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Celine Low chevron_right
When you watch a Formula 1 race, those electrifying shots from directly on the car are iconic. They immerse you right into the heart of the action, showing every bump, every turn, every close call. But while these on-board cameras are perfect for live broadcasts, they won't translate well for the big screen. So, when it came to filming the highly anticipated F1 movie, director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) and cinematographer Claudio Miranda faced a unique challenge: how do you capture high-quality, cinematic quality from inside a roaring F1 car?
The surprising answer: iPhone cameras.
So, How They'd Do It?
Well, Apple was listed as one of the production companies behind the F1 movie. They teamed up with F1 itself, the governing body of motor sport, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), director Joseph Kosinski, and cinematographer Claudio Miranda. Apple's engineering crew were able to figured out how to stick the same high-quality camera tech in your iPhone such as the hardware, software, and those powerful Apple silicon chips right into real F1 cars. Yep, they swapped out some of F1's regular on-board cameras with custom, decked-out iPhone setups.
Each of these custom cameras had an iPhone sensor powered by an A-series Apple silicon chip (found within your Apple devices), all running a special version of iOS with custom camera software. And capturing Hollywood-level image quality from cameras strapped to a speeding F1 car meant they shot everything in ProRes because it keeps all the incredible detail and vibrant colours.
For the production team to see what these custom cameras were capturing live during racing scenes, Apple developed a custom iPad app. With this app, filmmakers could adjust camera settings on the fly before the cars zoomed onto the track.
Next, to give the filmmakers tons of creative freedom during post-production, the special camera software let them do "Log recording". This basically captures a flat, uncoloured image that holds way more visual information than regular video. This real-world test on the F1 track was a huge success, and it actually helped Apple decide to bring this exact feature to regular iPhones later on, like the iPhone 15 Pro. Plus, the Academy Colour Encoding System (ACES) ensured consistent colouring across different cameras throughout the filmmaking process. This too provided a real world use case and would later help the implementation brought to iPhone.
These purpose-built iPhone camera systems were placed on actual Formula One cars during real races throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons (from the iconic Silverstone to the bustling Abu Dhabi Grand Prix)! Pretty cool how a movie set can push everyday tech forward, right?
Also during WWDC2025, Apple also unveiled a special haptic trailer for the new F1 movie on the iPhone and we got to experience it first-hand.
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