Formula 1 has been a popular racing sport for many years; some even say it beats NASCAR and is the pinnacle of motorsports. Formula 1, or F1 for short, is a very interesting sport. There are 10 teams that have two drivers each, and these drivers compete for points for two trophies. They compete for the constructors’ championship and the drivers’ championship.
The constructors’ championship is won through teamwork; both drivers have to work to rally points for their team, and at the end of the season, both drivers’ points will be combined, and the team with the most points wins.
The drivers’ championship is a bit different. Each driver competes for the championship, whether they are on the same team or on two separate teams. The 20 drivers on the F1 grid will battle each other the whole season, and the driver with the most points will win the drivers’ championship.
Points are decided by the position you finish in. The drivers in the top 10 all get points; every other driver outside the top 10 doesn’t. Opportunities to gain points are in races and sprint races. Regular F1 races are way longer than sprint races. Sprint races help drivers to get accustomed to the track and aren’t as competitive as regular F1 races. The point system is also very different in sprint races.
Regular races
P1: 25 points
P2: 18 points
P3: 15 points
P4: 12 points
P5: 10 points
P6: 8 points
P7: 6 points
P8: 4 points
P9: 2 points
P10: 1 point
P11+: 0 points
Sprint Races
P1: 8 points
P2: 7 points
P3: 6 points
P4: 5 points
P5: 4 points
P6: 3 points
P7: 2 points
P8: 1 point
P9+: 0 points
F1 may seem reckless at times, but like any other sport, there are rules. The people in charge of issuing penalties are the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile). The FIA gives penalties for corner cutting, causing an avoidable collision, exceeding track limits, jumping the start of the race, speeding in the pit lane, unsportsmanlike conduct, and ignoring flags of any color. Time penalties in F1 are either 5 seconds or 10 seconds, depending on how dangerous the act was.
When an accident happens, a safety car comes out. The safety car leads the field of cars at a slower pace. Reasons why a safety car would come out are an accident, debris on the track, and bad weather. When the safety car comes out, drivers are forbidden to overtake it unless they get a signal to. The safety car goes from 30 mph to 150 mph.
F1 drivers also tend to “wiggle” behind the safety car to keep their tires warm. Warm tires help drivers in F1, as when tires are hot, cars tend to move faster.
Flags in F1
When blue flags are waved during a race, it is a warning to a slower driver that a faster car is coming; the driver under blue flags must allow the faster car to pass. When a yellow flag is waved during a race, it signals that danger has occurred on the track and drivers must slow down. After the incident is solved, green flags are waved to signal that the drivers may resume racing. Green flags come after a safety car or a yellow flag. A black flag is used when a driver has been disqualified from a race and signals that the driver must head straight back to the pit lane. The black flag is mainly used when a driver violates the rules massively. The black flag is a very rare sight in Formula 1. The checkered flag signifies the end of a race.
When a black and orange is waved, it tells a driver to return to the pit lane due to a mechanical problem. When a red flag is waved, the FIA has decided to stop the race due to an incident on the track or because of horrible weather conditions.
Tires and Pit Stops in F1
Tires and pit stops in F1 are a huge deal. There are 5 types of tires in F1: Soft tires, Medium tires, Hard tires, Intermediate tires, and Wet tires. Soft tires are very good tires; they have the most grip, and they supply drivers with the most speed and are used on dry tracks; however, they have the least amount of durability out of all the tires, and hard tires are the exact opposite. Hard tires don’t have as much grip, aren’t as fast, but they have the most durability out of all the tires, and are used on dry tracks. Medium tires are a bit of both. Medium tires are decently fast, have decent grip, have decent durability, and are used on dry tracks.
The wet tires are the Intermediate tires and the wet tires. The Intermediate tires are used when the track isn’t very wet, when there is light rain, or when there is standing water, and when the track is too wet for slicks. The wet tires are used on the track when there is heavy rain and when the track is too wet for intermediate tires.
When tires are warm, the car tends to reach higher speeds, which is the reason why drivers tend to “wiggle” on the formation lap or behind a safety car.
F1 drivers also try to preserve their tires to stay on the track longer and to have less tire wear. When an F1 driver tries to push their car to new heights, their tyre wear kicks up. When tyre wear comes into play, the car gets slower, which is why drivers don’t go for overtakes all the time, as they consider tyre wear.
People tend to try and save their tires a lot more when they do fewer pit stops. F1 teams come up with strategies to try and use pit stops to their advantage. Some teams try pitting a lap early, while others try pitting a lap later. However, some teams try to do fewer pit stops, as when you do more, you tend to lose some positions. These teams try to save their tires so they don’t stop as much as the other cars.
Qualifying
Drivers don’t choose which position they start off with; they all go through qualifying. Drivers have to put in the fastest lap in their car to try to get pole position (starting from P1). Qualifying is broken into parts: Q1, Q2, and Q3. In Q1, the drivers race to get the fastest lap, with the slowest 5 drivers getting eliminated. In Q2, the slowest 5 drivers are eliminated after 15 minutes of racing. In Q3, the 10 drivers left the race for their position from P1 to P10. Whoever puts in the fastest lap in Q3 starts from pole position.
F1 is a really good, fun, and entertaining motorsport that can offer a lot. Some people view it as the best motorsport of all, while others value different sports over F1. In conclusion, F1 is about competition and is a very promising sport.
