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UsefulNotes / Formula One

"Anything can happen in F1, and it usually does."

Murray Walker

Formula 1 (F1), known formally as the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Formula One World Championship, is the top-level open-wheel motorsport racing series ("If it's got fenders, it's not a race car"). Since its debut in 1950, it is the world's largest and most famous racing series, and is considered to be the pinnacle of professional motorsport racing.

In F1, a load of drivers (currently twenty) drive very fast single-seat open wheel cars around a circuit, having to complete a set number of laps. These circuits can range from dedicated racing circuits to specialized street circuits. Points awarded on finishing positions crown the champion driver and champion constructor/team at the conclusion of every season. The ideal target is for a constructor and one of their two affiliated drivers to win both championships.

The name "Formula One" comes from the technical rules or 'formula' mandated by the FIA that the cars must follow. It specifies things like the maximum engine displacement, shape of the undercarriage, size of the fuel cell, etc., and is subject to the FIA's change from year to year, with minor rule changes happening annually and major ones introduced every 6-8 years. Unlike spec series, where every driver races in the same car, teams build their own cars, giving them open-endedness to how to design the car to meet the designated regulations. Expect teams to apply Loophole Abuse as they are designing and engineering their cars in an attempt to give them advantage over other teams. There is also a support series called "Formula 2" which involves smaller, lower-powered, and less expensive spec cars (now built by Italian designer Dallara); if Formula One is the calculus, Formula Two would be pre-calculus.

Probably the greatest technical change occurred in the late 1950s when front-engined cars were replaced by superior mid & rear-engined cars that were lighter, had a lower center of gravity, wider and slightly softer tyres, and as a result better handling. This revolution led to British teams taking over from the traditionally dominant Italian Maseratis and Ferraris during the 1960s. In the 70s, cars grew larger aerofoils; inverted wings designed to create downward lift (downforce) to press the cars down on to the road and improve grip, stability, and corner speeds. This led to Lotus pioneering 'Ground Effect' cars that were designed to create a low pressure area under the car using "Venturi tunnels", further increasing grip.note These had the unfortunate side effect of completely losing their grip if the car ran over something as small as a Dixie cup, resulting in cars literally flying off the track during high-speed turns: this resulted in ground effect being banned in 1983 after numerous, sometimes lethal (in the case of Gilles Villeneuve) crashes the previous season. Although they remained in a very subdued form in IndyCar racing, ground effect cars would not return to F1 until 2022 — where technical changes heralded their return in an effort to make cars follow each other more closely and ensure more wheel-to-wheel action. In the 1980s turbochargers were becoming a more common engine formula, with power outputs in excess of 11-1200HP in qualifying trim, but after the huge advantage differences between turbo and "atmo" cars in addition to the dominance of McLaren-Honda in 1988, they were banned in 1989, only for them to be reallowed 25 years later. During that decade, a combination of increased safety regulations and stronger carbon composite cars led to a massive drop in the number of fatal crashes. The death of Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix spurred further safety regulations and attempts to limit car performance.note Some of those safety regulations included track layout changes, some of which needed to happen anyway and were kept (like changing nearly every corner at Imola, where Senna's crash occurred), and some that were clearly knee-jerk reactions (like putting a chicane in the Eau Rouge corner at Spa) only lasted one race. Many advanced 'driver aids', like ABS and traction control have been outlawed, reallowed, and outlawed again, since then — technical rule changes are often a cue for fans to say They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. (Compare NASCAR, which banned fuel injection in 1958 and made it last until 2012, decades after carburetors became obsolete on road cars.) In any event, the cars today have more technical affinity with the Space Shuttlenote And a heck of a lot more computer power; the Space Shuttle's computer has just 256K megabytes of total memory than the typical road car.

Unlike other major worldwide sports, the playing field for F1 (and for that matter, most professional motorsports) changes at every event. Many of the tracks are equally legendary names as the drivers and cars. The most notorious is the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany — a 12.944-mile (20.832 km) course with 89 total corners. It was last used in 1976 (the year that Niki Lauda, who drove for Ferrari alongside Clay Regazzoni, crashed at the post-downhill "Bergwerk" and suffered severe and nearly fatal burns)note A smaller section inside the Südschleife part of the full circuit was used between 1984 and 2007 as the stage for either the German — before Hockenheim started hosting it regularly — or the European GP and now has many barriers and curbs for safety all around the track, plays host to several endurance events, and is a public toll road whenever it's not, as well as the place where the Rock am Ring festival happens. Other famous tracks still in use are Autodromo Nazionale di Monza (Italy, dubbed as the "Temple of Speed" as it is the track with the highest average speeds on the calendar), Silverstone Racing Circuit (United Kingdom, the track where the very first Formula One championship race in 1950 was held — also traditionally a very high-speed circuit, having been built from wartime airplane runways), Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium, originally an extremely fast and very dangerous 14km blast through the Ardennes Forest and several villages), Suzuka International Racing Course (Japan, famous for its figure-8 layout and usually theater to title deciders as it is placed near the end of the season), Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (Spain, also hosted the road time trial team cycling event in the 1992 Olympic Games) and the street race in Monte-Carlo (Monaco, its race serves as a Nostalgia Level harking back to the old days of motorsport). The most fan complaint is many tracks, especially ones where the best racing is, is removed or altered for safety reasons-often sacrificing the excitement that comes with danger. Currently the expansion of F1 into new countries such as China, Bahrain, India (dropped after 2013), Malaysia (dropped after 2017) and the United Arab Emirates has led to several bespoke tracks that are frequently condemned for their poor races and lack of character, earning the derisive nickname of Tilkedromes — Google the name "Hermann Tilke" to see the explanation and fan reactions.

F1 used to be notorious for frequent driver deathsnote As an example, in December of 1956, Ferrari hired seven drivers, dubbed "the Spring Team". Of those seven, one quit, one died in an unrelated auto accident, and all of the other five died in race crashes., but it is now much safer today — before 2014, no driver had died at the wheel of an F1 Car since Senna and Ratzenberger in 1994. On the other hand, there were still occasional marshal deaths, such as one killed at Australia in 2001, and another in Canada. However at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, Jules Bianchi, after going too fast under yellow flag conditions, lost control of his car and suffered a critical brain injury after he collided with a recovery vehicle in very wet conditions, which left him in a coma. This led to calls to make the car's cockpits fully enclosed.note They still aren't, but starting in 2018 all cars are fitted with a "Halo" bar that basically looks like the front section of a roll cage. Sadly he would never awaken. Nine months after his crash Bianchi succumbed to his injuries on July 17, 2015. At the 2020 Bahrain GP it was credited to F1's strict safety standards — and mostly the aforementioned "Halo" bar — that Romain Grosjean was able to survive a 192kph, 67G impact with the track barriers (which snapped his car in half before the whole thing burst into flames) and escape the burning wreckage with little more than superficial burns on his hands.

Of note also, F1's commerical dealings are not handled by the FIA, but by an independent promotional management group aptly named the Formula One Group, which was founded in the 1970s and was controlled by a short, eccentric billionaire with a mop-top haircut named Bernie Ecclestone, a former team owner who seized the series' commercial rights after a highly-publicized political fight with the FIA backed by several teams. Following the 2016 takeover of the Formula One Group by Liberty Medianote A communications company whose other notable properties include SiriusXM and the Atlanta Braves, Ecclestone was succeeded by former 21st Century Fox CEO Chase Carey. The current CEO is former Ferrari team principal and Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali.

The prestige, wealth, and popularity of F1 frequently brings high scrutiny of the teams, their drivers, the Formula One Group, the FIA itself, and their nigh-cutthroat politics, disputes, and scandals, all of which are equally as integral to the sport and its image (some circles call F1 "the Soap Opera of motorsports" because of this). Disputes between the varying entities here are not uncommon and are widely reported, all of which contribute to the series' cutthroat intrigue; often times, these disagreements are subject to diplomatic resolution through the Concorde Agreement, a contract between the teams, Formula One Group, and the FIA that is negoiated every semi-decade that dictates revenue streams, obligations to the sport, and technical operations and procedures.

The current driver's champion is Red Bull Racing lead driver Max Verstappen, who secured this fourth consecutive title in 2024 with only two races left in the 24-race calendar, and the current constructor's champion is McLaren, which won its ninth constructor's title at the end of the 2024 season.

Races are currently shown in the United Kingdom on both Sky and Channel Four, the latter inheriting it from The BBC in 2015, with Sky broadcasting all the races live, while C4 televises half the races live and shows highlights of the rest. The move to pay-per-view broadcasts was not received well, especially as the BBC had received lots of praise compared to ITV, who had struggled due to advertising problems and at least two key overtaking maneuvers being missed due to inconveniently timed commercial breaks. "The Beeb" also brought back "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac as the Theme Tune to its coverage — the song is long associated with F1 and car racing. C4 kept "The Chain" and the live qualifying and race broadcasts are ad-free.

For the approximate United States equivalent, see IndyCar. For its two-wheel counterpart, see MotoGP.

    Some famous drivers to know: 

    Some of the most famous rivalries are: 

    Has a history of several controversial incidents, such as:: 

Notable F1 Teams

The most famous team (by far) is Italy's

Scuderia Ferrari

, who have participated in every season and almost every race since the sport's inception in 1950 - they did miss the very first World Championship race in 1950 and the odd race since, but have taken part in every single race weekend since the 1976 season. As such, they have won the most races (400+) and championships (16). Ferrari fell into a slump in the 1980s but slowly climbed back to the front starting in 1988, and were finally rejuvenated by the signing of Michael Schumacher in 1996 who after four barren years dominated the early-mid 2000s. Their last constructors' title came about in 2008, but after multiple seasons of playing second fiddle to Red Bull and later on Mercedes, they appeared to be genuinely fighting for both titles in 2018. Unfortunately for them, FIA confiscated their power unit after a string of strong performances in mid-2019, and found it wasn't legal... nor illegal. Nonetheless, Ferrari had to build a new one, and between 2020 and 2021 they were a midfield outing with the odd lucky podium here and there. The start of the 2022 season saw a reversal of fortune for the Scuderia coupled with the rule changes, which saw them spring back to the very top of the grid alongside Red Bull if not for some...interesting strategy decisions.

Second in popularity is the British McLaren team, founded by the late New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost dominated in the late 1980s driving for McLaren. After winning the constructor's title in 1998 and a string of podium finishes in almost all successive seasons (excluding the highly controversial 2007 season where they saw themselves stripped of all their constructors' championship points due to the "Spygate" scandal), they were reduced to backmarkers from 2015-2017 after switching their engine supplier to Honda. They switched again to Renault in 2018 where they handily beat their ex-suppliers before finally returning to Mercedes power in 2021. The first season with Mercedes power units was pretty positive - with them finishing fourth in the World Constructors' Championship, and they have responded reasonably well to the rule changes in 2022, sporting probably the midfield's most well-rounded package in spite of a terrible showing at the season opener in Bahrain. 2024 saw them bounce back even further by winning the constructor's title with the MCL38 driven by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, gaining multiple race wins for the first time in a season since 2012 and the lead in the constructors' championship by the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, becoming the first non-Red Bull team to do so since Ferrari early on in the 2022 season and becoming the first non Red Bull/Mercedes constructor to win the championship since Brawn GP in 2009.

The British Williams team were frontrunners in the 90s, thanks partly to a strong design department spearheaded by Sir Patrick Head and Adrian Newey, but have slipped to the midfield in recent years and to the back in 2018. Until 2020 it was owned by the late Sir Frank Williams, and until then it was the last remaining family-owned Formula One team: halfway through the 2020 season the team was bought by Dorilton Capital, and the ensuing departure of then-team principal Claire Williams heralded the End of an Era for the team.

Sportscar manufacturer Lotus is the next most successful but it started slipping down the order after technical genius and founder Colin Chapman's death. Having a driver nearly die himself (Martin Donnelly at 1990 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying) and running low on funds, they withdrew from F1 in 1994 and didn't return until 2010 when a Malaysian backed company used the name; in 2012 they bought out Renault's team and used the Lotus name, causing the original Lotus to be rebranded as Caterham, another British car manufacturer who gave some financial backing.

Another relatively successful team is Benetton/Renault, who entered the sport as Benetton F1 in 1986 following the purchase of Toleman the season prior. They won the odd race here and there, until they hit the jackpot in 1991 and signed a young German named Michael Schumacher under the nose of Jordan, a few days after he participated on his first race for the latter team. Schumi managed to win the 1994 Drivers Championship, but it was perhaps the most controversial 'ship in history: it was tainted not only from Ayrton Senna's untimely death and the title-deciding collision in Adelaide, but there were also widespread allegations of Benetton using illegal driver aids - indeed, Launch Control (named Option 13) was found hidden in the engine's software, and to this day the debate rages on about whether they actually used it or not. Benetton also won both titles next year in much less controversial circumstances, but in 1996 Schumacher (and the majority of the engineers) left for Ferrari, and the team faded into obscurity... until 2003, when Renault bought the team and signed a young, charismatic driver named Fernando Alonso who won back to back titles in 2005-06. Since then, however, the team has languished into the middle of the pack, with relatively stable top 10 finishes but not much beyond that. In 2021, the team was rebranded as Alpine in order to promote the historically successful sports car brand.

The involvement of Mercedes-Benz in the sport is a very interesting story. Before Formula One as we know it was created, Mercedes was one of the leading forces in 1930s pre-WWII grand prix racing - often clashing against fellow German team Auto Union (now better known as Audi). Mercedes made its official debut in Formula One in 1954, immediately winning the World Drivers' Championship with Juan Manuel Fangio; the next season proved to be just as successful with Fangio and Stirling Moss finishing first and second in the standings, but the 1955 Le Mans disaster caused the German team to withdraw from all motorsport endeavors. Although they returned as an engine supplier to the Circus in 1994, and cooperated formally with McLaren from 1995 to 2009, the Silver Arrows would not properly compete as a constructor in Formula One again until 2010, when Daimler AG, still an engine supplier for McLaren, bought a controlling stake on the then-defending champions Brawn GP. The team was rebranded as Mercedes-AMG Petronas, and would slowly climb up the ranks of the grid with the odd race win here and there. Their fortune dramatically changed in 2014 and the shift to hybrid engines with the return of turbochargers, and for the next 8 years the Silver Arrows began what is probably the single most dominating period in the sport's history, winning all but one title between 2014 and 2021 with the help of Lewis Hamilton as their lead driver. The rule changes in 2022 saw them return to their pre-2014 selves, ending up in a weird limbo where they noticeably lag behind against Red Bull and a now-rejuvenated Ferrari but are far ahead of the rest of the pack.

The 'Big Four' of F1 are generally considered to be Benetton/Renault, Williams, McLaren and Ferrari, as they've dominated the drivers and constructors championships since the 80s, the majority of titles going to McLaren and Ferrari; the two most successful teams in the sport. However the status quo was upset in 2009 with the major bodywork, tyre, and technicality rule changes, which resulted in the recent success of Brawn GP (in its only season, to boot), its successor Mercedes, and Red Bull.note Note, however, that despite the changing names of teams it's still pretty much the same twenty-year rivalry between two chief designers: Ross Brawn was a top crew member at Benetton and Ferrari before buying out the failing Honda team (which was rebranded as Brawn GP) and later selling it to Mercedes, while Adrian Newey headed the Williams and McLaren design departments before moving to Red Bull, where he remained until leaving after the 2024 season to become technical director and co-owner of the Aston Martin team.

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