Is F1: The Movie the Last We’ll See of Sonny Hayes?

Who knew that an Ed Sheeran song could have so much attitude? While F1: The Movie is not a complicated movie by any stretch of the imagination—vrooms, zooms, and explosions are front and center in the film—Brad Pitt’s wandering wheelman Sonny Hayes leaves himself wide open for more laps.

Let’s shift into spoiler territory for F1: The Movie and see if the movie’s end-credits sequence actually hints at a sequel. Like all good movies about haunted men with unusually specific talents, F1: The Movie is not about the pursuit of fame and fortune. Pitt’s Sonny Hayes simply likes to live behind the wheel, finding fulfillment when he’s got his hands at ten and two and racing others to prove where he stands in the world. (It’s no wonder why he also has something of a gambling addiction.) For this guy who likes to live in his beat-up trailer more than in million-dollar mansions, money is simply not a matter of importance for Hayes.

Which brings us to the movie’s ending. Earlier in the movie, Sonny takes note of Mexico’s Baja 1000, one of the world’s most grueling off-road motorsport races. An underdog, no-name garage is looking for drivers and paying only a modest sum for their talents.

Hayes puts the Baja race in the back of his mind and continues through the events of F1, evolving his contentious partnership with hotshot rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) and developing a relationship with technical director Kate (Kerry Condon). By the end of the movie, Sonny leads APXGP to victory and cements his reputation as the best Formula 1 driver in the world.

Warner Bros.Brad Pitt feels his age in F1: The Movie, but his Sonny Hayes wants to push his body to the limit.

But amid the celebrations and fireworks, Sonny quietly packs up and heads off to … somewhere. Suddenly, in Mexico, Sonny rolls up in his trailer home to meet with the Baja racers looking for a driver. After he’s reminded that they can only pay him a little bit of cash, Sonny shrugs it off and happily seats himself into another set of wheels.

Aside from a distracting Ed Sheeran song that we confess is kind of great (it helps that it’s got Dave Grohl on drums and virtuoso John Mayer on guitar), the end credits of F1 simply affirm that money and fame aren’t what drives Sonny’s soul. It’s the adventure promised in taking control of one’s own destiny. The road for Sonny is wide-open now.

That said, it’s fun to speculate what a “sequel” to F1 might look like, even if the story doesn’t revisit the world of Formula 1. A Baja-set sequel in which Sonny tries to adapt to a whole new genre of racing is a fun idea. Or we can get an unofficial Days of Thunder sequel and see Sonny try his luck in NASCAR against Tom Cruise. (Never mind that stock-car racing is a wildly different beast from Formula 1.) While F1 is a movie striving to appeal to Formula 1 fans and introduce newcomers alike, it has a protagonist who is unintentionally perfect for a potential franchise of realistic racing movies. But that’s really up to Pitt, whether he wants to bask in the movie-star mileage he’s accumulated or really go the distance.