Pearce’s crash is the clearer second reference. On the opening lap of the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, Grosjean’s Haas struck a barrier, split apart and burst into flames. Grosjean escaped the wreckage and suffered burns to his hands. Formula1.com’s report records the essential facts of the accident.
Kosinski specifically cited Grosjean’s crash as an influence. The connection is visible in the film’s combination of a high-energy barrier strike, a fireball, a driver trapped or delayed inside the car, and the emphasis on the safety systems that make survival possible. Even so, Pearce’s sequence is not a shot-for-shot reconstruction of Bahrain. Its fireball comes from Grosjean’s experience, while its airborne movement recalls the Peroni reference.
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Dario Franchitti’s IndyCar wrecks helped Framestore build the crashes
There is another layer that concerns how the crashes were made rather than which single event inspired the story. Framestore, one of the film’s visual-effects companies, says its work used real-world references including Peroni’s F3 accident and Dario Franchitti’s IndyCar wrecks.
According to Framestore’s production case study, the effects team used telemetry from real incidents to inform simulations of carbon-fibre failure, flying debris, gravel, fire-suppression foam and disintegrating tires. That kind of reference helps a digital crash behave like a racing accident: bodywork does not simply explode on cue, individual components break away, and the car’s movement is shaped by speed, impact angle, suspension failure and the surface it reaches.
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Franchitti’s wrecks should therefore be treated as part of the VFX reference pool, not as the confirmed source of one named scene. The available production information does not establish that the film recreates Franchitti’s 2013 Houston crash or any other specific Franchitti accident.
The film’s intentional crash echoes 2008’s Crashgate
The accident references explain the film’s physical spectacle. The plot’s deliberate-crash strategy points to a different Formula 1 story: the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix scandal known as Crashgate.
In the real race, Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed his Renault on lap 13. The accident brought out the safety car, allowing teammate Fernando Alonso—who had started from a poor qualifying position—to gain a major strategic advantage and win. Later evidence indicated that Renault leaders Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds had ordered Piquet to crash deliberately to help Alonso. Renault subsequently admitted conspiring to cause a deliberate crash. Formula1.com’s retrospective on the Singapore Grand Prix explains how the scandal unfolded.
The film uses a similar moral and tactical premise: a fictional team treats a driver’s crash as a tool for manipulating the race. Brad Pitt has also reportedly identified Crashgate as one of the real Formula 1 stories that influenced the movie’s plot. The reported comments support calling it an influence on the story, but the movie does not recreate the actual 2008 Singapore race.
The differences are significant. The characters, team, motivations, race circumstances and consequences in F1 The Movie are fictional. Crashgate is best understood as a thematic echo: both stories ask how far a team might go when a safety-car period can transform a race, and who pays the price when sporting competition is manipulated.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How much of the racing in F1 The Movie is real?
The movie’s accidents are fictionalized, but much of the racing environment was built around real Formula 1 events. APXGP is a fictional team, yet the production embedded its cars and actors into actual race weekends during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Pitt and Damson Idris drove modified racing cars on real circuits including Silverstone, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. Formula1.com’s production explanation describes how that unusual access was achieved.
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The APXGP cars began as real Dallara Formula 2 chassis. The production bought six chassis, extended their wheelbase by 400 millimetres and developed custom bodywork with Mercedes engineers. The result was designed to look like a Formula 1 car on camera while remaining visibly distinct from the actual cars competing in the championship.
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That compromise solved two practical problems. It gave the actors a real, functioning race car with credible handling and braking, while avoiding the safety, technical and competitive issues that would come with putting a film car on track as a genuine current-generation F1 machine.
Real footage and digital cars are mixed together
Framestore describes a hybrid production process that combined live-action footage from race weekends, car replacement, computer-generated replicas, telemetry-driven simulations and reconstructed environments. Some shots that appear impossible—such as a fictional car occupying a position within a real F1 battle—use genuine Formula 1 footage with the cars digitally swapped or augmented.
The production generally respected the real finishing order of the races it filmed, according to Kosinski. The major fictional exception was the film’s 2023 Abu Dhabi race, where Sonny replaces Max Verstappen as the winner. That explains why the film can show real circuits, real race-weekend surroundings and real F1 competitors while telling an invented championship story.
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| Element in the film | What is real | What is fictionalized |
|---|---|---|
| Sonny Hayes’s past | The core crash is based on Martin Donnelly’s 1990 Jerez accident. | Sonny’s comeback, relationships, team and later career. |
| Joshua Pearce’s crash | Its airborne and fireball imagery draw from real open-wheel accidents. | The combined sequence, its exact circumstances and its consequences. |
| Crash strategy | The concept echoes the 2008 Singapore Crashgate scandal. | The APXGP plot and the people responsible in the film. |
| Race footage | Real circuits, race-weekend footage and some real F1 context. | APXGP, its championship campaign and the altered Abu Dhabi result. |
| Crash physics | Real telemetry and wreck footage informed the VFX work. | The final digital composites and the film’s most spectacular moments. |
Bottom line
F1 The Movie is not based on one true story. Its strongest confirmed link is Martin Donnelly’s 1990 Jerez crash, which supplied the foundation for Sonny Hayes’s past. Joshua Pearce’s crash then blends the airborne dynamics of Alex Peroni’s Monza accident with the fire and survival imagery of Romain Grosjean’s Bahrain wreck, while Crashgate supplies the film’s darker strategic idea. The racing looks authentic because the production used real circuits, real race-weekend footage, modified race cars and telemetry-informed visual effects—but the APXGP championship remains Hollywood fiction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is F1 The Movie based on a true story?
No. F1 The Movie is a fictional sports drama. Sonny Hayes’s backstory was based on Martin Donnelly’s real 1990 crash at Jerez, but Sonny’s comeback, team, personality and championship campaign were invented for the film.
Which real driver inspired Sonny Hayes?
Martin Donnelly’s 1990 practice crash at the Jerez circuit in Spain is the confirmed direct inspiration for Sonny Hayes’s career-ending accident and backstory.
Was Joshua Pearce’s crash based on a real crash?
The sequence combines several references. Its airborne movement closely matches Alex Peroni’s 2019 Formula 3 crash at Monza, while its fireball and survival imagery draw explicitly from Romain Grosjean’s 2020 Bahrain crash. It is not a recreation of either accident.
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The film echoes Crashgate, the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix scandal in which Nelson Piquet Jr.’s deliberate crash brought out the safety car and helped teammate Fernando Alonso win. The movie uses a similar idea but does not retell the actual race.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Sonny Hayes is not Martin Donnelly, and the movie is not a true story. But Sonny’s crash is directly based on Donnelly’s 1990 Jerez accident, while the film’s other major crash and deliberate-crash plot draw from several well-documented moments in open-wheel racing.
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