Formula 1 racing car

Formula 1 racing

Formula 1

Hello, friends! Formula 1 racing is a sport which saw a boost in popularity recently. It is one of the most dangerous sports in the world. While driving the F1 cars, The temperature is normally at 45°C for the driver. And can go up to 60°C. There’s so much heat and humidity that in a normal race, The F1 driver loses about 2-3 kg in weight. Simply by completing a race. Because they sweat so much. “And also during the way, I lose up to 4 kilos in a race in an hour and 45 minutes. But this is because it gets so hot, isn’t it? So if you’re in Singapore or Malaysia or something. Yeah, those ones are killer. The cars are driven at such high speeds That at every turn, the driver has to bear high G forces. Up to 6 G. Come, let’s understand How this game actually works. What is its Billion-Dollar Business Model? And should it even be considered a sport? "Formula 1 is the most exciting sport on the planet! "Grand Prix!""F1 is all about pushing the limits of speed science and nerves. "Friends, Formula 1 originated in France. In 1906, a race was held. It was called the French Grand Prix. These words should sound like /rend parks/But since it’s a French term, It’s pronounced as /grain pry. It literally means the Great Prize. Since then, the name Grand Prix continued And till now, during Formula 1 racing This name is used. Back then, car races did not test the speed of the driver. Rather, they focused on the endurance of the driver. Literally, the race would stretch from one city to another on normal roads. In fact, the first Grand Prix race lasted 24 hours And was held in Le Mans. If you have watched the film, Ford v Ferrari, It was based on this race. In 1904, an international association was established. It is now known as FiA. Fédération Internationale de automobile. This is the governing body of Formula 1, FiA. Similar to FIFA for football And ICC for cricket. It was only after 1946That professional racing began to be conducted in an organised manner. Some rules were drafted in 1947, known as the Formulas. The duration of the races, The types of cars that could be used for the races, That the racing cars should be a single seater. That it should be an open wheel. Open wheel means that the wheels of the car extend outwards from its body. Today, a typical Formula 1 race car looks like this. But before we get to the car, Let’s get to the Formula 1 Championship. The first season of the World Championship was announced in 1950. A championship with 7 races across 7 countries. This first Championship was won by an Italian driver, driving for the Alfa Romeo team. Friends, now in the 2023 Championship seasonThere will be 23 races. If the names of the team seem familiar, It’s because most of the teams in Formula 1 racingAre car manufacturers. Friends, here comes the most unique aspect of Formula 1 racing. Winning a Formula 1 Championshipdoesn’t depend solely on the skill of the driver, On how well the driver can drive, But it also depends on how well the car was made. This game is a competition of technology as well. To see who can manufacture the fastest car. This is why several car manufacturers, Participate in Formula 1 Championship. Other than the publicity of these companies, Another benefit to them is thatWhen new technologies would be innovated during Formula 1, Those technologies can be later used for manufacturing consumer cars. The cars commonly sold to average people can also be improved. Friends, there are several examples of thisTechnologies that are nowadays used in most common cars, That were first discovered during F1. For example, Carbon Fibre. A material that is used in BMW, Aston Martin, and Porsche cars now, It was used for the first time in 1981 by McLaren in Formula 1. The first company to build a car chassis with this material. This was an expensive but light material. It improved fuel efficiency. Some other examples of such technology areUsing Hybrid Powertrains and Wheel Buttons. The rules of the competition force the companies toinnovate even the tiniest aspectSo that the cars can be as fast as possible. The current world record for the fastest speed is 372. 5 km/hr. This happened during a race in Mexico in 2016. This speed record is held by Valtteri Bottas. But other than in an actual race, The full potential of an F1 car was seen in 2005, When Honda’s team achieved 397. 7 km/hr. This was for the purpose of the record test. This test was conducted in a very special place. A dry lake bed where for kilometres aroundThere’s only a plain field like this. But normally, the speed of the F1 cars is so high thatIt is faster than the takeoff speed of an airplane. When a large airplane takes off, Its speed is around 250 km/hr. Friends, do you know what this means? Had there been wings on these cars, These cars would’ve flown. Even without wings, they could easily take offThis is the reason for the peculiar shape at the back of the cars. These are ‘wings’ to counter the wings that planes have. In school, you would’ve studied that the shape of the wings of an airplaneAims to create a lift. High pressure and low pressure on either side Allowing the plane to take off. In the F1 cars, it's the opposite. It creates a negative lift. So that the cars can be pushed onto the track. The downforce produced is equal to 5G. A force of 5 times the weight of the carPushes it downwards. This provides traction to the tiresenabling them to execute sharp turns. At the beginning of the artical, I told you, That Formula 1 is an extremely dangerous sport. It is believed to be one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Why? When driving in day-to-day life has turned so dangerousWith the high chances of a person dying in a car accident, This is such a high speed sport. Obviously, this would have an added danger. In total, 52 drivers have died since Formula 1 racing began. The most famous accident was ofThe three-time champion Ayrton Senna's death in 1994. In 1970, one driver diedAnd was posthumously awarded the championship. This happened for the Austrian driver Jochen Rindt. Simply because drivers accumulate points over different races. Even after Rindt’s death, no driver couldcatch up to his accumulated points in that season, So he was given the winner’s trophy, after his death. But specifically speaking, several steps are taken to ensure safety during Formula 1 races. Obviously, the first is providing helmets by the companies compulsorily. These are stronger than normal helmetsThey have carbon-fibre head and neck support. So that the vertebrate of a driver can be protected in case of any crash. Additionally, the suit that the drivers wearIs made of multi-layered fireproof material. In case the car catches fire in an accident, At least their clothes won’t catch fire. Drivers are equipped with biometric glovesThe gloves are fitted with sensors thatconstantly measure and transmit vitals such as heartbeats to medical staff. The seatbelts in the car are so tight thatThe help of another person is requiredTo fasten the seatbelt. There are fire extinguishers in the cars toobut the most groundbreaking innovation in terms of safety was in 2018, when this Halo was introduced. Halo is basically a steel bar, that is placed above the head in these cars. It is made of Grade 5 Titanium. Its purpose is to protect the driver's head in case the car is upturned. When this was introduced in 2018, this angered several people, they were infuriated because the cars wouldn't have an open cockpit anymore. They claimed that it looked uglyand was an unnecessary addition. But since then, it has been 4-5 years, this innovation has saved the lives of many drivers. The Halo is the strongest part of an F1 car. It is strong enough to sustain the weight of 2 African elephants on top of it. So yeah, such safety innovations took place in recent times, to make the sport safer. These F1 cars are truly engineering marvels. Years of knowledge accumulatedto craft these to perfection. Friends, this is why, today, for a new companyit is so difficult to enter this business. Money isn't the only factor. This requires years of knowledge and persistence. Let's talk about the Business Model. How does the financial aspect work? 2 types of companies are involved in Formula 1 racing. The constructor companies that make cars. And the engine manufacturer companiesthat make engines. Presently, there are about 10 constructor companies, namely Alpha Romeo, Alphatauri, Alpine, Astin Martin, Ferrari, Haas, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Williams. But only 4 companies manufacture engines. Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault, and Honda. Ferrari's team is the most successful team in the history of Formula 1. They have won 16 constructor titlesand 15 driver titles. A point to note here is thatin a Formula 1 Championship, there's a winning driver and a winning constructor. Each team has 2 drivers. A team can be a constructor championby taking into account the performance of both drivers. But a driver championship can be wonwhen a driver gets the most points at an individual level. Since the make of the car plays such an important role, some people argue that more than the skills of the driver, the construction of the car is more important for winning a race. So often it so happens thatthe best drivers do not win as many championships. For example, many F1 fans believe thatFernando Alonso has been the best driver in the history of F1. In terms of technique. But he has won only 2 championships. In 2005 and 2006 with Renault. Since the construction of the car plays such an important role in this game, it means that a large amount of money is involved here. To some extent, the team with more moneycould use better technology and strategies for their cars. But it's interesting to see thatit is a risky business for companies to participate in Formula 1. Let's look at the financials of Red Bull. This team has recently won a Constructor Championship, and the winning drivers were from this team as well. In 2018, their sister team Toro Rosso, spend $181. 1 million in total. It's around ₹15 billion. And their revenue was at $183. 6 million. Their spending and earningshad a minute difference. Their profit was only $1. 8 million. Only ₹150 million after taxes. It's very little profit considering the money being spent here. And this was a top-level team. The companies believe that the return on investment they'd getfrom other sources would be much better. Such as publicity and the progress in technology. In 2022, FiA placed a cap on the budget. $140 million. No team can spend more than this. So that there's some equality in the competition. This year, in 2023, this cap has been lowered to$135 million. The salary of the drivers are paid by the teamsbut that is kept outside the budget cap restrictions. So there's no limit to the salary paid to the drivers. It means that similar to other sports, there's a large inequality in the salaries paid to the drivers. Some premium drivers, top-level drivers, are paid much higher salaries than others. Such as Max Verstappen. He has been the Driver Champion for the last 2 years, It's estimated that last year, he was paid around $60 million in the year. Compare it to Mick Schumacher's salary, who was paid only $1 million for the same year. Obviously, the salary depends on several things. Other than the driver's success, it is also dependent on the team for which the driver is driving, the level it is at and how much money it has. Mick Schumacher races for the Haas team, that is still growing. Presently, though there are no Indian teams in Formula 1 racing, but there is an Indian connection to the F1. Till now, we had 2 Indian drivers. Narain Karthikeyan, And Karun Chandhok. They drove and participated in the Championship for 3 years and 2 years respectively. But perhaps a better highlight for India was thatIndia had a team in Formula 1. Force India. The team was created in 1991, when it was known as Spyker F1. Under different ownershipbut in 2007, Vijaya Mallya and Michiel Mol, director of the team, bought it. And its name was changed to Force India. It debuted in 2008. The same year, the expenses of this teamrose by 74. 4%. The biggest increase till date. Back then, the primary sponsors of the team were Kingfisher, RIL and ICICI bank. In 2011, Sahara India Pariwar bought 42. 5% shares of this team. Mallya was left with 42. 5% and Michiel Mol with 15% shares. And so the team was renamed againto Sahara Force India. Friends, in its short career, this team wasn't very successfulbut with time, it was definitely improving. The drivers were showing promise. In fact, even this year, 3 drivers from that team would be racing. Nice Hulkenberg for Haas. Sergio Perez for Red Bull. And Esteban Ocon for Alpine. Till 2017, the Force India team improved year after year. Each season their performance was better than the last. 2017 was the best yearwhen Perez and Ocon were their drivers. In 2016-17, their ranking was in 4th place. That's not bad. It had become a mid-level team. And then came 2018, when its downfall began. The thing is, each year, there's a summer break in Formula 1. It is usually 2 weeks long. That year, in July 2018, just before the summer break, documents were released as to how this companyhad only $315, 000 in the bank. While it had taken out loans of $37 million. This company owed a lot of money. And you'd remember Vijay Mallya, Vijay Mallya was accusedof owing about ₹100 billion to Indian banks. In 2016, he fled from India, and has been staying in the UK since then. A worldwide freezing order was issued on his assets, he could not sell his assets. And that banks could seize his assets. It meant that if he wanted to sell the shares of this team, he would need the consent of Indian banks. Finally, a Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll, bought the team and its assets. at the cost of  ₹9.6 billion. Before the restart of the 2018 season. The businessman Lawrence Stroll's son Lance Stroll was a driver of this team in the F1. FiA ordered that this team had to be renamed yet againsince the ownership was changing. This was renamed Racing Point Force India. The next year, in 2019, the word India was dropped from the name of the team, And it became Racing Point. In 2021, it was renamed one more timeAston Martin F1 Team. When Stroll purchased a 17% stake in this car manufacturing company. In India, ED claims thatVijay Mallya used his F1 and IPL teams for money laundering. And Subrata Roy, owner of Sahara Pariwar, had built his empire on scams. Today, the Formula 1 sport is often criticisedas a useless sport. That no one is benefiting from these car races. And that it merely causes environmental pollution and nothing else. Perhaps, Some points of criticism are valid. This is why Formula E has been introduced. Wherein only electric cars would be racing. About 10 years later, a Formula E event was hosted in Hyderabad, India some months ago. This event took place on a street circuit. Race tracks weren't built for this. The existing roads were closed offand prepared for this race. Till 2039, Formula E rights have been assigned by the FiA. After which, it is expected thatFormula 1 and Formula E would be merged. They will be one sport. And only electric cars would be used for this race. What do you think of this sport? Comment below to let me know. Thank you very much!