What is Formula 1

 

What is Formula 1? How can we define the greatest racing spectacle on the planet to newcomers to the F1 fanbase in a few words? Well, we can’t. Some say the whole of racing is just ‘going around incircles’. Now this isn’t exactly untrue, but there’s so much more to racing. And that’s stuff which cannot be explained in just a couple lines or paragraphs. The feeling of being ‘bit by the racing bug’ is much more complex.

Formula 1 in a nutshell is a competition which has teams involved build some of the fastest and the most technologically advanced machines on the planet and pitch them against each other around some of the most challenging tracks on the planet. The tracks are designed keeping in mind the safety of drivers, overtaking action and posing a challenge to teams and drivers. A lot of things depend on each other in Formula 1. For example, having the fastest car doesn’t always mean that you’ll be winning the championship. The car must be reliable and must be able to take endless punishment. It must also be safe car and also must be compliant with the regulations put forth by the FIA (something which the governing body of F1 frequently checks).

The drivers also have to take a ridiculous beating as they are subjected to intense forces in the cockpit which may reach up the five times the force of gravity. All this while getting a machine capable of going 200mph to go as fast as it can around a track or circuit. Drivers also have the complicated task of driving the car. 'How is it that complicated?', you may ask. Well, here’s a picture of a Ferrari F1 steering wheel…

How many of those knobs and buttons do you find on a regular vehicle? Not many. Drivers have to adjust the brake bias (which tells the car which wheels should be doing most of the braking action: front or rear tires) for every single corner while thinking about their strategy, possible overtakes, tire conditions and much more.

Formula 1 is a highly competitive environment which demands the best from every single person involved, irrespective of his job.

The structure of Formula 1 is like a league, for football fans. Instead of playing against other teams on home and away grounds, all twenty teams move to one ground together and play a single match for 50 to 60 laps or roughly 300km. teams and drivers each get points based on their performance which get tallied up and eventually the scores narrow down the pool to one winner. There are individual championships for drivers as well for their teams which are called as World Drivers’ Championship (WDC) and the Constructions Championship (CC).

Through this article I hope that all you readers have understood what Formula 1 basically is. Now that you have an idea what the thing is, we can proceed to more details such as the structure of a season and of race, the important bits of the cars, the terms in Formula 1, and much more.

 

Photo: journal.classiccars.com