Everything about Formula 1 totally explained
Formula One, abbreviated to
F1, is the highest class of open wheeled
auto racing defined by the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motor sport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform. The F1 world championship season consists of a series of races, known as
Grands Prix, held usually on purpose-built
circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. The results of each race are combined to determine two annual World Championships, one for
drivers and one for
constructors.
The cars race at high speeds being able to travel at up to 360 km/h (225 mph), and are capable of pulling up to
5g in some corners. The performance of the cars is highly dependent on
electronics,
aerodynamics,
suspension and
tyres. The formula has seen many evolutions and changes through the history of the sport.
Europe is Formula One's traditional centre, all of the teams are based there and around half the races take place there. In particular the
United Kingdom has produced the most number of
Drivers' Champions (12), and the vast majority of
Constructors' Champions (32). However, its scope has expanded significantly in recent years and Grands Prix are now held all over the world. Events in Europe and the Americas have been dropped in favour of new ones in
Bahrain,
China,
Malaysia and
Turkey, with
Singapore scheduled to hold the first night race in 2008 and
India being added to the schedule starting in 2010. Of the eighteen races in 2008, nine are outside Europe.
It is a massive television event, with millions of people watching each race in two hundred countries. As the world's most expensive
sport, its economic effect is significant, and its financial and political battles are widely observed. On average about 55 million people all over the world watch Formula one races live. Its high profile and popularity makes it an obvious merchandising environment, which leads to very high investments from sponsors, translating into extremely high budgets for the
constructor teams. Several teams have gone bankrupt or been bought out by other companies since 2000.
The sport is regulated by the FIA. Formula One's commercial rights are vested in the
Formula One Group.
History
» See 2008 Formula One season for details of the 2008 season
The Formula One series has its roots in the European
Grand Prix Motor Racing (
q.v. for pre-1947 history) of the 1920s and 1930s. The "
formula" is a set of rules which all participants and cars must meet. Formula One was a new formula agreed after
World War II in 1946, with the first non-championship races being held that year. A number of Grand Prix racing organisations had laid out rules for a World Championship before the war, but due to the suspension of racing during the conflict, the World Drivers' Championship wasn't formalised until 1947. The first world championship race was held at
Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950. A championship for constructors followed in 1958. National championships existed in
South Africa and the
UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Non-championship Formula One races were held for many years but, due to the rising cost of competition, the last of these occurred in 1983.
The sport's title, Formula One, indicates that it's intended to be the most advanced and most competitive of the FIA's
racing formulae.
The return of racing (1950–1958)
The first Formula One World Championship was won by
Italian Giuseppe Farina in his
Alfa Romeo in
1950, barely defeating his
Argentine teammate
Juan Manuel Fangio. However Fangio won the title in
1951,
1954,
1955,
1956 &
1957, his streak interrupted after an injury by two-time champion
Alberto Ascari of
Ferrari. Although the UK's
Stirling Moss was able to compete regularly, he was never able to win the World Championship, and is now widely considered to be the greatest driver never to have won the title. Fangio, however, is remembered for dominating Formula One's first decade and has long been considered the "grand master" of Formula One.
The period was dominated by teams run by road car manufacturers -
Alfa Romeo,
Ferrari,
Mercedes Benz and
Maserati - all of whom had competed before the war. The first seasons were run using pre-war cars like Alfa's
158. They were
front engined, with narrow treaded tyres and 1.5 litre supercharged or 4.5 litre naturally aspirated engines. The
1952 and
1953 world championships were run to
Formula Two regulations, for smaller, less powerful cars, due to concerns over the number of Formula One cars available. When a new Formula One, for engines limited to 2.5 litres, was reinstated to the world championship in 1954 Mercedes-Benz introduced the advanced
W196, which featured innovations such as
desmodromic valves and
fuel injection as well as enclosed streamlined bodywork. Mercedes won the drivers championship for two years, before withdrawing from all motorsport in the wake of the
1955 Le Mans disaster.
The 'Garagistes' (1959–1980)
The first major technological development,
Cooper's re-introduction of mid-engined cars (following
Ferdinand Porsche's pioneering
Auto Unions of the 1930s), which evolved from the company's successful
Formula 3 designs, occurred in the 1950s. Australian
Jack Brabham, World Champion in
1959,
1960 and
1966, soon proved the new design's superiority. By
1961, all regular competitors had switched to mid-engined cars.
The first
British World Champion was
Mike Hawthorn, who drove a Ferrari to the title in
1958. However, when
Colin Chapman entered F1 as a chassis designer and later founder of
Team Lotus,
British racing green came to dominate the field for the next decade. Between
Jim Clark,
Jackie Stewart,
John Surtees,
Jack Brabham,
Graham Hill, and
Denny Hulme, British teams and
Commonwealth drivers won twelve world championships between 1962 and 1973.
In
1962, Lotus introduced a car with an aluminium sheet monocoque chassis instead of the traditional spaceframe design. This proved to be the greatest technological breakthrough since the introduction of
mid-engined cars. In
1968, Lotus painted
Imperial Tobacco livery on their cars, thus introducing
sponsorship to the sport.
Aerodynamic
downforce slowly gained importance in car design from the appearance of
aerofoils in the late 1960s. In the late 1970s Lotus introduced
ground effect aerodynamics that provided enormous downforce and greatly increased cornering speeds (though the concept had previously been used on
Jim Hall's Chaparral 2J in 1970). So great were the aerodynamic forces pressing the cars to the track, up to 5
g, that extremely stiff springs were needed to maintain a constant
ride height, leaving the suspension virtually solid, depending entirely on the tyres for any small amount of cushioning of the car and driver from irregularities in the road surface.
Big business (1981–2000)
Beginning in the 1970s,
Bernie Ecclestone rearranged the management of Formula One's commercial rights; he's widely credited with transforming the sport into the billion dollar business it's today. When Ecclestone bought the Brabham team in 1971 he gained a seat on the
Formula One Constructors' Association and in 1978 became its President. Previously the circuit owners controlled the income of the teams and negotiated with each individually, however Ecclestone persuaded them to "hunt as a pack" through FOCA.
The Guardian said of FOCA that Ecclestone and
Max Mosley "used it to wage a guerilla war with a very long-term aim in view." FOCA threatened to set up a rival series, boycotted a Grand Prix and FISA withdrew its sanction from races. Although FISA asserted its right to the TV revenues, it handed the administration of those rights to FOCA.
The FIA imposed a ban on
ground effect aerodynamics in
1983. By then, however,
turbocharged engines, which
Renault had pioneered in
1977, were producing over 700
bhp (520
kW) and were essential to be competitive. By
1986 a BMW turbocharged engine achieved a flash reading of 5.5
bar pressure, estimated to be "over 1300 bhp" (970 kW) in qualifying for the
Italian Grand Prix. The following year power in race trim reached around 1,100 bhp (820 kW), with boost pressure limited to only 4.0 bar. These cars were the most powerful
open-wheel circuit racing cars ever. To reduce engine power output and thus speeds, the FIA limited fuel tank capacity in
1984 and
boost pressures in
1988 before banning turbocharged engines completely in
1989.
The development of electronic driver aids began in the 1980s. Lotus began to develop a system of
active suspension which first appeared in 1982 on the F1
Lotus 91 and
Lotus Esprit road car. By 1987 this system had been perfected and was driven to victory by
Ayrton Senna in the
Monaco Grand Prix that year. In the early 1990s, other teams followed suit and
semi-automatic gearboxes and
traction control were a natural progression. The FIA, due to complaints that technology was determining the outcome of races more than driver skill, banned many such aids for
1994. However, many observers felt that the ban on driver aids was a ban in name only as they "have proved difficult to police effectively."
The teams signed a second Concorde Agreement in 1992 and a third in 1997, which expired on the last day of 2007.
On the track, the
McLaren and
Williams teams dominated the 1980s and 1990s. Powered by
Porsche,
Honda, and Mercedes-Benz, McLaren won sixteen championships (seven constructors', nine drivers') in that period, while Williams used engines from
Ford, Honda, and
Renault to also win sixteen titles (nine constructors', seven drivers'). The rivalry between racing legends
Ayrton Senna and
Alain Prost became F1's central focus in
1988, and continued until Prost retired at the end of
1993. Tragically, Senna died at the
1994 San Marino Grand Prix after crashing into a wall on the exit of the notorious curve
Tamburello, having taken over Prost's lead drive at Williams that year. The FIA worked to improve the sport's safety standards since that weekend, during which
Roland Ratzenberger also lost his life in an accident during Saturday qualifying. No driver has died on the track at the wheel of a Formula One car since, though two track marshals have lost their lives, one at the
2000 Italian Grand Prix, and the other at the
2001 Australian Grand Prix.
Drivers from McLaren, Williams, Renault (formerly
Benetton) and Ferrari, dubbed the "Big Four", have won every World Championship from
1984 to the present day. Due to the technological advances of the 1990s, the cost of competing in Formula One rose dramatically. This increased financial burden, combined with four teams' dominance (largely funded by big car manufacturers such as
Mercedes-Benz), caused the poorer independent teams to struggle not only to remain competitive, but to stay in business. Financial troubles forced several teams to withdraw. Since
1990, twenty-eight teams have pulled out of Formula One. This has prompted former
Jordan owner
Eddie Jordan to say that the days of competitive privateers are over.
The manufacturers' return (2000–2007)
Michael Schumacher and Ferrari won an unprecedented five consecutive drivers’ championships and six consecutive constructors’ championships between 1999 and 2004. Schumacher set many new records, including those for Grand Prix wins (91), wins in a season (13 of 18), and most drivers' championships (7). Schumacher's championship streak ended on September 25, 2005 when Renault driver
Fernando Alonso became Formula One’s youngest champion. In 2006, Renault and Alonso won both titles again. Schumacher retired at the end of 2006 after sixteen years in Formula One.
During this period the championship rules were frequently changed by the FIA with the intention of improving the on-track action and cutting costs.
Team orders, legal since the championship started in 1950, were banned in 2002 after several incidents in which teams openly manipulated race results, generating negative publicity, most famously by Ferrari at the
2002 Austrian Grand Prix. Other changes included the qualifying format, the points scoring system, the technical regulations and rules specifying how long engines and tyres must last. A 'tyre war' between suppliers
Michelin and
Bridgestone saw lap times fall, although at the
2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis seven out of ten teams didn't race when their Michelin tyres were deemed unsafe for use. During 2006, Max Mosley outlined a ‘green’ future for Formula One, in which efficient use of energy would become an important factor. And the tyre war ended, as Bridgestone became the sole tyre supplier to Formula One for the 2007 season.
Since 1983, Formula One had been dominated by specialist race teams like Williams, McLaren and Benetton, using engines supplied by large car manufacturers like
Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Renault and Ford. Starting in 2000 with Ford’s creation of the largely unsuccessful
Jaguar team, new manufacturer-owned teams entered Formula One for the first time since the departure of
Alfa Romeo and Renault at the end of 1985. By 2006, the manufacturer teams – Renault,
BMW,
Toyota, Honda and Ferrari – dominated the championship, taking five of the first six places in the constructors' championship. The sole exception was McLaren, which is part-owned by Mercedes Benz. Through the
Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) they negotiated a larger share of Formula One’s commercial profit and a greater say in the running of the sport.
Outside the World Championship
Currently, the terms "Formula One race" and "World Championship race" are effectively synonymous; since 1984, every Formula One race has counted towards the World Championship, and every World Championship race has been to Formula One regulations. This hasn't always been the case, and in the earlier history of Formula One many races took place outside the world championship.
European non-championship racing
In the early years of Formula One, before the world championship was established, there were around twenty races held from late Spring to early Autumn (Fall) in Europe, although not all of these were considered significant. Most competitive cars came from Italy, particularly Alfa Romeo. After the start of the world championship these non-championship races continued. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were many Formula One races which didn't count for the World Championship (for example, in 1950, a total of twenty-two Formula One races were held, of which only six counted towards the World Championship). In 1952 and 1953, when the world championship was run for
Formula Two cars, a full season of non-championship Formula One racing took place. Some races, particularly in the UK, including the
Race of Champions,
Oulton Park International Gold Cup and
International Trophy, were attended by the majority of the world championship contenders. These became less common through the 1970s and 1983 saw the last non-championship Formula One race: The 1983 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, won by reigning World Champion Keke Rosberg in a Williams Cosworth in a close fight with American
Danny Sullivan.
Racing and strategy
A Formula One Grand Prix event spans an entire weekend, beginning with two
free practice sessions on Friday (except in Monaco, where Friday practices are moved to Thursday), and one free practice on Saturday.
Third drivers are allowed to run on Fridays, but only two cars may be used per team, requiring a race driver to give up their seat. After these practice sessions, a qualifying session is held.
The format of this qualifying session has been through several iterations since
2003. Attempts were made to reinvigorate interest in the qualifying session by using a "one-shot" system in which each driver would take turns on an empty track to set their one and only time.
For the 2006 season a knockout qualifying system was introduced, which has continued unchanged for the 2007 season. The FIA revised the 2006 procedures starting with Round 11, the 2006
French Grand Prix. In the first phase, all twenty-two cars are permitted on the track for a fifteen minute qualification session. Only their fastest time will count and drivers may complete as many laps as they wish. In the original format, the clocks were stopped immediately at the end of the session, which meant that drivers on a timed lap didn't have their time registered once the fifteen minutes were up. From Round 11, any car running a timed lap at the time of the chequered flag is entitled to complete the lap. The slowest six cars can take no further part in qualifying, these cars will make up the last six grid positions in the order of their times.
The times for the sixteen remaining cars are reset for the next fifteen minute session. In the original format, the clocks were stopped immediately at the end of the session. From Round 11, cars running timed laps at the chequered flag are allowed to complete the lap. The slowest six cars will make up the grid in positions 11 to 16 in the order of their times.
The times for the ten remaining cars will be reset for the next session. The shoot-out session lasted twenty minutes under the original regulations, changed to fifteen minutes from Round 11. For the final period, the cars will be arranged on the grid in positions one to ten in the order of their times. In the first two fifteen minute sessions, cars may run any fuel load and drivers knocked out after those sessions may refuel ahead of the race. However, the top-ten drivers must begin the final fifteen minute session with the fuel load on which they plan to start the race. They will be weighed before they leave the pits. Whatever fuel they use in the fifteen minutes may be replaced at the end of the session provided that the laps they complete are all within 110% of their best session time; outlaps (a lap that started in the pitlane) and inlaps (a lap that ended in the pitlane) are permitted to be no more than 120% of the driver's best session time. Any fuel for a lap outside of the 110% time won't be replaced. As with the first two fifteen minute sessions, if a driver starts a timed lap before the chequered flag falls for the fifteen minute session, their time will count even if they cross the finish line after the session has ended.
For the 2008 season, qualifying has been amended further: The duration of the first session has been increased from 15 to 20 minutes, while that of the third (final) session has been cut from 15 to 10. The second session remains 15-minutes long. Furthermore, cars participating in the final session will no longer get back the fuel used in that session - they must now start the race with whatever fuel was left in the car at the end of qualifying, thus eliminating the need for the infamous 'fuel-burning' phase at the start of the final session. After the withdrawal of the Super Aguri team in May 2008, the qualifying has been altered slightly, with five cars each being eliminated from the first and second sessions, leaving ten cars to contest the final session.
The race begins with a warm-up formation lap, after which the cars assemble on the starting grid in the order they qualified. If a driver stalls before the parade lap, and the rest of the field passes him, then he must start from the back of the grid. As long as he moves off and at least one car is behind him, he can retake his original position. A racer may also elect to start from pit-lane if he's any last minute problems with the car. If they choose to do this, they must wait for all cars to pass pit-lane before they may begin the race.
A light system above the track then signals the start of the race. Races are a little over 305
kilometres (190
miles) long and are limited to two hours, though in practice they usually last about ninety minutes. Throughout the race, drivers may make one or more
pit stops in order to refuel and change tyres. For 2007 with Michelin leaving the sport, teams are supplied with tyres solely from Bridgestone. Bridgestone have developed four tyre compounds of which they then select two for the teams to use at a given race event. Drivers must use both tyre compounds during a race which is hoped will bring more excitement to the sport. The softer of the available compounds for the weekend's tyres can be seen with a white ring around one of the grooves on the tyre itself.
When a driver comes round to lap another, the backmarker must move out of the way within a certain number of blue flags waved by the trackside marshals, or face a penalty.
Since 2003, the FIA awards points to the top eight drivers and their respective teams of a grand prix on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis (the race winner receives ten points, the first runner-up eight, and so on). Other points systems have been in operation over the years; before 2003 the points system was 10-6-4-3-2-1. The winner of the two annual championships are the driver and the team who have accumulated the most points at the end of the season. In the case of a tie in points, the championship is awarded to the driver or team having the higher number of wins; if these are equal, second place finishes are considered, and so on.
Constructors
Since
1984 Formula One teams have been required to build the chassis in which they compete, and consequently the terms "team" and "constructor" are more or less interchangeable. This requirement distinguishes the sport from series such as
IndyCar Series and
Champ Car World Series which allow teams to purchase chassis, and "
spec series" such as
GP2, which require all cars be kept to an identical specification.
In the 2007 season, for the first time since the 1984 rule, two teams used chassis built by other teams.
Super Aguri started the season using a modified
Honda Racing's RA106 chassis (used by Honda in the 2006 season), while
Scuderia Toro Rosso used a modified
Red Bull Racing RB3 chassis (same as the one used by
Red Bull in the 2007 season). Such a decision didn't come as a surprise because of spiraling costs and the fact that Super Aguri is partially owned by Honda and Toro Rosso is half owned by Red Bull. Formula One team
Spyker has raised a complaint against this decision, and other teams such as McLaren and Ferrari have officially confirmed that they support the campaign. The 2006 season could have been the last one in which the terms "team" and "constructor" were truly interchangeable, and that attracted the
Prodrive team to F-1 to the 2008 season, where it intended to run a customer car. After not being able to secure a package from McLaren, Prodrive's intention to enter the 2008 season was dropped after
Williams threatened legal action against them. Now, it seems that the customer cars concept will be banned in the near future.
Early manufacturer involvement came in the form of a "factory team" or "works team" (that is, one owned and staffed by a major car company), such as those of
Alfa Romeo, Ferrari (
Fiat) or Renault. After having virtually disappeared by the early 1980s, factory teams made a comeback in the 1990s and 2000s and now form half the grid with
Ferrari (
Fiat),
BMW,
Renault,
Toyota and
Honda either setting up their own teams or buying out existing ones. Since 1995
Mercedes-Benz owns 40% of the
McLaren team and manufactures the team's engines. Factory teams currently make up the top competitive teams; the "Big Four" are considered to be
Ferrari,
McLaren,
Williams and
Renault (formerly
Benetton). These have won every constructors' championship since 1979, and produced title-winning drivers from 1984 to the present. Ferrari, McLaren and Williams make up the "Big Three", each having over 100 race victories to their credit. Williams remains the only major team that's still independently owned.
Companies such as
Climax,
Repco,
Cosworth,
Hart,
Judd and
Supertec, which had no direct team affiliation, often sold engines to teams that couldn't afford to manufacture them. In the early years independently owned Formula One teams sometimes also built their engines, though this became less common with the increased involvement of major car manufacturers such as
BMW,
Ferrari,
Honda,
Mercedes-Benz,
Renault and
Toyota, whose large budgets rendered privately built engines less competitive (and redundant).
Cosworth was the last independent engine supplier. In 2006 Cosworth sold the Williams team 2.4 litre V-8s and the Scuderia Toro Rosso team detuned V10 engines based on the 2005 units. Beginning in 2007 the manufacturers' deep pockets and engineering ability took over, eliminating the last of the independent engine manufacturers. It is estimated that the big teams spend €100 to €200 million ($125-$250 million) per year per manufacturer on engines alone.
(External Link
)
The sport's
1950 debut season saw eighteen teams compete, but due to high costs many dropped out quickly. In fact, such was the scarcity of competitive cars for much of the first decade of Formula One that
Formula Two cars were admitted to fill the grids. Ferrari is the only still-active team which competed in 1950, and as of 2006 eleven teams are on the grid, each fielding two cars. Although teams rarely disclose information about their budgets, it's estimated that they range from US$66 million to US$400 million each.
Entering a new team in the Formula One World Championship requires a £25 million (about US$47 million) up-front payment to the FIA, which is then repaid to the team over the course of the season. As a consequence, constructors desiring to enter Formula One often prefer to buy an existing team:
B.A.R.'s purchase of
Tyrrell and
Midland's purchase of
Jordan allowed both of these teams to sidestep the large deposit and secure the benefits that the team already had, such as TV revenue.
Drivers
Each car is assigned a number. The previous season's World Drivers' Champion is designated number 1, with his team-mate given number 2. Numbers are then assigned according to each team's position in the previous season's World Constructors' Championship.
There have been exceptions to this rule, such as in 1993 and 1994, when the current World Drivers' Champion (
Nigel Mansell and
Alain Prost, respectively) was no longer competing in Formula One. In this case the drivers for the team of the previous year's champion are given numbers 0 (
Damon Hill, on both occasions) and 2 (Prost himself and
Ayrton Senna – replaced after his death by
David Coulthard and occasionally
Nigel Mansell – respectively). The number
13 hasn't been used since
1976, before which it was occasionally assigned at the discretion of individual race organisers. Before
1996 only the world championship winning driver and his team generally swapped numbers with the previous champion – the remainder held their numbers from prior years, as they'd been originally set at the start of the 1974 season. For many years, for example, Ferrari held numbers 27 and 28, regardless of their finishing position in the world championship. As privateer teams quickly folded in the early 1990s numbers were frequently shuffled around, until the current system was adopted in 1996.
Michael Schumacher holds the record for having won the most Drivers' Championships (seven) and Ferrari holds the record for having won the most Constructors' Championships (fifteen).
Jochen Rindt became the only posthumous World Champion after a fatal accident at the 1970 Italian Grand Prix.
Feeder series
For the most part F1 drivers start in
Karting and then come up through traditional European single seater series like
Formula Ford,
Formula Renault,
Formula 3, and finally
GP2. The GP2 series started in 2005 and all three champions have gone on to race in F1. Before GP2,
Formula Two and then
Formula 3000 had filled the role of the last major "stepping stone" into F1. No F2, F3000 or GP2 champion has yet won the Formula One championship, however. Drivers are not required to have competed at this level before entering Formula One.
British F3 has long been considered one of the best places to spot F1 talent, with champions including
Nigel Mansell,
Ayrton Senna and
Mika Häkkinen having moved straight from that series to Formula One. Again, though, it's possible to be picked earlier, as was the case with
Kimi Räikkönen, who went straight from Formula Renault to an F1 drive.
American Championship Car Racing has also contributed to the Formula One grid. Champions
Mario Andretti and
Jacques Villeneuve, as well as
Michael Andretti,
Juan-Pablo Montoya,
Cristiano da Matta and
Sébastien Bourdais have all moved to F1 from America, with varying degrees of success.
Other drivers have taken different paths to F1;
Damon Hill raced motorbikes, and
Michael Schumacher raced in
sports cars, albeit after climbing through the junior single seater ranks. To race, however, the driver must hold an
FIA Super Licence – ensuring that the driver has the requisite skills, and won't therefore be a danger to others. Some drivers haven't had the licence when first assigned to a F1 team.
Kimi Räikkönen received the licence despite having only 23 car races to his credit.
Beyond F1
Most F1 drivers retire before their mid-30s; however, many keep racing in disciplines which are less physically demanding. The
DTM is a popular category involving ex-drivers such as two-times F1 champion
Mika Häkkinen and
Jean Alesi, and some F1 drivers "crossed the pond" to race in America –
Nigel Mansell and
Emerson Fittipaldi duelled for the
1993 IndyCar title, and
Juan Pablo Montoya,
Scott Speed and
Jacques Villeneuve have moved to
NASCAR. Some drivers have gone to
A1GP, and some, such as
Gerhard Berger and
Alain Prost, returned to F1 as team owners. In 2005, though, a new series appeared,
Grand Prix Masters, pitting retired grand prix drivers against each other, with the requirement that the drivers be over 40 and have been retired at least two years. However the series fell into financial difficulty in 2007, and ceased running.
Grands Prix
The number of Grands Prix held in a season has varied over the years. Only seven races comprised the inaugural 1950 world championship season; over the years the calendar has almost tripled in size. Though the number of races had stayed at sixteen or seventeen since the 1980s, it reached nineteen in 2005.
Six of the original seven races took place in
Europe; the only non-European race that counted towards the World Championship in 1950 was the
Indianapolis 500, which, due to lack of participation by F1 teams, since it required cars with different specifications from the other races, was later replaced by the
United States Grand Prix. The F1 championship gradually expanded to other non-European countries as well. Argentina hosted the first
South American grand prix in
1953, and
Morocco hosted the first
African World Championship race in 1958.
Asia (
Japan in 1976) and
Oceania (
Australia in 1985) followed. The current eighteen races are spread over the continents of Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America.
Traditionally each nation has hosted a single Grand Prix, which carries the name of the country. If a single country hosts multiple Grands Prix in a year they receive different names. For instance, a European country (such as Britain, Germany or Spain) which has hosted two Grands Prix has the second one known as the
European Grand Prix, while Italy's second
grand prix was named after nearby republic of
San Marino. Similarly, as two races were scheduled in Japan in 1994/95, the second event was known as the
Pacific Grand Prix. In 1982 the
United States hosted three Grands Prix.
The Grands Prix, some of which have a history that pre-dates the Formula One World Championship, are not always held on the same circuit every year. The
British Grand Prix, for example, though held every year since 1950, alternated between
Brands Hatch and
Silverstone from 1963 to 1986. The only other race to have been included in every season is the
Italian Grand Prix. The World Championship event has taken place exclusively at
Monza with just one exception: in
1980, it was held at
Imola, host to the
San Marino Grand Prix until 2006.
One of the newest races on the Grand Prix calendar, held in
Bahrain, represents Formula One's first foray into the Middle East with a high-tech purpose-built desert track. The
Bahrain Grand Prix, and other new races in
China and
Turkey, present new opportunities for the growth and evolution of the Formula One Grand Prix franchise while new facilities also raise the bar for other Formula One racing venues around the world. In order to make room on the schedule for the newer races, older or less successful events in Europe and the Americas have been dropped from the calendar, such as these in Argentina, Austria, Mexico, San Marino, and the United States.
In 2007 it was confirmed that new Grands Prix would be added to the calendar. The first was the
Singapore Grand Prix which will be held in
Singapore. The second was the
Indian Grand Prix which will be held in
Delhi,
India. Other changes included the removal of the
United States Grand Prix from the calendar, and the move of the
European Grand Prix to
Valencia, Spain.
Circuits
A typical circuit usually features a stretch of straight road on which the starting grid is situated. The
pit lane, where the drivers stop for fuel and tyres during the race, and where the teams work on the cars before the race, is normally located next to the starting grid. The layout of the rest of the circuit varies widely, although in most cases the circuit runs in a clockwise direction. Those few circuits that run anticlockwise (and therefore have predominantly left-handed corners) can cause drivers neck problems due to the enormous lateral forces generated by F1 cars pulling their heads in the opposite direction to normal.
Most of the circuits currently in use are specially constructed for competition. The current street circuits are the
Circuit de Monaco and
Melbourne, although races in other urban locations come and go (
Las Vegas and
Detroit, for example) and proposals for such races are often discussed – most recently
London and
Beirut. Several other circuits are also completely or partially laid out on public roads, such as
Spa-Francorchamps. The glamour and history of the Monaco race are the primary reasons why the circuit is still in use, since it's thought not to meet the strict safety requirements imposed on other tracks. Three-time World champion
Nelson Piquet famously described racing in Monaco as "like riding a bicycle around your living room".
Circuit design to protect the safety of drivers is becoming increasingly sophisticated, as exemplified by the new
Bahrain International Circuit, added in 2004 and designed – like most of F1's new circuits – by
Hermann Tilke. Several of the new circuits in F1, especially those designed by Tilke, have been criticised as lacking the "flow" of such classics as Spa-Francorchamps and Imola. His redesign of the
Hockenheim circuit in Germany for example, while providing more capacity for grandstands and eliminating extremely long and dangerous straights, has been frowned upon by many who argue that part of the character of the Hockenheim circuits was the long and blinding straights into dark forest sections. These newer circuits, however, are generally agreed to meet the safety standards of modern Formula One better than the older ones.
The most recent addition to the F1 calendar is
Istanbul Park in Turkey, which first staged an F1 race in
2005. The next confirmed additions for the
2008 Formula One season will be street races in
Valencia
A Formula 1 Grand Prix will be held in India for the first time in 2010.
Cars and technology
Modern Formula One cars are
mid-engined open cockpit, open wheel single-seaters. The
chassis is made largely of
carbon fibre composites, rendering it light but extremely stiff and strong. The whole car, including engine, fluids and driver, weighs only 600kg. In fact this is the minimum weight set by the regulations – the cars are so light that they often have to be ballasted up to this minimum weight. The race teams take advantage of this by placing this ballast at the extreme bottom of the chassis, thereby locating the centre of gravity as low as possible in order to improve handling and weight transfer.
The cornering speed of Formula One cars is largely determined by the aerodynamic
downforce that they generate, which pushes the car down onto the track. This is provided by 'wings' mounted at the front and rear of the vehicle, and by ground effect created by the movement of air under the flat bottom of the car. The aerodynamic design of the cars is very heavily constrained to limit performance and the current generation of cars sport a large number of small winglets, 'barge boards' and turning vanes designed to closely control the flow of the air over, under and around the car. The 'barge boards' in particular are designed, shaped, configured, adjusted and positioned not to create downforce directly, as with a conventional wing or underbody venturi, but to create vortices from the air spillage at their edges. The use of
vortices is a significant feature of the latest breeds of F1 cars. Since a vortex is a rotating fluid that creates a low pressure zone at its centre, creating vortices lowers the overall local pressure of the air. Since low pressure is what is desired under the car, as it allows normal atmospheric pressure to press the car down from the top, by creating vortices downforce can be augmented while still staying within the rules.
The other major factor controlling the cornering speed of the cars is the design of the
tyres. Tyres in Formula One are not '
slicks' (tyres with no tread pattern) as in most other circuit racing series. Each tyre has four large circumferential grooves on its surface designed to further limit the cornering speed of the cars. Suspension is
double wishbone or
multilink all round with pushrod operated springs and
dampers on the chassis. Carbon-Ceramic disc brakes are used for reduced weight and increased frictional performance. These provide a very high level of braking performance and are usually the element which provokes the greatest reaction from drivers new to the formula.
Engines are mandated as 2.4 litre naturally aspirated V8s, with many other constraints on their design and the materials that may be used. The 2006 generation of engines spun up to 20,000 rpm and produced up to 780 bhp (582 kW). The previous generation of 3 litre V10 engines are also allowed, albeit with their revs limited and with an air restrictor to limit performance. Engines run on unleaded fuel closely resembling publicly available petrol. The oil which lubricates and protects the engine from overheating is very similar in viscosity to water. For 2007 the V8 engines are restricted to 19,000 rpm with limited development areas allowed, following the engine specification freeze from the end of 2006.
A wide variety of technologies – including
active suspension,
ground effect aerodynamics and
turbochargers – are banned under the current regulations. Despite this the 2006 generation of cars can reach speeds of up to 350 km/h (around 220 mph) at some circuits (
Monza). A Honda Formula One car, running with minimum downforce on a runway in the Mojave desert achieved a top speed of 415 km/h (258 mph) in 2006. According to Honda the car fully met the FIA Formula One regulations. Even with the limitations on aerodynamics, at 160 km/h aerodynamically generated downforce is equal to the weight of the car and the often repeated claim that Formula One cars create enough downforce to 'drive on the ceiling' remains true in principle, although it has never been put to the test. At full speed downforce of two and a half times the car's weight can be achieved. The downforce means that the cars can achieve a lateral force of up to five times the force of gravity (5 "g") in cornering – a high-performance road car like the
Ferrari Enzo only achieves around 1 "g". Consequently in corners the driver's head is pulled sideways with a force equivalent to 20kg. Such high lateral forces are enough to make breathing difficult and the drivers need supreme concentration and fitness to maintain their focus for the one to two hours that it takes to cover 305km.
Cost of Formula One
In March 2007
F1 Racing published its annual estimates of spending by Formula One teams. The total spending of all eleven teams in 2006 was estimated at $2.9 billion. This was broken down as follows;
Toyota $418.5 million,
Ferrari $406.5 m,
McLaren $402 m,
Honda $380.5 m,
BMW Sauber $355 m,
Renault $324 m,
Red Bull $252 m,
Williams $195.5 m,
Midland F1/Spyker-MF1 $120 m,
Toro Rosso $75 m, and
Super Aguri $57 million.
Costs vary greatly from team to team; in 2006 teams such as Honda, Toyota, McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari are estimated to have spent approximately $200 million on engines, Renault spent approximately $125 million and Cosworth's 2006 V8 was developed for $15 million. In contrast to the 2006 season on which these figures are based, the 2007 sporting regulations ban all performance related engine development.
Future of Formula One
Formula One went through a difficult period in the early 2000s. Viewing figures dropped, and fans expressed their loss of interest due to the dominance of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Viewing figures are seeing some signs of recovery due to the varied 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons. Ferrari's dominance ended in 2005 as Renault became the top team in Formula One, with Fernando Alonso becoming the new World Champion. There has since been a resurgence of interest in the sport and twenty-two teams applied for the final twelfth team spot available for the
2008 season. The spot was eventually awarded to former
B.A.R. and
Benetton team principal
David Richards'
Prodrive organization, but the team pulled out of the 2008 season in November 2007.
The FIA is responsible for making rules to combat the spiralling costs of Formula One racing (which affects the smaller teams the most) and for ensuring the sport remains as safe as possible. To this end the FIA recently instituted a number of rule changes, including new tyre restrictions, multi-race engines and reductions on downforce. Safety and cost have traditionally been paramount in all rule-change discussions. More recently the FIA has added efficiency to its priorities. Currently the FIA and manufacturers are discussing adding
bio-fuel engines and
regenerative braking for the 2011 season. FIA President
Max Mosley believes F1 must focus on efficiency to stay technologically relevant in the automotive industry as well as keep the public excited about F1 technology.
After being banned since
1998,
slick tyres are likely to return to Formula One racing in 2009.
In the interest of making the sport truer to its designation as a World Championship,
FOM president Bernie Ecclestone has initiated and organised a number of Grands Prix in new countries and continues to discuss new future races. The sport's rapid expansion into new areas of the globe also leaves some question as to which races will be cut.
Formula One and television
Formula One can be seen live or tape delayed in almost every country and territory around the world and attracts one of the largest global television audiences. The
2006 Brazilian Grand Prix attracted an average live global TV audience of eighty-three million viewers, with a total of 154 million viewers tuning in to watch at least some part of the event. Official figures from
FOM for 2006 that state Formula One television broadcasts were witnessed by 580 million unique viewers during the 2005 season and average viewing figures for 1995–1999 were fifty thousand million. It is a massive television event, the cumulative television audience was calculated to be 5.4 billion for 2001 season, broadcast to two hundred countries.
In 2005 the
Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal was the most watched of the races, and the third most watched sporting event in the world.
During the early 2000s
Formula One Administration created a number of trademarks, an official logo, and an official website for the sport in an attempt to give it a corporate identity. Ecclestone experimented with a digital television package (known colloquially as
Bernievision), which was launched at the
1996 German Grand Prix in cooperation with German digital television service "DF1", thirty years after the first GP colour TV broadcast, the
1967 German Grand Prix. This service offered the viewer several simultaneous feeds (such as super signal, onboard, top of field, backfield, highlights, pit lane, timing), which were produced with cameras, technical equipment and staff different from those used for the conventional coverage. It was introduced in many countries over the years, but was shut down after the
2002 season for financial reasons.
TV stations all take what is known as the 'World Feed', either produced by the FOM (Formula One Management) or the 'host broadcaster'. The only station that has any difference is 'Premiere' – a German channel that offers all sessions live and interactive, with features such as the onboard channel. This service was more widely available around Europe until the end of 2002, when the cost of a whole different feed for the digital interactive services was thought too much. This was in large part because of the failure of the '
F1 Digital +' Channel launched through
Sky Digital in the United Kingdom. Prices were too high for viewers, considering they could watch both the qualifying and the races themselves for free on
ITV.
Bernie Ecclestone has announced that F1 will adopt the
HD format near the end of the 2007 season. However, details of the races to be covered and the means of showing the content have yet to be announced.
Distinction between Formula One and World Championship races
Currently the terms "Formula One race" and "World Championship race" are effectively synonymous; since 1984, every Formula One race has counted towards the World Championship, and every World Championship race has been to Formula One regulations. But the two terms are not interchangeable. Consider that:
- the first Formula One race was held in 1947, whereas the World Championship didn't start until 1950.
- in the 1950s and 1960s there were many Formula One races which didn't count for the World Championship (for example, in 1950, a total of twenty-two Formula One races were held, of which only six counted towards the World Championship). The number of non-championship Formula One events decreased throughout the 1970s and 1980s, to the point where the last non-championship Formula One race was held in 1983.
- the World Championship wasn't always exclusively composed of Formula One events:
- The World Championship was originally established as the "World Championship for Drivers", for example, without the term "Formula One" in the title. It only officially became the Formula One World Championship in 1981.
- From 1950 to 1960, the Indianapolis 500 counted towards the World Championship. This race was run to AAA/USAC regulations, rather than to Formula One regulations.
- From 1952 to 1953, all races counting towards the World Championship (except the Indianapolis 500) were run to Formula Two regulations. Note that Formula One wasn't "changed to Formula Two" during this period; the Formula One regulations remained the same, and numerous Formula One races were staged during this time.
The distinction is most relevant when considering career summaries and "all time lists". For example, in the List of Formula One drivers, Clemente Biondetti is shown with 1 race against his name. Biondetti actually competed in four Formula One races in 1950, but only one of these counted for the World Championship. Similarly, several Indy 500 winners technically won their first world championship race, though most record books choose to ignore this and instead only record regular participants.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Formula 1'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://formula_one.totallyexplained.com">Formula One Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
