By Sreya Deb
Rip roaring through Indian cinemas, and certainly leaving its metaphorical tyre marks on the audiences, F1: The Movie is running in theatres now for the second consecutive week. The Brad Pitt-starrer with decorated British racecar driver Lewis Hamilton’s producing credit has hooked audiences from the starting line itself. Formula 1 had and still continues to have a very niche audience in India, but is gaining in virality. While the movie has received mixed reviews, the turnout in theatres reflects the collective Indian curiosity toward this sport.
Decoding the F1 frenzy
The pervasiveness of the film is evident across mediums and platforms. Even before the release of the film, two new characters were added to Electronic Arts’ (EA) F1 game starting May 30, both fictional. The players can choose from a roster of 22 drivers instead of 20, with the additions of Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce, fictional characters playing rivals in the film.
In the game, players are displayed along with their ratings reflecting their strengths and qualities. F1 video game players discovered that Sonny Hayes’s character had a higher rating than many of the top, decorated drivers of the world. Hayes was ranked on a par with Oscar Piastri, who is currently leading the championship, according to ESPN. Pearce’s character is also ranked higher than a few major players on the roster. In a more recent development, Apple is also working on acquiring US broadcasting rights for screening the F1 races by next year. Currently, exclusive broadcasting rights for the US are with ESPN.
In India specifically, a different matter has also made the headlines. The Central Board of Film Certification censored an emoji shown in the film, changing it from that of a middle finger to the symbol for a closed fist. This, too, received backlash from Indian netizens, claiming that the move was a regressive one on the part of the CBFC.
Memes on F1 are common and popular in the Instagram and X universes, with several netizens in India jokingly comparing the film with Ta Ra Rum Pum, the Rani Mukerji and Saif Ali Khan starrer which was the only other Indian movie featuring F1 racing as a theme. The success and popularity of F1: The Movie in India has kickstarted the predictable trend of celebrities being asked to comment on the film and the performances in it, which will undoubtedly not only fuel the swelling conversations about it online, but for the sport as well. The movie, having already made a name as Apple’s most lucrative and highest grossing theatrical release ever, in India crossed the Rs 50-crore mark in box office collections by the 11th day since release. Reddit threads and Instagram pages alike, are proof enough of the craze the movie has stirred, with Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive series having made a conveniently primed base for the F1 frenzy to fester. The series on Netflix now has seven seasons, the last of which was released this year in March. Moreover around the time of the release, with Hamilton himself being widely quoted as saying that the film is the most authentic F1 film to ever be made, the buzz around the film grew further.
From elite to accessible
The Formula 1 sport is integrating diversity and inclusion clauses in its policies aimed at making the sport more accessible and inclusive for a larger demographic of people. As part of their diversity and inclusion charter, Formula 1 is attempting to increase visibility of women, and provide engineering scholarships for promising candidates from lower-income backgrounds. This is not to say that India hasn’t churned out our very own racing drivers. With elite sponsorships and a niche fanbase, the F1 community in India seems to be thriving. Not just with globally recognised racing names of our own, but with another preparing for the Grand Prix of 2026, Kush Maini.
Since the last and only Grand Prix in India in 2011-13, which reportedly drew an audience of nearly 95,000, the buzz around the sport has certainly grown, if not reawakened. In 2020, an official broadcast report released by Formula 1 listed India as having a fan following of 31.1 million for the sport, with Nielsen, audience data analytics company ranking India as having one of the top five F1 fanbases globally. At the time of the Indian Grand Prix, however, ticket prices were between Rs 30,000 and Rs 1 lakh, largely unaffordable for a vast majority of the Indian masses, which meant that many enthusiasts could probably not witness the races.
As F1 followers are well aware, Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok are the only two Indians to have ever competed in F1, with Maini hoping to join the league by next year with former Finnish racing driver Mika Häkkinen as coach. Indian F1 enthusiasts and fans will fortunately not have to purchase pricey seats at the track to be able to follow the proceedings and cheer him on when the time comes; rather they can stream the races at their comfort, and be a part of the fanbase as well.
Now, besides burning a hole in one’s pocket by purchasing Grand Prix tickets, Indians can follow the sport with a basic internet connection, making the awareness accessible and viral.