How APXGP was brought to life – Inside the rapid creation of ‘F1 The Movie’s’ fictional team with costume designer Julian Day

When costume designer Julian Day took on F1 The Movie, he faced a unique challenge – creating and kitting out an entire Formula 1 team in just a few months.

Most teams spend years developing their identity, uniforms, and brand – from their inception to joining the grid. Cadillac, who join the F1 grid next season, will have had over five years to develop and design all the team details. But for Day, he had little time to create something authentic and unique enough to stand out at Grand Prix weekends and on the silver screen.

But that’s exactly what he achieved, as APXGP fit seamlessly into the F1 paddock with impressive realism and a clean aesthetic during their time mixing it with the grid over the 2023 and 2024 seasons. With a little help from some leading brands and manufacturers, Day created team kit, race suits and merchandise with an iconic look that doesn’t look out of place during race weekends.

With F1 The Movie now streaming on Apple TV+, there’s no better time to talk to Day about how he achieved such an impressive feat.

Creating authentic race suits

The journey to finding APXGP’s signature look was far from straightforward. Day approached OMP, the Italian racewear supplier which kits out Aston Martin, for designs and he would go on to produce multiple racing suit concepts in different colours. Those concepts were then presented to the movie’s stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, as well as director Joe Kosinski, for feedback.

“One day, we were doing a fitting with Brad, and we were struggling to agree on a team colour,” Day recalled. “Then I suddenly remembered that I had brought in this sort of silvery white/grey suit, and everybody looked at it and went, ‘Yes, this is the one.’”

The choice was strategic. According to Day, going too black would create a “Darth Vader-esque feel”, while too white would feel vintage.

The silver-white struck the perfect balance, complementing the dark colour of the APXGP car and the white of the garage. The suit would also stand out against the rest of the grid on Grand Prix weekends.

The racing suits worn by Pitt and Idris featured OMP’s fireproofing, including the ONE-S suit, and all equipment was FIA-approved to ensure the same safety standards in real competitions were met during on-track filming.

Day also discovered the number of complications involved with creating race suits at the highest level of motorsport, especially when it comes to team sponsors. Just as with the real F1 teams, APXGP had a number of high-end sponsorships – and with that, precision matters enormously, even down to the millimeter.

“If a sponsor’s logo is two millimetres larger on a racing suit, they’ll give you another £100,000, or if the logo is too small or in the wrong place, then you’re in trouble,” he explained.

The team worked meticulously with the APXGP sponsors to place graphics on the suits, though some logos changed during filming as sponsors updated their branding. If you look hard enough, you might be able to spot the difference between some of the earlier and later scenes!

Producing a distinctive team kit

For the pit crew uniforms, Day drew inspiration from a surprising source – Mercedes. “I was invited to the Mercedes headquarters to see what they did, and they were very helpful from the beginning, and obviously they use black and white in their uniforms, and we just thought it was perfect.” Day said.

The all-black pit crew kit also served a functional purpose beyond aesthetics in the film – it made the drivers stand out against them. It’s a useful feature when you want the audience’s eyes to be focused on the stars of the show.

With F1 The Movie dedicated to immersing the viewer into the world of F1, the pit crew also wore race-ready uniforms with Day noting the remarkable evolution of racing fabrics. “I ended up having to order the pit crew uniforms from OMP again, which meant they got the latest fabrics. The fabric these days is so thin, it’s almost like shirt material, but completely fireproof.”

Achieving meticulous attention to detail

Creating authentic racing gear required attention to even the most minor details. Day ensured that everything from racing boots to Nomex underwear, gloves, and balaclavas met professional standards for racing. However, some modifications were necessary for filming.

“We had to make sure that the visor of the helmet was large enough so the camera could catch the eyes, but it also had to be safe to use,” Day explained. “We were also conscious of the fact that racing helmets are very tight and can squeeze your cheeks like a hamster, so we had to sort that out!”

The team even had standbys on set whose job was to pull up the balaclavas around the actors’ eyes to ensure everyone looked their best. As Day noted: “It’s all in the minutiae – the details that you don’t think about while watching the movie.”

When producer Lewis Hamilton first saw the racing suit, his feedback was telling. According to Day, Hamilton remarked that it was much lighter than his own suit, a testament to the latest racing fabric technology and how much the movie was able to push the boundaries of authenticity.

Recruiting fans for a fictional team

One of the most innovative aspects of the costume department’s work was creating a fanbase for a team that didn’t exist.

“We produced a whole load of merchandise, and we handed it out at the races,” Day explained. “So, when the actors would be doing post-race interviews and post-Qualifying interviews, we’d dress people around them in APXGP caps and t-shirts to look like fans.”

The team’s approach to fan representation also evolved as the story progressed. “Obviously, APXGP are nothing as a team when the film starts, so as they gradually win more races and do better and better, we gave them more fans,” Day said.

Unprecedented filming access over race weekends

Considerable amounts of filming for the movie took place during live Grand Prix weekends during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, with the assistance of the FIA and Formula 1. Day attended races in Hungary, Silverstone, and Monza, witnessing firsthand how the production was integrated into the F1 schedule.

In Las Vegas, driving sequences were often captured in the early hours, around 3:00 a.m. local time over the Grand Prix weekend. Filming also took place at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France and the Circuit of The Americas in Texas, with production continuing through the 2024 season to make up for time lost over the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. However, there were a number of potential complications to consider during filming at these race weekends…

“One of the biggest fears was at the British Grand Prix as the two cars were following the grid during the formation lap, and we were nervous in case one of them would break down,” Day recalled. “It could’ve totally changed the actual race. Production did an incredible job making sure that didn’t happen.”

The unprecedented access granted for the production was also a career first for Day, and something he doesn’t take for granted.

“I don’t think a film that integrates into a sport in the way we did will ever happen again,” he said. “It’s quite extraordinary what they managed to do, to jimmy themselves into the F1 schedule like that.”

Bringing it together

Day’s meticulous attention to detail aimed to create a seamless visual experience that went beyond anything F1 fans and cinephiles alike have ever seen. “What I really want people to see is how truthfully I represented what the sport looks like,” he said.

“Because it’s such a vast world, you have the race team, but also the paddock and the larger crowds. I tried to include every small detail in the process so that no detail stands out. Hopefully, all the details work together to create the overall look of the film.”

With F1 The Movie released in June 2025 to critical and commercial success, Day’s work has not only created a convincing fictional team but has also sparked a fashion evolution within F1 fan culture, with the Tommy Hilfiger APXGP capsule collection becoming highly sought-after. Fans are blending streetwear with racing gear to showcase their identity at Grand Prix weekends like never before – and plenty repping APXGP.

We get to relive the magic again from our sofas now that F1 The Movie airs on Apple+ – and it’s the perfect opportunity to get out our APXGP and Tommy Hilfiger merchandise again during the off-season!