F1: Alternate Ending – Did Pitt REALLY Lose?

Thescreescore – Director Joseph Kosinski recently dropped a bombshell in an interview with GQ, revealing a shocking alternate ending for his adrenaline-fueled Formula One racing drama, F1: The Movie. While the theatrical release sees Brad Pitt’s Sonny Hayes snatching victory in a nail-biting finale, Kosinski confessed that an entirely different outcome was filmed, featuring Damson Idris’s Joshua Pearce as the triumphant racer.

"We actually did shoot an ending with Damson winning," Kosinski revealed, adding a touch of mystery, "Did we shoot it with the cameras? I feel like we just staged it to try to throw people off." This raises intriguing questions: was the alternate ending a fully realized sequence, or simply a staged rehearsal to mislead audiences and critics? The director’s playful ambiguity only fuels the speculation.

The film, a star-studded spectacle featuring Pitt, Idris, Javier Bardem, and Kerry Condon, follows a last-place F1 team’s improbable rise to glory. The original ending, while predictable in its heroic arc, provides a satisfying conclusion to Sonny Hayes’s journey of redemption. His victory, a hard-fought triumph over a career-ending crash and years of absence from the sport, serves as a powerful emotional payoff.

However, the alternate ending, where Joshua wins, would have offered a different kind of narrative satisfaction. It would have underscored Sonny’s self-sacrifice, paving the way for his protégé’s success, a poignant narrative choice reflecting Sonny’s mentorship and the passing of the torch. This alternative ending would have arguably been equally compelling, highlighting the theme of legacy and the cyclical nature of competition.

Kosinski’s decision to ultimately favor Pitt’s victory is a testament to the power of classic underdog narratives. The film’s success, boasting an 83% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score and a 97% Popcorn score, proves that sometimes, the familiar triumph resonates most deeply. While the alternate ending remains a tantalizing "what if," the chosen conclusion delivers the emotional punch that makes F1: The Movie a cinematic winner. The film’s key details include a June 27, 2025 release date, a $200 million budget, a 68/100 Metacritic Metascore, and a 7.7/10 Metacritic User Score. The director’s choice, though, leaves us wondering: what could have been? And, more importantly, will we ever see the alternate ending?

Source: GQ