Formula 1

Racing! A truly beautiful and passionate sport!

Dating to the early 1900s, car racing has always been a popular sport globally. The sport’s definition is quite self-explanatory -- the racing of automobiles for competition. The main idea of car racing is to achieve the fastest time in a minimum set of rounds or a time limit. But let’s dig deeper into this scintillating topic...

Automobile racing became introduced after the invention of gasoline fuelled engines in the 1880s. The first organized automobile competition was a reliability test in 1894, in France. The distance was 1,178 km and the winner accomplished a speed of 24.15 kph. Later on, NASCAR launched stock car racing. This was the start of the sport's rapid popularity growth. Soon after, international racing in the modern sense was initiated. The sport was practiced on a variety of roads, tracks, and closed circuits. These included Grand Prix racing, Speedway racing, Stock Car racing, sports-car racing, karting, etc. Many open-wheel racing circuits grew from this. Two obvious examples would be Formula One and IndyCar. 

Formula One is a racing show which consists of many seasons. These seasons are further divided into a series of races, known as the Grand Prix. But it's not just ANY racing show! It is home to the fastest regulated racing cars in the world. Formula One is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, established on June 20, 1904. The word ‘formula’ refers to a set of rules that the participating teams must follow. The ‘Grand Prix’ translates to the Grand Prize in English, which adds to its prestige. The races are run by tracks that are ranked number ‘1’ by FIA. Thus, forming the name. 

The first F1 driver to win a World Championship was Italian driver, Guiseppe Farina, driving an Alfa Romeo. The early years of F1 racing had many road car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Alfa-Romeo, Ferrari, and Maserati. As of 2022, the F1 racing car manufacturers are Mercedes-Benz, AlphaTauri, Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Haas, McLaren, RedBull, and Williams. The most recent F1 world championship was won by Max Verstappen at the end of 2021. 

My personal favorite racing car manufacturer would be Mercedes, as they produce the best drivers, engines -- and well, they are good at what they do. Their attention to aerodynamics is phenomenal. However, these past few months, its performance has been quite lacking which is unfortunate as I only became interested in the sport a couple months ago. The problem resides in an internal design flaw of the car. It seems to aggressively bounce at high speeds. According to Mercedes, this is the source of 99% of their problems. However, after an eight-year streak of the company's dominance, I believe it is time for other companies to have some time in the spotlight too. As of 2022, Ferrari and RedBull seem to have taken the lead, pushing Mercedes off its throne. 

My favorite F1 driver of all time would be Lewis Hamilton, not just saying this because of his popularity and his established title. But genuinely because I love his driving style. He is a very simple yet clever man, and it is clearly displayed in his driving. He is also down-to-earth and is passionate about racing. I also admire other drivers such as the iconic Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen. Kimi has an absolutely hilarious personality and I find myself looking back at his radio collections whenever I am bored. This made his fans mourn after his departure from Alfa-Romeo at the end of 2021. Now, I’ll admit, Verstappen wasn’t my favorite driver at the beginning. I wasn’t very fond of his aggressive driving style but I’ve soon grown to like it. Past moments when Lewis and Max have been head-to-head battling each other for victory is a truly remarkable sight to watch. Max has a very interesting and refreshing driving style that is not very familiar to other drivers. Looking forward to seeing what the future holds for these F1 drivers!