How I got hooked on to F1

Formula 1 (F1) racing has been an area of interest for me from 2002...I always used to wonder what is it in F1 that people follow it so closely...it is just cars going in rounds on a circuit and there is absolutely nothing in this sport !

3rd March 2002 - I was watching the start of the F1 season opener in Australia (don't recall why I ended up watching it). The Ferrari of Rubens Barichello was on pole with fellow team mate Michael Schumacher on 2nd, Michael's brother Ralf Schumacher then driving for Williams was on 3rd.

The opening lap of the Australian GP was the most dramatic ...I had not seen something as spectacular as that for sometime...Rubens made a good start and so did Ralf from 3rd...Ralf bumped into the back of Rubens Ferrari and his Williams car just flew ! It was a spectacular sight....keeping in mind I was following my 1st Formula 1 race ! This race made me read more about F1...understand what the cars, drivers and circuits are all about.

See highlights of the F1 2002 Australian GP on YouTube

Let us look at some of the facts of F1, these are the facts which make me believe F1 is a great/tough/competetive sport. Check out the pictures also in the blog, these facts and pictures are courtesy of a forwarded mail on F1, the car in picture is a Honda. The conceptualization to show a F1 car in parts is simply awesome !!

F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly; it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!
When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph!!!

An F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!


F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20 yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....that's the extent to which the engines are pushed to perform...

An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah that's right!!!)


At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini !

To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added down force can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.

Without aerodynamic down force, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kmph. They usually race at over 300 kmph.

In a street course race like the Monaco grand prix, the down force provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!

The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 liters of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 liter family car. They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.

TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point

During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.

Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km.

A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Recall that water boils at 100C remember)

At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.

Check out some of the interesting aspects of Formula 1 on Wiki

Today, I am a big fan of F1 racing and follow the season very closely. I am sure many of you have interesting facts to share o F1...please feel free to let me know your thoughts

Cheers,
Vaithee