F1 sound editor Al Nelson and his team recorded soundscapes at racetracks and placed microphones in real Formula 1 cars to capture the realism of the sport. Scott Garfield/Warner Bros. Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text The filmmakers of F1: The Movie wanted to portray Formula 1 racing in a way that's never been done onscreen before. And for supervising sound editor Al Nelson, now Oscar-nominated for his work on the film, that meant getting up close and personal to the powerful cars whizzing around corners on the tracks. "I went to Silverstone in 2023 when they were first shooting, and that was the most significant moment for me in realizing what we had ahead of us," Nelson tells THR. "It's not just the thousands of people roaring, screaming and chanting, and the music and 20 cars of that caliber revving and taking off and going by you at 200 miles an hour. It's more than just a sound. It's something that you really feel in your bones. The goal was to re-create that experience. And the only way we were going to have access to that was to be there on the track and to get microphones as close as we could to those cars. Those cars are millions of dollars, so it's not like I could just rent one for the day." Related Stories Movies 'Sentimental Value' Editor Talks Challenges of Cutting Down the Film's Original Three-and-a-half-hour Runtime Movies Directing Oscar Nominees Weigh In on Awards Season and Navigating Reviews (Plus Chloé Zhao's Love of Letterboxd) at Santa Barbara Tribute Nelson crawled under barricades and over fences to place his microphones right near the tracks, and seven-time Formula One World Drivers' champion Lewis Hamilton (who was a producer on the film) was instrumental in getting him access to the Mercedes pit lane and garage for additional soundscapes. Getting to record sound on the actual cars proved to be a bigger challenge, as everything in Formula 1 and its cars is measured and weighed to the smallest degree. "We were working a lot with the Mercedes [team]," says Nelson. "When they weren't in a Grand Prix and when I wouldn't be responsible for crashing a car with a microphone, we had access to the Mercedes cars, and [we placed] tiny microphones and recorders that they would weigh and say, 'OK, you can put that on our car.' " Of course, Mercedes cars aren't the only ones that are racing in a Grand Prix, and every engine sounds different. That's something Nelson had to take into consideration when recording sounds for the movie. "[Up until this year] there are four engines: Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda and Renault, and all of them do sound different, especially when they're going slow and up close," he explains. "Our [fictional Formula 1] APXGP car is a Mercedes-based engine, so any time we're on board with our car, we are hearing the Mercedes engine from our recordings. And then when a Red Bull car pulls in for a pit stop and then pulls away, that was a Red Bull that we recorded at various Grand Prix [races]." Nelson and his team knew they had to get very specific. Formula 1 fans and its drivers would take notice if something - like the sound of switching gears - didn't sound right. "These cars have eight gears, and each turn, each straight, everywhere that the car is on the track represents a gear and a speed," says Nelson. "Again, Lewis Hamilton was instrumental in helping us understand what the driver hears and what the driver is used to doing and advising us." For non-track and engine sounds, sound editor Gwendolyn Yates Whittle collected crowd noises and loop group recordings like chants and cheers, while rerecording mixers Gary Rizzo and Juan Peralta oversaw dialogue and music, and sound effects, respectively. Nelson, Whittle, Rizzo and Peralta, alongside Gareth John, were nominated in the best sound category at this year's Academy Awards. The film's sound also received nods for the Cinema Audio Society's CAS Awards, which celebrates excellence in sound mixing, and MPSE's Golden Reel Awards, which honors achievements in sound editing and design. See more on the making of F1: The Movie and other awards contenders at THR's dedicated site for behind-the-scenes stories at THR.com/behindthescreen. This story first appeared in a February stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up Sentimental Value 'Sentimental Value' Editor Talks Challenges of Cutting Down the Film's Original Three-and-a-half-hour Runtime Santa Barbara International Film Festival Directing Oscar Nominees Weigh In on Awards Season and Navigating Reviews (Plus Chloé Zhao's Love of Letterboxd) at Santa Barbara Tribute Oscars 2026 How Glam Rock and the Perfect Pimple Pop Helped 'Th