I’m a Formula 1 buff, and a hardcore one, at that and have lots of friends who either are equally passionate about it or couldnt’ care for less. I have a few friends who are interested, but are not very knowledgeable, as they don’t regularly follow the sport. Well, it is to this last set of friends, as well as anybody else who might be interested to know what F1 is all about, that this post of mine is targeted, so if you are interested, you may read beyond this point.
<div class="ljcut">Formala One is the highest class of motorsports that comes under the purview of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile). Right from the Pre WWII era, F1 has existed, in some form or the other, but it got its proper nomenclature and structure only after the second world war. Jaun Manuel Fangio was the driver who ruled the roost in those days, the record books suggest. While I for obvious reasons don’t know much about Formula One era of those days, I have been watching F1 from 1994. Ayrton Senna was a major idol of mine and I was heartbroken to see him crash and subsequently die, during the San Marino Grand Prix of 1994, a race that had already claimed one other life, that of Roland Ratzenberger during the previous day’s practice. Since then, only one person has come even close to being the genius that Senna was, and that man goes by the name of Michael Schumacher. Many of the people say that Michael was responsible for making the sport a boring one, due to his marked superiority and tendency to win more races than anybody else! This is like saying that Pete Sampras made tennis boring with his incredible run of five straight years at the top. Many of my friends seem to find nothing very interesting about a car spinning around a track and doing it over and over again, at high speed, but if speed were to be the only thing that mattered, probably the sport would have truly been more boring.

Let me give you the basic information about Formula 1, as it exists today. Formula 1, unlike what many people feel, is not an individual sport, but a team sport. As many as eleven teams participate in a race and each team is limited to having not more than two cars per race. Each team has its own cars, powered by engines of varying capacities and capabilities, though falling within certain guidelines and limitations set by the FIA. Teams like Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes, BMW and Honda, to name a few, use their own engines for their cars while the other teams use engines bought and refitted according to their needs. Cosworth is a leading engine maker and has powered many teams. One might be tempted to say that since the engines are not the same, the sport is not really fair and to an extent, it is a valid argument, but how it benefits the spectator and the sport is that all the teams compete first with themselves and then with the others to come up with the best of technological innovations and improvements, many of which find their way into the road going cars manufactured by the same companies. Many of Ferrari’s and McLaren’s breakthroughs on the racing track have been incorporated into their road going cars.

So, what are the things that decide who wins the race? Here is a checklist:

1) Car
2) Driver
3) Race director
3) Pit-crew and technicians

The car, obviously, is on the top of the list. The faster and better the car, the greater are the chances of winning. A good car is not just one that is the fastest, but also one that is reliable. A typical Formula 1 engine revs to up to 19,000 RPM and even a loose gasket or washer in the engine can mean a fiery engine blowout. A good car is one that is not only fast, but doesn’t fall apart, before crossing the finish line.

 A good driver can push a car to its limits and sometimes, beyond it and still get away with it, and many a time, a good driver can get better results from a mediocre car than an average driver with a super-car. Drivers like the Late Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher have demonstrated time and again that competing and winning is possible, even if you don’t have the fastest car on the track.

A race director is one who figures out the strategy for a race, for each driver of the team. Strategy? What strategy, you might ask. Formula 1 is a thinking sport. The timing of pit-stops (the stops that an F1 car has to make for fuel, replacement of broken parts, tyres, etc. and oh, by the way, F1 cars will have to stop some time. No car can make it from the start to the finish, wthout stopping even once), how much fuel to carry (if the car is fueled full, it can stay in the race longer, but the added fuel means added weight and it might prevent it from being fast. Remember that thousandths of seconds matter in F1! Conversely, a lightly fueled car can be much faster, but cannot stay out for long. It will have to pit soon for fuel) are all crucial and can make and break the race for a driver. It’s very common to see the difference of a few fractions of a second between cars finishing first and second! Such is the extent of competition. The race director is the guy who plans out all the strategies and even plans for contingencies like rain, adverse traffic conditions (yes, they too face traffic jams!) and accidents (a part of the sport).

The pit-crew and the technicians are the backbones of a team. The technicians and mechanics are the ones who fiddle around with the car to help extract the last ounce of power from the engine and tweak it for various special requirements. Formula 1 races take place in different countries and each track is totally different. While one may have lots of fast corners and straight lines, others may be winding and curvy. The technicians fine-tune the car for each circuit.
The pit-crew are the mechanics that service the car when it comes in for a pit-stop. Formula 1 pit crew can change all the four tyres of a Formula 1 car and even add a considerable amount of fuel and flag the car off, in just about five seconds, and this is not an exaggeration. This is the level of perfection and precision that they display. As many as twenty mechanics form the pit crew and each one of them is designated his/her work and that is what they do,  perfectly, to the last detail. A mistake on the part of the pit-crew will most definitely result in a driver losing his position or even the entire race.

It is a combination of these above described factors that decide whether a team or driver loses or wins. There are as many as eighteen races in a year that decide the championship. There is one award for the best driver and one for the best constructor (team) that is awarded at the end of the year (championship season).

The first three positions are known as podium positions. They carry 10, 8 and six points respectively while those finishing in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth postions earn 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points, respectively.

I know explain some of the jargon associated with the sport:-

Qualifying: One day prior to the race, the drivers take part in the qualifying rounds in which the drivers try to set the fastest time around the circuit. The person who takes the least time to go around the entire circuit is the fastest and will get to start the actual race in the first position, the second fastest starts in the second position and so on.

Pole position: The first position on the race track, held by the person who achieved the best time in the qualifying round, is known as ‘pole position’.

Lapping: The leading cars often go so much faster than the cars at the back of the grid that they come up behind the cars in the last positions, ie one full circuit length ahead and are entitled to be allowed to overtake the slower cars. This is known as lapping. In such a scenario, the car being ‘lapped’ will
not be allowed to block or stop the faster car from overtaking it.

Yellow Flag: In the event of an accident, the drivers are shown the yellow flag, ie caution signal. They are to watch out for debris on the track, if the accident has left any, on the track. Overtaking of cars, other than lapping, is not permitted during the yellow flag period. After the track is deemed to be safe for racing, the normal status is restored.

Safety car: In case of serious accidents involving several cars and/or lots of debris on the race track, a safety car is deployed. It leads from the front and all cars are to follow it at a discrete distance. No overtaking or changing of positions is permitted during the safety car’s tenure.

Downforce: The downward force on a car, mostly decided by the tail which works like an inverted airplane wing. It provides the car good road grip as well as prevents the car from becoming airborne at high speeds.

Slipstream: The region of lesser air resistance, just behind a car in front. If a car stays in the wake of another car in front of it, it can go much faster than what it normally can, as it does not face the air resistance. The air is cut through by the car in front. The flipside of the slipstream is that the car driving behind will have lesser downforce and the lack of air means that the car will get heated up more easily too.

Slap and Dash; A really quick pitstop for just enough fuel to last the car till the end of the race. I have seen slap and dashes taking as less as four seconds!

These and many more. I will update this post as and when I feel like adding more things. Feel free to pop questions. I would love to elaborate them on this post too.





</div>