NFL
By: Courtney Walsh
You have to be living under a rock if you haven’t heard about or watched F1 aka Formula 1 racing. The world formula is used for a set of rules covering car design, engine size, and component usage. The 1 stands for it being the premier racing league. It has been a round for years but lately, the popularity has exploded, and it can be overwhelming to someone trying to jump on the wave. As a lover of cars, I never got into the race thing but once my brothers and dad started treating race weekends like NFL game days I decided to get with it. Plus they hold races in some of the most badass locations and the vibes seem so cool. So, I am by no means an expert but here is what I have learned so far so grab a pen and paper or open that Notes app, and let’s do this.
F1 is NOT Indy Car or NASCAR Racing
There are a lot of differences between the 3 forms of racing but the main one in my opinion is that F1 involves a whole lot of science and money, I mean serious money. In F1 depending on how you do you can improve your car week to week how you race AND how you build the car matters a LOT. You are rebuilding the car and looking to improve each time. This sport of the rich and elite could be called the sport of nerds and I ain’t mad at it.
Each Team races two cars
The Grand Prix consists of Practice Run, Qualifying, Race Day
20 drivers on 10 teams
Races can be as short as an hour and a half, or as long as 2 hours
Where you finish on qualifying day is where you start on race day and since passing cars isn’t easy where you start matters. Where you finish gives you different levels of points 
After 10th place sorry, NO POINTS FOR YOU! The drivers who gain the most points earn the Drivers Championship, were as the teams want to most points possible and win the Constructor’s Championship. With two championships on the line you would think this would make for some funky teamwork with drivers wanting one thing and the team another. That is not really the case the way it was explained to me was the goal is for the drivers to drive their fastest and the team builds the best car. Forget what you saw on Fast and the Furious you need both speed and control to make these cars do their magic. The shape of the cars makes the wind pass over it and a but underneath it which keeps it grounded I have seen some cars that intake air and use it to cool down the car, or something called DSR which are “wings” the driver can control think of it as a speed boost like on a video game.
All very tech and very cool aerodynamics overload people!! I learned that teams like to keep a lot of this hush, hush as you would expect. To make things more interesting and gain a profit F1 introduced a cost cap of $140 million dollars. This does not include the driver’s salaries, garage equipment, travel costs. All of the brands involved with F1 are doing it for advertising the logos everywhere get us to buy other products. The tech being used on the cars and to keep the drivers safe will trickle down to us common folks sooner than you think. It also takes somethings already in our cars and improves them.
Most all the teams are based in the UK with a few outliners and staff going as high as 1,000 people all working to one end result FIRST place. Currently this season Max Verstappen is leading in points with Lando Norris chasing him. I kept it simple I drink Red Bull so that’s my team don’t judge me I am new to this thing.
Oh, I almost forgot they also have races called “The Sprint” they are shorter races on a flat surface and are exciting and more what most American race fans are use to. Points are given if you finish anywhere in the top 8. So next time you see these turbo charged V6 missiles racing around you will sit down and watch for a little. Hopefully I gave you a little insight into this thrilling sport. The next race Belgium it is called the Rolex Belgian Grand Prix 2024 it is round 14 and the last race before a summer break.
What did I miss? Have you been to a race LIVE? Hit me with all the reactions
