THE F1

 Formula 1

World's most populous and biggest motorsport competition. It includes single-seater four-wheeler F1 cars, which can reach speeds of 300–350 km per hour. It is also considered as one of the most dangerous sports, with a high risk of accidents. The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) conducts the F1 races and regulates them. Each F1 season consists of several races called 'Grand Prix', commonly referred to as GPs (a French word that means 'great prize'), and at the end of the season, the driver with the most points (based on individual GPs) wins the championship. The sport got its name 'Formula 1', because it consists of a set of rules, called formulas, that should be followed during a race. In every Formula 1 race, there are two champions: the driver and the constructor.

 

Currently, in the 2023 season, there are 22 GPs, with a new edition of the Las Vegas Grand Prix and the return of the Qatar Grand Prix after 2021. Now let's discuss some important aspects of the sport:

Cars 

The marvel of science and engineering. Since the beginning of F1, the design and upgrades have been done to increase speed, engine capacity, adjust the aerodynamics (Yup ! that's important to reduce drag and gain speed), reduce weight, etc. The teams invest a very large chunk of money in the R&D of the cars. To limit the overuse of money, the FIA has introduced a new rule that no team can spend more than 140 million dollars (excluding driver and team salaries). 

Tyres  

Referred to as the soul of a car, tyres are a big deal in F1. The current tyre supplier to all teams in F1 is Pirelli Corp. These tyres are especially designed to cope with high speeds, etc. There are three types of tyres: Dry-Weather, Wet-Weather, and intermediate. They are all designed for different conditions. The driver and team can freely choose any tyre under any condition. Each team is not allowed to use more than twenty sets of tyres in a single race.

Pit Lane

For me, it is the most exciting part of a race. It is the area where any necessary parts, generally tyres and the front wing (if damaged), are changed during the race, but the interesting part is that it happens only in seconds (2 to 5 seconds). A typical pit crew consists of four wheel changers, eight wheel carriers, two stabilisers, a front wing man, and a rear jack man. The FIA also started the fastest pit stop award with DHL in 2015. The current record for fastest pit stop is held by McLaren, which is of 1.80 seconds, during a pit stop by Lando Norris at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix. 

The Flags 

There are total ten flags in, each with its own meaning such as, Red Flag indicates that the session is suspended, Green flag means the track is normal, White flag indicates that there is a slow moving vehicle ahead (like safety car), etc.. 

Apart from all of these there are tonnes of other rules and regulations for tracks, drivers, constructors and others. Nowadays due to global concern for environment the FIA has also proposed a new motorsport competition named 'Formula E'. 

But the craze for F1 is increasing season by season, so FIA has increased no. of GPs from past 5 years for more entertainment and money.  

Did you know ???

India has also hosted Grand Prix for F1 between 2011-13 at Buddh International Circuit, Gautam-Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. 

Thank You, 

Sarthak P. Khode 😊