Beginner's Guide to Formula 1 - Part I

Formula 1 is known as the pinnacle of Motorsport. With 21 races across the world and more than half a billion fans worldwide, it's one of most dangerous sports in the world but for the beginners, getting into the sport is not so easy. For this purpose, the guide was prepared to give new fans a basic understanding of F1. So let's get on with it.

What is Formula 1?

Formula 1 is pinnacle of Motorsport or auto racing established in 1950 by FIA (French for International Automobile Federation) at purpose built racing tracks, now raced on Street Circuits as well. The word "Formula" represents its strict rules and regulations in form of a formula for building a car and "1" means it's the highest class of single seater racing compared to Formula 2, Formula 3 and Formula 4 which young drivers participate in to get to F1.

The Current Formula 1 logo

How Formula 1 cars differ from other racing cars?

F1 cars are open-wheel, open-cockpit, single seaters. A major feature of the car is its aerodynamic functions for which they use different parts like diffusers, rear and front wings, bargeboards, sidepods etc to get the car to move easily around tough corners.

Mercedes AMG W06 and Porsche 919 Hybrid

What's the speed of a F1 car?

A Formula 1 car isn't build on sole purpose of speed but aerodynamics and downforce while cornering as well. A Sportscar or Le Mans Prototype (a type of car used in other series) or IndyCar is faster than F1 car on straights but slower at cornering. The car can reach almost 380 km/h at long straights.

How many people are required for all a race?

There is a whole staff for each team on every race or Grand Prix (French for Grand Prize). The main of which includes 2 main drivers, reserve driver, test driver for Practice sessions, Team Principal for all the processes during race, race engineer for each driver to give him important data and communicate with him on tyre strategy and car performance, pitlane mechanics and other team bosses.

What's a Pitlane?

Pitlane is a long straight road for all the teams with their pitboxes where drivers stop and change the tyres of their cars. The stopping for changing a tyre is called pitstop which needs to be executed fast as a lot of time gets lost there and whole race changes. In case of collision, a driver can come in to change his car's wings as well.

A Haas F1 car emerging out of the pitlane, Australia 2018

How long is a race?

The race is almost 2 hours long with a maximum of 307 km (except for Monaco cause of its old heritage. More on it later). Spa-Francorchamps is longest racing track on calendar with total of only 44 laps while tracks like Monaco have 78 laps but time of the race is same.

Which teams should I head for in a race?

Ferrari is a team massively loved all over the world and especially by Italy cause of Ferrari's rich history in sport. Mercedes is one of top teams in last few years since new engine regulations (1.6 L V6 Hybrid which replaced the glorious V8 engines). Red Bull is third strongest team with amazing driver line up while McLaren and Williams are also great teams which lost their pace in last few years.

Mercedes is the best team on the current grid with 5 driver's and 5 constructor's championships

Which drivers are the best?

Many drivers to pick from, Lewis Hamilton is one of top drivers and a 5-Time World Champion. Sebastian Vettel is also a 4-time World Champion and both Hamilton are Vettel are rivals for the title since 2017. Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen, George Russell (in 2019) and Lando Norris (in 2019) are also amazing drivers that are widely loved. All down to your preference.

Sebastian Vettel is one of best drivers to race in Formula 1, being youngest World Champion ever

What's the basic procedure for race?

There are 5 total sessions over weekend. 3 Practice sessions are held on Friday and Saturday (2 on Friday, 1 on Saturday) to check the new upgrades on car and for new drivers to memorize the track. A Qualifying session is held on Saturday which is divided into 3 sections called Q1, Q2 and Q3 which are from 12-18 minutes determined by fastest laps. Top 15 make it to Q2 after session, with only 10 going to Q3 and that's where final grid gets decided with fastest driver on Pole Position (1st place on starting grid).

Sunday. The cars get out of garages at specific time (where they are kept) and line up on grid in their qualifying order. After National Anthem of the country where race is held, drivers get in their cars and a staff is around them to check the tyre pressures and engine pressures. The tyre blankets go off and the crew leaves the circuit. Any penalised car for offending specific rules starts behind all cars from pitane for Formation lap after green light. A formation lap is to get heat in tyres and breaks. 

The race starts after 5 lights go out. Once in a while pitstops happen to change tyres or broken parts of cars. 

At the end of race, first second and third round up on podium with winner team where the winning team and driver's national anthems are played and drivers and team person gets their trophies before the champagne celebration.

Best tracks?

Monaco is known as most prestigious race of the year though its dangerous and didn't comply to lots of regulations in past cause of uniqueness which is boring now. British Grand Prix on Silverstone is amazing as well as Brazilian Grand Prix on Interlagos and Italian Grand Prix on Monza are thriller where Italian Ferrari fans are in huge amount and it seems like a festival. Lastly, Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2017 and 2018 has been really controversial and amazing.

The uphill Eau Rouge corner at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Big names from past and present:

• Bernie Ecclestone 

• Max Mosley 

• Jean Todt 

• Jean-Marie Balestre 

• Ron Dennis

• Ayrton Senna 

• Michael Schumacher 

• Jack Brabham 

• Ken Tyrrell 

• Alain Prost 

• Juan Manuel Fangio 

• Alberto Ascari

• Sir Stirling Moss

• Ross Brawn

• Sir Frank Williams

• Mika Hakkinen

• Flavio Briatore

• Jackie Stewart

• Emerson Fittipaldi

• Jim Clark 

• Graham Hill 

• Lewis Hamilton 

• Sebastian Vettel 

• Fernando Alonso 

• Jenson Button 

• James Hunt 

• Niki Lauda 

• Nelson Piquet 

• Nigel Mansell 

• Enzo Ferrari 

• Bruce McLaren 

• Colin Chapman

• Charlie Whitting

• Gordon Murray

• Adrian Newey

All races (random order)

• Australian Grand Prix (Albert Park)

• Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir)

• Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai International)

• Azerbaijan Grand Prix (Baku Street Circuit)

• Spanish Grand Prix (Circuit de Catalunya)

• Monaco Grand Prix (Circuit de Monaco)

• Canadian Grand Prix (Circuit Gilles Villeneuve)

• British Grand Prix (Silverstone)

• French Grand Prix (Paul Ricard)

• Austrian Grand Prix (Red Bull Ring)

• German Grand Prix (Hockenheimring)

• Hungarian Grand Prix (Hungaroring)

• Belgian Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps)

• Italian Grand Prix (Monza)

• Singapore Grand Prix (Marina Bay)

• Russian Grand Prix (Sochi Autodrome) 

• Japanese Grand Prix (Suzuka)

• United States Grand Prix (Circuit of The Americas) 

• Brazilian Grand Prix (Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace) 

• Mexican Grand Prix (Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez)

• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Yas Marina Circuit)

Who governs it all?

FIA manages technical regulations (of cars) while Liberty Media manages sporting regulations of sport (TV rights and promotion of sport). Liberty Media needs to discuss with FIA however.

All drivers with teams for 2019

• Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) (British)

• Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) (Finnish)

• Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) (German) 

• Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) (Monegasque)

• Pierre Gasly (Red Bull-Honda) (French)

• Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Honda) (Dutch)

• Sergio Perez (Racing Point-Mercedes) (Mexican)

• Lance Stroll (Racing Point-Mercedes) (Canadian)

• Robert Kubica (Williams-Mercedes) (Polish)

• George Russell (Williams-Mercedes) (British)

• Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) (German) 

• Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) (Australian) 

• Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso-Honda) (Russian)

• Alexander Albon (Toro Rosso-Honda) (Thai)

• Kevin Magnussen (Haas-Ferrari) (Danish)

• Romain Grosjean (Haas-Ferrari) (French)

• Kimi Raikkonen (Sauber-Ferrari) (Finnish)

• Antonio Giovinazzi (Sauber-Ferrari) (Italian)

• Carlos Sainz (McLaren-Renault) (Spanish) 

• Lando Norris (McLaren-Renault) (British)

Note: Nationalities are for Drivers, not teams. Also the name next to "-" means the engine supplier to team. Renault, Mercedes and Ferrari are independent teams which supplies engine to their teams (they also test their young drivers in these teams). Honda is engine supplier but not a team.

---

Shahmir Khan

Editor-in-Chief WEC & WRC, Member news desk.

In his own words, “17-year-old guy who is avid motorsports gamer. Petrolhead, die-hard F1 and motorsports fan and loves to write about cars and motorsports.”

Shahmir can be easily reached by the following address:

Gmail: shahmirkhan9181@gmail.com