Formula One

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Engineered Insanity

The most famous motor racing series... in the world.

20 or so drivers drive very fast single-seat open wheel cars ("If it's got fenders, it's not a race car") around a circuit, having to complete a set number of laps. Points awarded on finishing positions crown the champion driver and champion constructor. Most of the commercial dealings were controlled by a billionaire short bloke with a mop top haircut called Bernie Ecclestone, though since January 2021, the CEO of the Formula One Group is former Ferrari team principal and Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali. The political machinations of the teams and their disputes and scandals are an almost integral part of the sport and its image.

Has a rather rich history and some famous names like:

  • Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian 5-time champion in 1951 and 1954 through 1957.
  • Alberto Ascari, first titliest for Ferrari. Still the last Italian to win the title, and that's a long time ago (1952 and 1953).
  • Stirling Moss, versatile English driver, never won the championship.
  • Jack Brabham, Australian, only driver to win the title in a car of his own construction (in 1966); he also won in 1959 and 1960.
  • Jim Clark, Scottish driver renowned for smooth style, won two titles in 1963 and 1965 (year in which he also won an Indy 500) but died in a Formula 2 race in 1968.
  • Graham Hill, charismatic Londoner who won two titles (1962 and 1968), including one for Lotus after Jim Clark's death, as well as the 1966 Indy 500.
    • Damon Hill, his son, who won one title in 1996.
  • Jackie Stewart, three time titlist (1969, 1971, 1973) who campaigned for better safety standards. He later became a race commentator who was instantly recognizable for his Scottish accent. Also had his own team in the late 1990s.
  • Mario Andretti, Italian-American won the title in 1978. Also won the Daytona 500 in 1967 and Indy 500 in 1969.
  • Emerson Fittipaldi, Brazilian won two titles, for Lotus in 1972 and McLaren in 1973. Also won Indy 500 in 1989.
  • Niki Lauda, Austrian, won 1975 title for Ferrari before being scarred in a fiery crash at the Nurburgring. Returned to win again (in 1977 and 1984) and establish Lauda Air.
  • Ronnie Peterson, late Swedish driver known for an exciting sideways driving style.
  • Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian Ferrari driver beloved by the Tifosi for his flamboyant style. Died in a racing crash in 1982.
    • His son Jacques Villeneuve, less beloved but still highly successful, having won in 1997. Also won Indy 500 and drove the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
  • Nelson Piquet, Brazilian 3-time champion (1981, 1983, 1987), known for playing practical jokes.
  • Alain Prost, Frenchman, second to Schumacher in the wins total, and third in title count, with four wins (1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993).
  • Ayrton Senna, famously intense and ruthless Brazilian, feuded with Alain Prost in the 1980s. A polarizing figure, adored in Brazil, he may have been the fastest and most daring driver in F1 history. Won three titles, in 1988, 1990 and 1991, all of which were clinched at the Japanese Grand Prix. Killed in a crash in 1994, spurring a raft of new safety rules.
  • Nigel Mansell, English driver most associated with the Williams team, with which he was champion in 1992. Crossed over to CART for its 1993 season and won the championship (and almost the Indy 500) there as well.
  • Mika Häkkinen, two time (1998, 1999) Finnish world champion. Considered to be Michael Schumacher's only real rival (even though the 1999 win came only through lack of competition, considering this rivalry, since Schumacher sustained an injury which prevented him from driving for most of the season).
  • Michael Schumacher, German, holds most of the sport's records including most wins (91 against 51 from Prost, the previous record holder) and most titles (seven, in 1994, 1995 and 2000 through 2004, breaking Fangio's five-title record), making him the world's wealthiest athlete. Retired in 2006. Had planned a comeback to cover for the injured Felipe Massa, but was forced to call it off due to his own injuries.
    • Came back, but for Mercedes instead of Ferrari, after recovering from the neck injury that kept him out the year before. Was generally in the upper midfield, with a car that couldn't quite match the main contenders. For someone off the track for 4 years practically driving the first time again (not counting training of course) it is a solid performance, though people had been expecting top-3 positions due to his legend...
  • Jenson Button: The 2009 English champion, who finally came into prominence after his team (Honda) bounced back as the Brawn GP Team when team manager Ross Brawn bought it from the carmaker after they pulled out of the sport (nearly preventing Button from racing) and retrofitted it with a Mercedes-Benz engine, and caught everyone by surprise by blazing the competition.
  • Rubens Barrichello: Brazilian driver who held the record for most races contested (326 races with 322 starts) with a career that spanned nineteen seasons, until his longevity was surpassed by Kimi Räikkönen and Alonso. Notoriously known as Schumacher's former teammate, who was sometimes forced to concede a race win to him.
  • Fernando Alonso, Spaniard, second youngest two time world champion. Ended Schumacher's dominance in 2005 and 2006. Has driven for McLaren, Ferrari and (after a successful stint in endurance racing with Toyota), Alpine.
  • Lewis Hamilton: 7 time world champion (shares the record with Schumacher), the 1st as a McLaren driver and the other 6 with Mercedes. Second youngest man to win the title and did so in only his second year of racing (after finishing one point below winner Kimi Räikkönen the season before, his debut season). Even then, he won by a single point from Ferrari's Felipe Massa, on the last corner of the last lap of the last race.
  • Sebastian Vettel, German, won 4 consecutive championships from 2010-13. Holds several of the sport's 'youngest' records such as youngest driver to drive at a grand prix, score championship points, lead a race, earn a fastest lap, get pole position, win a race, win one and two world championships. Some of his 'youngest' records have since been taken by Max Verstappen.
  • Max Verstappen, Belgian-Dutch, who won his first championship race in the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, being the youngest driver to win a race. He won his first championship at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in controversial circumstances, becoming the fourth youngest world champion, then won his second the next year at Suzuka. He is the son of former Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen. As of the 2022 French GP, Verstappen has achieved 27 victories and 16 pole positions. At the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix, he scored the first Grand Slam of his career.

The most famous team is Ferrari, who have won the most races and championships. Ferrari fell into a slump in the 1980s but were rejuvenated by the signing of Michael Schumacher in 1996 and dominated the 'noughties. The nearest challenger is the British McLaren team, founded by the late New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost dominated in the 1980s driving for McLaren. The British Williams team were strong in the 'nineties, thanks partly to a strong design department, but slipped to the midfield in the 2000s, and to the rear in the late 2010s. Sports car maker Lotus is the next most successful team, but the team started slipping down the order after technical genius and founder Colin Chapman's death, withdrew from F1 in 1994 and didn't return untill 2010 when a Malaysian backed company used the name. The 'Big Four' of racing are generally considered to be Benetton/Renault, Williams, Mclaren and Ferrari since they have dominated the drivers and constructors championships since the 80's, the majority of titles going to Mclaren and Ferrari; they are the most successful teams in the sport. However the status quo was upset in 2009 with the success of Brawn (now Mercedes) and, later in 2010 and 2011, Red Bull.[1]

Probably the greatest technical change occurred in the late 1950s when front-engined cars were replaced by superior mid-engined cars that were lighter and handled better. This revolution led to British teams taking over from the traditionally dominant Italian Maseratis and Ferraris during the 1960s. In the 1970s cars grew larger aerofoils; inverted wings designed to create downward lift (downforce) to press the cars down on to the road and improve grip. This led to Lotus pioneering 'Ground Effect' cars that were designed to create a low pressure area under the car, further increasing grip. In the 1980s turbochargers increased power outputs to 1000hp but were banned in 1989. During that decade increased safety regulations, and stronger carbon composite cars, led to a massive drop in the number of fatal crashes. The death of Ayrton Senna in a racing crash in 1994 spurred further safety regulations and attempts to limit car performance. Many advanced 'driver aids', like ABS and traction control have been outlawed, allowed again, and outlawed again, since then - technical rule changes are often a cue for fans to say They Changed It, Now It Sucks. (Compare NASCAR, which banned fuel injection in 1958 - and still maintains that ban, long after carburetors have become obsolete on road cars.) In any event, the cars today have more technical affinity with the Space Shuttle than what's parked in your driveway.

Unlike other major worldwide sports, the playing field for F1 changes at every event. Many of the race tracks are equally legendary names as the drivers and cars. The most notorious is probably the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany - a 14 mile course with over one hundred corners, it was last used in 1976 but is still there and is even open to the public to drive round if you pay. Other famous tracks still in use are Monza (Italy), Silverstone Donnington if they sort the issues Silverstone again (UK), Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Suzuka (Japan) and the street race in Monte-Carlo (Monaco). A frequent gripe of fans is when an exciting track is dropped or altered in the name of safety. Currently the expansion of F1 into new countries such as China, Bahrain and Malaysia has led to several bespoke tracks that are frequently condemned for being soulless and boring, earning the derisive nickname of Tilkedromes — Google the name "Hermann Tilke" to see the explanation and fan reactions.

F1 used to be notorious for frequent driver deaths, but it's a lot safer than it was - no-one had died at the wheel since Senna in 1994, and no one had died due to an accident since then until Jules Bianchi's crash in 2014 at Suzuka and eventual death the next year. On the other hand, a marshal was killed at the Melbourne Grand Prix in the intervening time.

The BBC has regained the TV rights to show F1 (following a spell at ITV, which struggled due to advertising problems and at least two key overtaking manouevres being missed due to inconveniently timed ad breaks), and brought back "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac as the Theme Tune to its coverage - the song is long associated with F1 and car racing.

There is a website dedicated to covering the very worst F1 moments, drivers, and teams. It can be found here.

2023 entries

Teams and drivers that are contracted to compete in the 2023 World Championship
Entrant Constructor Chassis Power Unit Race drivers
🇨🇭 Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari Ferrari 24. 🇨🇳 Zhou Guanyu
77. 🇫🇮 Valtteri Bottas
🇮🇹 Scuderia AlphaTauri AlphaTauri-RBPT Red Bull 22. 🇯🇵 Yuki Tsunoda
🇳🇱 Nyck de Vries
🇫🇷 BWT Alpine F1 Team Alpine-Renault Renault 10. 🇫🇷 Pierre Gasly
31. 🇫🇷 Esteban Ocon
🇬🇧 Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes Mercedes 14. 🇪🇸 Fernando Alonso
31. 🇨🇦 Lance Stroll
🇮🇹 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari Ferrari 16. 🇲🇨 Charles Leclerc
55. 🇪🇸 Carlos Sainz Jr.
🇺🇸 MoneyGram Haas F1 Team Haas-Ferrari Ferrari 20. 🇩🇰 Kevin Magnussen
27. 🇩🇪 Nico Hülkenberg
🇬🇧 McLaren F1 Team McLaren-Mercedes Mercedes 4. 🇬🇧 Lando Norris
81. 🇦🇺 Oscar Piastri
🇩🇪 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes Mercedes 44. 🇬🇧 Lewis Hamilton
63. 🇬🇧 George Russell
🇦🇹 Oracle Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing-RBPT Red Bull 1. 🇳🇱 Max Verstappen
11. 🇲🇽 Sergio Pérez
🇬🇧 Williams Racing Williams-Mercedes Mercedes 23. 🇹🇭 Alexander Albon
🇺🇸 Logan Sargeant
In other media:

Live-Action TV

  • Top Gear has had various F1 drivers as their 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car'. Unlike most of the stars, they have their own leader board due to their skill superiority. Rubens Barrichello currently[when?] leads the leader board, beating The Stig's time by a tenth of a second.
    • Consequently, the Stig has developed an irrational hatred for him.
    • Both Jackie Stewart and Mika Häkkinen have been featured in segments where they teach presenter James May (aka 'Captain Slow') how to drive like a racer.
    • Series 13 had Stig reveal himself...as Michael Schumacher. It wasn't, as he was later revealed to be Perry McCarthy.
    • Also in Season 13, during the 'rear wheel drive' challenge, the presenters were in a race in France. One of the other competitors was former driver Olivier Panis. He called their cars shitboxes.
    • As mentioned below, the original Stig was the talented but unlucky Perry McCarthy. He outed himself in his biography, and was subsequently fired due to a clause in his contract saying that if his identity was revealed, he must be fired.
    • The second Stig, who was with the show from series 3 through series 15, was revealed to be Ben Collins. They are now on their third Stig.
    • Season 14 had the presenters attempt to make art out of cars. David Coulthard helped Jeremy out with his art, using a 2005 Red Bull car. Specifically, using paintballs fired from the exhaust pipe of the Red Bull car. Onto a canvas Clarkson was holding in front of him. It didn't go well.

Coulthard: [as Clarkson lies in a fetal curl on the ground] I'm not giving him mouth to mouth.

    • Season 15 Episode 5 had an absolutely beautiful tribute to Ayrton Senna, to commemorate what would have been his fiftieth birthday earlier that year (2010).
    • Season 17 Episode 3 produced a new fastest driver in the F1 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' Leader Board, Sebastian Vettel.
    • Season 18 Episode 7 featured Kimi Räikkönen, returning from his two-year F1 sabbatical (in which he competed in the World Rally Championship), as the 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car'.
  • This Is Your Life also featured a few drivers as the subject of it's show. Notably Murray Walker, Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell. Several other racing drivers acted as guests.
  • A Bit of Fry and Laurie featured a sketch where Hugh Laurie played an F1 driver who constantly moans about his "many problems" even though he won the race. The interviewer (Stephen Fry), after berating him "You do a job that half of mankind would kill be able to do, and you can have sex with the other half as often as you like!", "Are you ARSING WELL HAPPY you dismal moaning French twat?" finally punches him out. A real punch as well, hence Stephen's slightly guilty expression.
  • The Mary Whitehouse Experience had a sketch trying to prove that elderly drivers are the most dangerous. Part of which was Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost being held up at the British GP by 'Granddad'. The constuctors championship being won by McLaren, with Ferrari second, and "Austin 1100" third.
  • Jasper Carrott talked about fellow brummie Nigel Mansell on his show: "Potentially, he is the most exciting man on the Earth..." (beat) "...until he speaks". "He's got all those exciting endorsements on his tunic; Havoline, Texaco, Labatts...it's so incongruous isn't it?. It should be Horlicks, or Solihull Public Library" He even mentioned Nigel's Indycar switch: "Paul Newman, and Nigel Mansell! Butch Cassidy and The Sanatogen Kid!"
  • Machalcon from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger is an Engine based on a Formula 1 car.

Film

  • John Frankenheimer's 1966 movie Grand Prix, starring James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, and Yves Montand is pretty much the definite Hollywood treatment of Formula One.
  • Roman Polanski produced a documentary following Jackie Stewart's 1971 Monaco GP victory.
  • Senna, a documentary on Ayrton Senna has been produced. It premiered in Japan during the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix weekend, and was a competitor in the 27th Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Audience Award for Documentary Film.
  • In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark enters a Historic F1 race at Monaco.

Music

  • Teenage Fanclub's 1995 album Grand Prix had a Simtek on the cover.
  • Robbie Williams's video for 'Supreme'.

Video Games

  • There have been a large number of officially licensed games.
  • The highly successful Super Monaco GP series on Sega Megadrive / Genesis, which weren't FIA officially licensed games and thus made use of Expies for both cars and drivers ; the second game however had Ayrton Senna's supervision and thus was the only real-name driver displayed there.
    • As In Name Only as it is, Sega had previously made an "original" Monaco GP in the late 1970s.
  • Also from Sega, 3D racing pioneer Virtua Racing had the option to drive F1 cars.

Western Animation

Formula One provides examples of the following tropes:
  1. ↑ Note, however, that despite the changing names of teams it's still pretty much the same rivalry between two chief designers: Ross Brawn was a top tech man in Ferrari before buying out the failing Honda team and later selling it to Mercedes, while Adrian Newey headed the Mclaren design department before moving to Red Bull.
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