Revving a Rocket Ship

 

                     Revving a rocket ship

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Alright, I got to talk about this… what is something that you are obsessed with besides your career? It could be rap, it could be breakdancing, it could be fantasy football, or just any sport ever. For me it is F1, I was aware of the sport before but didn’t pay much attention but one day scrolling through the channel I crossed into one of the qualifying sessions that take place before the race. I was astonished by the fact that drivers were getting disqualified by the hundredths, sometimes thousandths of a second.

To give you a little more context: I have always had a fascination with exotic and supercars (they are premium fast cars). Especially, when I was young, I have always appreciated the looks of Lamborghini, Ferrari, etc. As I grew older, I started to appreciate the cars for their performance. My interest in cars evolved from flashy ones to the ones that meant business. I started to pick up an interest in racing simulation so finding myself as a F1 motorhead was destined to happen.

If you don’t know what F1 is, don’t worry you are not living under a rock many people don’t know either. This will serve as a great beginner’s guideline. It is obvious to you now that I am not talking about the keyboard key on our pc. F1 stands for Formula One, it is a year-long racing league that takes place all over the globe. There is a total of twenty-four racing venues in a season and twenty of the most competitive drivers in the world giving it all on each track. The winner is given 25 points, the runner-up 20, and the second runner-up 15; the points are reduced to the 10^th position who is only given one point hence no one below the 10^th receives any points. The cumulative points from all races decide who wins the driver’s championship and the constructor’s championship (will come back to this later).

Now that you understand what F1 is, you must know what makes it amazing. There are so many racing competitions like Rally, GT, IndyCar, Nas car, etc. but why F1? F1 is fascinating because it is probably the biggest yearly scientific experiment that is wrapped in the model of sports. Ten teams tasked themselves with designing a Rocketship that can be the fastest around a corner and in straights. To stay ahead of the food chain one team must continuously innovate over the year. The upgrades only tend to give the team a second or half a second of advantage in a single lap if they are lucky. Yes, that’s how competitive is this sport. The team sport might seem to end where a team might build two drivers a car who will race it on the track. But it isn’t this simple, the cars must do 40-80 laps a race, and for a car that is built to push its limits every lap, the tires aren’t just able to endure a complete race. That is where every team has their respective crew who will change the set of tires mid-race. The stakes are incredibly high for crews since they might cost their driver's position if there is a delay of half a second. There were often instances where the drivers lost the race because of mishaps from the crew while they changed tires. In my opinion, this is the ultimate team sport.   

Every sport has its unsaid politics that tend to be behind cameras, but this sport does recognize its own politics, especially how the competition is set up. As I said there are two drivers in one team and only one driver can win the championship. Things get a little complicated when there are two contenders in one team. The team always set their eyes on winning the constructor's championship as they reward more money to the team to invest in the upcoming season. The drivers' mindset, especially when they drive a race-winning car, usually isn't on par with the team as they seek the glory of the Driver's championship. To understand the gravity of the situation, you must know how you can be a driver of F1. There are only twenty seats. Drivers have to ace go-kart competitions from youth and this is why you might have not heard about F1 because it can be a very posh sport due to its expenses. One of the teams might recruit you if you make a name for yourself in the karting circuit. Eventually, if you show potential teams will offer their seat to F3 and maybe you get promoted to F2 and hopefully to the holy grail that is F1. The route to F1 is a long one and it requires a great amount of belief and ambition so what we get in the paddocks are not drivers but hungry tunnel-visioned beasts  who are looking forward to winning races and eventually becoming a season champion. This is why the ambition of drivers and the target set by their respective teams often collide in F1 that is when the conspiracy brews and it all unfolds during racing day as we are exposed to how they act in the paddock and cockpit. Very conflicting for the audience but still exhilarating!

 This is where the team faces complexity when they have a race-winning car and two very capable drivers. The drivers did not come here to be second, they are here to be no.1.One recent example of this has to be Nico Rosberg (one world champion and retired) and Lewis Hamilton(7-time world champion and still racing).

 

 During the hay days of the Mercedes Petronas team, The two racers would just exchange position from 1^st to  2^nd only in races. It was a typical good friends turn bitter rival story, but it was so exciting for the fans unlike the people working for Mercedes who were anxious regarding the relationship between their drivers and them not crashing their cars into each other(which did come to fruition in 2016) rather than just competing against other teams. The rivalry carried on until Nico won his first driver championship and chose to retire in 2016.

                  The famous crash between Rosberg and Hamilton in the Spanish Grand Prix 2016  

I know I blabbered on for a few minutes but if you are not sold on my words then I highly recommend a documentary called ‘Drive to Survive’ on Netflix. It resulted in a flood of new viewership to this crazy sport of burning rubber. See ya!