AWS Made in Italy Emilia Romagna GP
What is formula one?
Formula one is the highest form of open wheel car racing contested at speeds up to 360km/h (224mph). It is a series of races that take place world wide. It is held to decide a World Drivers’ Championship between the best 20 (next year 22) drivers in the world and a World Constructors’ Championship between the 10 (next year 11) best, open wheel, racing car makers. This year’s season will be held in 20 different countries and cross the Atlantic ocean five times and Pacific once, see map below. Races have taken place in 31 different countries over the years. In 2024, 16,000 hours of television coverage was broadcast to 67 countries on 94 channels and each race was watched by 826.5 million viewers. This excludes the millions of TV viewers who watch the internet TV coverage directly from F1.com which is the home of Formula One.
Formula one is car racing to a set of rules or regulations (these rules are the formula). The rules or formula are the responsibility of the FIA. In the early days the rules were pretty simple and the cars were not so fast. The people who raced were car enthusiasts (normally wealthy) who loved the competition and excitement. The racing was for fun and the winners got bragging rights and sometimes a monetary prize and/or a trophy. As automotive technology improved so did the speed of cars.
With the increased speed the rules had to start protecting the drivers and they did (eventually). The fatal accidents in formula one through the decades are depicted.
So, the formula is there for the drivers’ safety and one of the major factors in this is reducing speed. We could put drivers in rocket propelled cars capable of the speed of sound but we could not put them on a circuit. It is possible to make a car that could race at 500km/h (310mph) around a circuit but the drivers would not have the reflexes to handle this kind of speed. The formula works and we are graced with the best drivers in the world competing with each other and innovative teams getting the best out of the rules.
When you think of the spectacular accidents that we saw over the last few seasons, it is a miracle or good rules that there were no fatalities.
The formula is there for the drivers’ safety and one of the major factors in this is reducing speed. We could put drivers in rocket propelled cars capable of the speed of sound, but we could not put them on a circuit. It is possible to make a car that could race at 500km/h (310mph) around a circuit but the drivers would not have the reflexes to handle this kind of speed. The formula works and we are graced with the best drivers in the world competing with each other and innovative teams getting the best out of the rules.
Enjoy this website with an abundance of unusual information and sometimes with an offbeat commentary in its various posts. The writer is older than F1 itself and has been hooked on it for nearly 70 years.
