The Custom iPhone Camera Apple Built To Film F1

The movie "F1" tells the story of former Formula 1 driver Sonny Hayes (played by Brad Pitt), who returns to the sport with the fictional APXGP team and must learn to get along with his rookie teammate, Damson Idris, while also learning how to succeed as an underdog. While the story points are nothing new to the sports movie genre, the racing action is above and beyond what moviegoers usually experience. That's due to the way the movie used iPhones and real race cars to make these scenes immersive and intense. 

When driving an F1 race car at speeds upwards of 200 miles per hour (faster than NASCAR), you can't simply stick a camera into the cockpit. Even if the camera didn't fly off due to the speed and shakiness of the driving, it could still compromise the car's aerodynamics, balance, and weight, potentially leading to real danger on the track. "F1" Director Joseph Kosinski jokedthat "60 pounds of gear" wouldn't work, so the "F1" team and Sony worked on a new camera system based on the one used in "Top Gun" that'd be smaller and more capable — this time using an iPhone 15 Pro for higher resolution footage than what's usually recorded with onboard Formula 1 camera. 

While the exact camera specifications are unknown, it has been revealed that the footage was recorded using Apple's ProRes lossless video codec to preserve details and a neutral density filter for improved exposure control. A custom iPad app connected via a USB cable allowed the movie's production team to adjust the camera settings, including frame rate and exposure.

Apple's hardware team, Mercedes F1 engineers, and the film's racing consultant – Ferrari F1 racer Lewis Hamilton – helped engineer a camera fin housing with iPhone components inside, designed to look exactly like the ones found on F1 cars. But unlike the usual cameras on F1 cars, the iPhone version for "F1" could capture 4K, pro-resolution footage with vivid colors and controlled exposure. Meanwhile, it was designed to handle all the G-force, heat, and shakiness drivers experience during a race, keeping it steady throughout. The crew even added extra weight to the iPhone camera fin housing to make it the same as the usual F1 car cameras to ensure it fit Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) rules, as the devices were attached to the cars during real races.

The camera was also unique since the crew could move the cameras while the scene was being shot, which was done with motorized mounts placed on the car. "You have transmitters that are transmitting the picture back. We've got transmitters controlling the movement of the camera. I'm sitting at the base station with Claudio [Miranda], our cinematographer, looking at 16 screens," Kosinski said to Formula 1. "I've got camera operators on the controls for the cameras and calling out camera moves like a live television show while they're shooting. It was a lot of prep to be able to pull this off."

"F1" Director Joseph Kosinski wanted the film to be as true to the sport as possible, which is why he used real race cars and filmed real races. Kosinski said that they bought six Formula 2 cars and then worked with the Formula 1 and Mercedes AMG teams to "build real race cars" and carry cameras to record and transmit footage for the film. To make the racing moments feel even more authentic, Pitt and Idris got behind the wheel of the modified F2 cars during Grand Prix weekends. "Every time you see Brad or Damson driving this movie, they're driving on their own in one of these real race cars on a real F1 track," Kosinski said. "So that's kind of how we approached the making of this film."

Hamilton told ESPN that Pitt was really driving and was reaching speeds of around 180 mph. Wearing a racing helmet, fans in the stands were not even aware that it was a Hollywood actor racing in the Grand Prix event. Kosinski was pleasantly surprised at Pitt's ability to pick up racing, which could be due to the actor's love of motorcycle riding. "When you see Brad driving, that's not acting. He's really concentrating on keeping that car on the track and out of the wall during all those scenes, so that's something that you just can't fake," Kosinski added.