I began watching F1 in 2018, while on a return flight home from San Diego. Bored of listening to music, I turned on the in-flight entertainment and ESPN was airing an F1 race. It was the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix, and after tuning in, I was immediately hooked.
F1 is way different than any other professional sport. Having grown up watching football, basketball, baseball, and hockey- F1 was never on my radar, and when I did hear about it- Michael Schumacher apparently was the best driver ever- it always seemed to me like some faraway sport in Europe that only the wealthy took part in.
Fast forward to 2018- upon watching the opening scenes of my first race, I changed my mind immediately. The first thoughts I had were: “This. Is. Awesome.”
the cars
These things are incredible. Teams comprised of engineers qualified to work on space programs are instead working on cars, always testing and tweaking, making adjustments to shave milliseconds off lap times. An F1 car must conform to the “formula” of rules promulgated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), including dimension and weight limitations imposed on various parts of the car.
Among the parts engineers are able to tweak are the chassis, engine, gearbox, steering wheel and brakes. All teams are limited to the types of “tyres” they can use (you’ll notice they spell things a bit differently in F1 world, see: kerbs).
There’s been a bit of controversy over tires in the past which I may touch on at a later date, but for now, know that now only one manufacturer provides tires for all teams. In 2020, that is Pirelli, and they supply the following: hards, mediums, softs, intermediates, and wets. Each tire type is a trade-off between grip and durability- hards have less grip but last longer, while softs have more grip but are the least durable. There’s some nuance to which sets of tires teams can use during a weekend, but of greatest importance is that if you qualify in the top 10, you must start the race with the set of tires you used when you set your qualifying lap, and during the race you must use at least two different dry compounds, unless at some point during the race you use a wet compound. Clear as mud, right?
The other fascinating thing about F1 is that you learn something new every race weekend, which is part of what keeps the sport intellectually stimulating.
the teams
My prior misconception about only the wealthy taking part in the sport was slightly unfounded. It’s not like only ridiculously rich families own teams, although many do own stakes in teams- it’s similar to professional sports in the US where consortiums of partners come together to own and manage teams. Part of the intrigue of the sport is the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding these dynamics, such as Racing Point, formerly known as Force India, whose previous owner got into some trouble at home for what could be summed up as “financial malfeasance.” The team went into “administration” which is the F1 equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy, and was taken over by a new ownership regime headed by Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll, father of F1 driver Lance Stroll, number 18 of Racing Point.
Now, what I didn’t understand at first but quickly realized, was that there were tiers to F1 parity among teams. When I first watched the 2018 Hungarian GP, I rooted for the drivers near the back of the pack to mount comebacks (I always root for the underdogs). It turns out, it doesn’t quite work that way, because not all cars are created equal, at least, not under the current rules.
The top tier teams, at least last year, were Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull, although this seems to have changed a bit this year. The mid tier teams were McLaren, Renault (ren-oh), Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri), Racing Point, and Alfa Romeo (f/k/a Sauber). The bottom tier were Haas (although an argument could be made that they are mid tier) and the once-famed Williams team.
The difference in quality among the teams comes down to resources, pure and simple. The bigger the budget you have, the more competitive you’ll be. This was due to change in 2021 with new regulations that include budget caps but due to covid the rule changes were postponed until the 2022 season.
One way to get around the boredom arising from the foregone conclusion that Mercedes, Red Bull and/or Ferrari will always finish in the top 3 is to accept this fact, and to pick team(s)/driver(s) from the mid tier group to finish at the top of the remaining places. This group is informally called “Formula 1.5.”
What’s a little bit different this year though is that neither Ferrari nor Red Bull have been performing very well, leaving the door open for formerly-passed-over teams to vie for coveted podium spots. The first race of the 2020 season, the Austrian GP, saw an unlikely P3 finish for Lando Norris of the McLaren racing team. This was due in part to nearly half the field retiring from the race, but the possibility of this happening on any given race weekend also adds to the excitement.
the drivers
After you watch F1 for a while you start getting to know the drivers a little bit more and you develop affinities for some more so than others, which helps give you someone to root for. With other professional sports, there’s a rather large amount of players per team. An NFL team has 53 players on its roster, MLB has 26, and the NBA has 15, and each league has about 30 teams, so you have at least a couple hundred pros per league. F1 has 20 drivers that race every weekend. Teams have test drivers, sure, but that’s it. That means out of the thousands of drivers out there that compete in motorsport at some level, the 20 drivers that actually make it to F1 are the cream of the crop (for the most part- there are “pay drivers,” which I can explain in a later post).
And another interesting thing about F1: for the most part, most drivers come from wealthy families, but not all. Kimi Räikkönen came from a working class family, as did Lewis Hamilton. If you know the technical aspects of cars and leverage the right relationships, including ones with sponsors, as did Sergio Perez, then your odds of joining the F1 club slightly improve. So for me, personally, I respect these types of guys just a little bit more since F1 wasn’t exactly handed to them- they grinded their way to the top.
the business
It requires millions of dollars to own and maintain an F1 team. You’re paying for not only the car, its parts, and R&D associated with making it better week in and week out, you’re also paying for the travel required to participate in the 20 or so race weekends that make up an F1 season. The logistics required to transport teams from one city to another, sometimes halfway across the world, are something to behold. It also helps improve your knowledge of geography. Partnering with local governments to fund the construction of new race tracks and hosting race weekends is often required. Sponsorships and advertisements are commonplace in F1, from logo placements on cars to backdrops and champagne bottles, paid for by well-known brands like Rolex and Heineken to lesser-known and sometimes shady companies whose underlying businesses you’re hard pressed to even identify (I’m looking at you, Mission Winnow). It’s a traveling circus of a different kind, and it’s fascinating to watch.
There’s lots more to talk about but for now I hope this serves as a high-level primer for learning about and becoming a fan of Formula One.