Ah, F1 The Movie. A gripping story of a driver making a return to Formula One and– wait, is Brad Pitt wearing a 1988 Dakar Rally shirt?

Without spoiling too much (is this even a spoiler? Surely not unless it foreshadows a sequel about it, right?), there is a scene where Pitt’s character Sonny Hayes is in the AXGP paddock wearing a white t-shirt. It is adorned with the blue rectangle logo of Pioneer Corporation along with the iconic Bedouin logo of the Dakar Rally.

Inside the Bedouin is the text “10e Paris Alger Dakar”, indicating it is from the tenth Dakar Rally which started in Paris, going through Algiers, and finishing in Dakar. Of course, the tenth Paris–Dakar Rally was in 1988, which also happened to be the first year with Pioneer Corporation as the race’s title sponsor.

Pioneer is a Japanese company that specializes in making audiovisual equipment. During its run with Dakar, Pioneer produced a series of recap and highlight videos that were available on its LaserDisc brand. Of course, being the title sponsor also means Pioneer branding was everywhere from official gear to vehicle liveries. Pioneer was also the primary sponsor of the Peugeot factory team in 1988, appearing on the 405 Turbo 16s of Ari Vatanen and Henri Pescarolo as well as Juha Kankkunen and Alain Ambrosino’s 205s; Juha Kankkunen would go on to win that race.

In any case, Sonny wearing the shirt begs the question: did he race the 1988 Paris–Dakar Rally?

Again, without going into spoiler territory, Sonny is shown competing in F1 in 1993. The youngest age to get a Super License at the time was 18, meaning 1975 is his latest possible birthyear. Of course, that year would make the ’88 Dakar impossible as he’d only be 13.

It is not specified if he was a rookie in 1993, especially as this predates the modern youth movement, so it’s possible Sonny was already in his twenties at the time. Rubens Barrichello and Pedro Lamy were the youngest drivers on the 1993 F1 grid at 22; if Sonny is the same or at least within that range, that bumps his birthyear to around 1972. A 16-year-old racing Dakar isn’t unheard of (Mitchel van den Brink was 16 when he debuted in 2019, though he was a mechanic rather than a driver) but still quite rare.

Tack on a couple more years, maybe for a flat 1970, and you’ll have an 18-year-old. That certainly sounds more reasonable, if still risky.

Of course, we could always go for the straightforward approach and use Brad Pitt’s age. He was born in 1963, which would make him 24 when the 1988 Dakar started. On the other hand, this means Sonny would be 30 in 1993 while a 61-year-old strapping up to race F1 again is a bit of a stretch.

‘Now, hold on,’ you might interrupt, ‘why would an open-wheel driver even be doing something as dangerous as Dakar (or any kind of off-roading)?’

Well, there have been crossovers between the two disciplines over the years. Jacky Ickx and Jean-Louis Schlesser are two of the more notable examples, though they were already F1 veterans when they tried rally raid.

At the risk of spilling some beans, it’s worth mentioning that Sonny has a Class 1 car…

Featured image credit: Apple Original Films / Warner Bros. Pictures