#f1blr primer

[usernyoom]

Physics for rookies! What is Adrien Newey cooking in there?

Here is the culmination of my research into the physics behind F1, my own knowledge from GCSE physics, and what I have gleaned from my very patient friend who took A-Level physics. This is about as in-depth as I can understand in hopefully simple and fun explanations. I've used the RB19 as my example model because I don't think I'll ever truly be over her.

The basics!

Because a lot of this primer uses language that you might not remember or sort of vaguely understand, here's some basic explanations of physics stuff that comes up:

Energy: this is defined as 'the ability to do work' - how much capacity you have to do something, such as move, or react! There are several different forms of energy: kinetic (movement), thermal, light, gravitational, electrical, sound, chemical and nuclear. Energy can be transferred between these different forms - for example, some of the light energy produced by light bulbs is transferred into heat, which is why they are hot to touch. It can also be transferred between different objects that are touching. This can cause other objects to move, such as water rippling, or other objects to begin to heat up, like a pan on a stove.

Particle: in science, this refers to an extremely small piece of stuff, most commonly a molecule or an atom. Although the air seems invisible to us, it is actually made up of various gases and other types of particles. We don't feel the pressure these particles exert on us because we produce enough energy to move through them without them bothering us, and we don't see them because they're so small and spread out!

Pressure: the physical force exerted on or against an object by something coming into contact with it. In this primer, this mostly refers to the pressure caused by the particles that make up gases, which collide with the things around them as they move around randomly. Pressure can be relative in the same volume - high pressure areas have more particles in the same volume than low pressure areas, which have less. Pressure can be changed by increasing the volume - more volume with the same amount of particles equals a lower pressure.

But wait ... physics matters in F1?

The physics behind F1 cars dictates how the team develops their cars! Understanding why the updates they add to the car work why they do helps them to develop further changes, or to make adjustments according to the race weekend. There are a few different forces teams need to think about during development and set-up:

Drag

Downforce

Ground effect

Some cars have high or low drag - what does that mean?

Simply: how much drag a car has directly translates to how easily the car moves through the air. The more drag the car has, the less energy goes into acceleration, as more energy goes into moving the particles in the air out of the way. Complicatedly:

The energy of an F1 car produces different types of energy, the most obvious ones being kinetic, thermal, and sound. Most of the kinetic energy the car produces goes into making it go fast, but since some of the particles that make up the air are touching the car, some of that kinetic energy has to go into pushing those particles out of the way so the car can move past them. This makes the car less efficient, as less of the energy produced is going toward its intended purpose: zooming! The horizontal force the car experiences caused by these air particles pushing on it as it moves them out of the way is called drag. There are a few different types of drag that an F1 car can experience:

Skin Friction Drag: what it sounds like! Some particles in the air have qualities that make them attracted to surfaces, such as the wings or chassis of an F1 car. These particles can stick to the car, and then become attracted to other particles that are free in the air. These attractions can build up layers of particles. The attraction between particles attached to the car, and particles in the air increases the amount of energy the car has to use to move them out of the way

Form Drag: this just refers to 'normal' drag - the force caused when an object pushes the particles in the air out of the way. The shape of an object can affect the amount of form drag it experiences. The smaller the area moving through the air, the less pressure it experiences, and therefore the less drag experienced

Induced Drag: this is a type of drag caused by a second force an F1 car experiences, downforce. Downforce creates an area of high pressure and an area of low pressure. The particles in the air try to even this out by moving from the area of high pressure to the area of low pressure. This happens most around the front and rear wings of an F1 car. However, it's unavoidable, because downforce is vital to the function of an F1 car!

If an F1 car is high drag, this basically means it is designed in a way that is not efficient for moving through the air, so it wastes loads of the energy produced by the engine. These cars often have huge speeds losses on straights when compared to low drag cars. Low drag cars are great at moving through the air! They have lots more energy left over to go into speed.

How do you make a car high or low drag?

F1 engineers use a few different techniques to reduce drag. Here are some of them:

Endplates: induced drag means that the air moving over the front wing and rear wing of F1 cars wants to go down underneath them, from the area of high pressure to the area of low pressure. Endplates stop them moving sideways over the plates, and instead keeps them moving in a straight line over the wings. On the front wing of the car, the endplates also reduce drag by directing air over the wheels of the car, and not into them!

Sidepods: remember how Mercedes refused to have sidepods, and then added them as an upgrade? Sidepods help to reduce form drag by directing the air flow in specific ways over the car. This also helps to increase downforce - they're kind of important!

Nose: F1 cars have super thin noses. This helps to reduce form drag - the smaller the area experiencing pressure as it moves through the air, the less energy is used!

DRS: the drag reduction system on an F1 car opens the rear wing during specified zones on each circuit. This removes the induced drag caused by the wing generating downforce, so the car gains around 10 extra km/h!

To see how these different components change how air is directed over the surface of the car, you can watch the tests teams often do early in free practice 1. During aerodynamic tests, they add neon paint to areas of the car and record how it spreads!

Most of these components are regulated by the FIA, but teams can design and adjust them within those regulations to get different effects to suit different circumstances. This can be why you see teams bringing different sidepods, or wings, to different tracks! Power circuits (e.g. Monza) refer to circuits where the speed of the car is most important to its performance. These circuits typically have a bunch of straights and slow speed corners, where downforce isn't useful, but reducing drag is!

What's downforce?

Simply: downforce is a term mainly specific to F1 that refers to the force that sucks the car down toward the floor when it moves. The more downforce a car has, the faster it can go! Complicatedly:

Downforce refers to the vertical force that a car experiences due to the particles in the air pushing downward on it. This happens when the car isn't moving, but also when it does! As the car moves and air flows over it, the particles in the air collide with the car and create pressure. Downforce is also sometimes called 'negative lift', as the opposite of lift occurs.

The amount of downforce an object experiences increases according to the square of its speed. This means that if you are travelling at 50 km/h, with 10N of downforce, and double your speed to 100 km/h, you increase the amount of downforce you experience to 40N (WARNING! MATHS: 50 x 2 = 100, 2² = 4, 10 x 4 = 40).

Teams want lots of downforce on their car for a few different reasons:

Downforce stabilises the rear of the car. This makes it easier for the driver to handle the car and predict what it will do

The more downforce you have, the higher the top speed of your car is

Teams want extra speed in medium and low speed corners. Because of the above principle, its actually easy to find extra downforce in fast corners! Medium and slow speed corners are the problems.

What's a ground effect? How does it work?

To generate more downforce, F1 engineers now consider the ground to be part of the system that produces different forces on an F1 car. This principle is called the ground-effect, and it can be used to produce ground-effect downforce. Ground-effect is also used to explain why planes float before they reach take-off speed!

In modern-day F1, most ways that are used to produce ground-effect are based off Bernoulli's principle. This principle refers to the effect that occurs when an object is lowered to the floor as air flows around it. As air moves between the object and the ground, it accelerates as the amount of space it has to move between them decreases. This causes pressure between the object and the ground to decrease, while pressure above the object stays the same - this creates an area of low pressure, and an area of high pressure. The object then experiences an overall downward force, which presses it toward the floor!

The area of low pressure underneath the car also works between the floor of the car and the track surface by trying to decrease the volume that the particles are contained in - it either tries to pull the track up towards the floor of the car, or pull the floor down toward the surface. This 'pulling' force acts as a vertical force, so it technically increases downforce!

How do you get extra downforce?

Anything that helps to either increase the pressure over the top of the car, or decreases the pressure underneath the car can help! The most common way engineers do this is by considering the entire car to be one big 'wing', but there are couple of methods:

The front wing: the front wing directs air close to the surface of the track up and over the body of the car, which increases the amount of air causing pressure over the top of it. This creates an area of low pressure under the front wing, and an area of high pressure above it

The skirt: the skirt around the floor of the car prevents air from entering underneath it from the sides. This stops the low pressure area underneath the car from being interrupted!

The flaps and fins: flaps and fins along the sides of the car force air into little spirals that create and trap a vacuum that 'seals' the edges of the car

The floor: the floor of an F1 car is covered in venturis - these are ducts that slowly expand toward their end. This both accelerates the particles in the air through the duct as they try to accommodate for the increase in space, but also decreases pressure under the car. The floor of the car is one of the biggest ways teams utilise ground-effect to increase downforce!

Ride height: adjusting the ride height of an F1 car refers to adjusting how low it sits to the ground. Decreasing the ride height increases downforce according to Bernoulli's principle. It is also one of the favoured ways to increase downforce, as it is one of the few that does so without massively increasing drag!

Sidepods: sidepods can be used to direct air flowing over the car toward the floor and into the venturis to increase downforce. Wide sidepods can also function in a similar way to the skirt of the car

Some of these components can be adjusted every race weekend to suit the conditions of the track. For example, the ride height can be adjusted, as can the angles of the front and rear wings. High downforce circuits (e.g. Monaco) are those where having a lot of downforce is advantageous. They are characterised by lots of corners, and very few, often short, straights. At these type of circuits, having low drag isn't super important - how attached to the floor you can get your car is!

Let's go porpoising! - Gunter Steiner

Porpoising refers to the rapid upward and downward movement of the body of the car as it bounces on its suspension. This is caused by the floor of the car being sucked too close to the floor, and the low pressure becoming problematic. It causes the air to stall underneath the car, which forces it to bounce up so the air underneath it can be released. This cycle continues over and over again, and you end up with porpoising!

The problem arose after the regulation changes for the 2022 season, when using the ground effect to generate downforce was allowed again! It dominated the way F1 cars were engineered throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, and then was disallowed after regulation changes. There were fears about cars losing the downforce generated from the ground affect, and then shooting off the track. The FIA reintroduced it in an attempt the reduce the effect of dirty air.

Porpoising became so wide-spread and severe among the teams that the FIA had to stage a technical intervention with a change to the regulations. The edges of an F1 car's floor have to be 15mm further away from the surface of the track than previously, which allows stalled air to be released and decreases the area of low pressure underneath the car. This appears to have fixed the problem! However, porpoising is still one of the more memorable parts of the 2022 season.

How does this help me understand what Adrien Newey is cooking in there?

I know that the title of the primer suggests that I do, in fact, know 'what Adrien Newey is cooking in there.' I regret to inform you that I don't. He's beyond all of us.

But, if you have any questions or want to chat more technical F1 stuff with me, my ask box is open and I'm happy to talk! Hope this helped :)

[dressfortheslide-nottheride]

for the polite anon who asked for an F1 version of my motogp primer (found here for anyone interested)

as always feel free to slide into my ask box or dm's with any questions, comments or corrections

[f1-primers]

i saw a post by @powerful-owl about how the f1 fandom doesn't have a lot of primers for new fans, and in the interests of sharing the love (having a new thing to obsess over) i've made this little sideblog. i'll reshare any primers i see/i'm tagged in, from the technicalities of tyres to ship lore to old race recommendations, and i'm going to start a list below of ideas in case anyone fancies writing them. HERE IS THE TAG LIST so you can find posts i've shared so far!

technical/sporting stuff

intro to the history of f1

calendar explained - changes over the years, sprint vs normal weekends, double/triple headers

teams - history of each team individually or one big post, a history of team name changes

teams - what a team principal does, what a race engineer does, what other positions there are and faces people might see a lot of

the structure of a race weekend/what the sessions mean - media day, practices, quali, sprint shootout, sprint, race

how qualifying works - sessions, things to watch out for, what teams/drivers actually do during quali

how races work - start process, intro to race strategy & stints, outline of pit stops, how they end, parc ferme > podium

intro to strategy - outline of pitstops, tyre choices, over/undercut, etc

intro to tyres - different types, characteristics of each ones, deg/wear etc

how the timing towers on tv work & how to read them (for free practice, quali & race)

what all the different flags mean

safety car 101

tracks - loads of stuff here: famous tracks, all the tracks on the current calendar, the different between traditional and street tracks, features of a track to watch out for

overtaking explained

technical explainer - drs, battery harvesting, slipstreaming, stuff like that

safety features explainer - halo, hans device, etc

technical terms/slang you might hear

what the FIA is/intro

stewarding/the rules outline

techical requirements - parc ferme, what can/can't be changed over a weekend, rebuilding cars after contact or crashes

pit stops - what happens, what's changed, double stacking, good/bad times, how it affects a race

common penalties - track limits, crossing pit lane entry etc

point system - how it works for sprints/races, how it's changed etc

car design - wings, sidepods, etc

intro to f1 physics - aero, downforce etc

liveries - iconic ones, current team liveries, history of team liveries

the pitlane, paddock & pit wall explained - including order of teams in the pitlane, who everyone on a pit wall is

team radio 101 - what is said, what it means, iconic moments

how weather & temperature affects races/driving

history of f1

most famous races

most famous championships

wildest stuff that's happened in the sport (overall or by decade)

team move dramas

an intro to all the driver's championship winners

'know your history' - big moments people will see referenced

most controversial events - on track

most controversial events - off-track, f1 politics, scandals

moments that changed the sport

fandom stuff

intro to current drivers & their whole vibe

intro to past drivers & their whole vibe

most famous ships in the sport and an outline

most famous rivalries in the sport and an outline

best/funniest team radio moments

silly things that have happened

teammate relationships - the good, the bad, the unhinged

slang & inside jokes you might hear

niche stuff - the orignal post that sparked this referenced an 'alex albon's pets' primer, daniel's tattoos, george's dad, etc. a gift to fic writers! so anything, as niche as it gets, is good

nicknames for drivers, TPs etc explained

iconic fandom moments everyone should know about

[notyourprof]

F1 Explains – 9 November 2023 – Notes/Summary

When Em @powerful-owl first put out her call for primers (what feels like a hundred years ago now), I swore I had just recently listened to a description of what a race weekend was like for drivers on one of my podcasts, almost certainly F1 Explains. I listened back to the two episodes I thought it might be on, and figured I’d go ahead and take and share some notes on everything, in case there is some useful info in there for others. It turns out I had mis-remembered, because the discussion was about what a race weekend is like for media folks, not drivers, but I think it’s still useful because it does give information about what the drivers’ media obligations are.

In general, I highly recommend the F1 Explains podcast (previously called Formula Why), especially to new F1 fans who want to learn more details about the sport. Katie Osborne and Christian Hewgill co-host it, and on most episodes they pick a single topic (e.g. racing in the rain, street circuits, driver training regimens, etc.) and do a deep dive with a few different experts. But they also do semi-regular “quick-fire” episodes where they cover a bunch of questions that maybe don’t need a full episode to answer. Former Aston Martin strategist and current F1 + Sky Sports strategy analyst Bernie (Bernadette) Collins is a regular guest expert on the quick-fire episodes. (She’s also a regular in MY HEART, because she is amazing and wonderful and has the best Irish accent.) There are a few other rotating experts as well, usually from the F1/Sky Sports family.

Anyways, here is my write-up of the answer to the question about what a race weekend is like for media, which was on the episode from 9 November 2023:

Q: What are race weekends like for media and broadcasters? Are there dedicated times the media can speak to drivers? A: F1 is one of the sports where media actually get the most availability of drivers for the media. Thursday is Media Day. Each team puts out a list of times, usually a 5-20 minute window, where TV or print media can come along and ask questions. For TV it’s called a “scrum” where the media are in a sort of arc around the driver with all of their cameras pointed at the driver and they take turns asking questions. Written media is similar. If the driver misses that time for whatever reason, there usually aren’t any backup times. Media can also request one-to-one interviews at a separate time, but that is negotiated and set weeks and weeks in advance. Each team puts aside one hour for media time on a Thursday that includes the TV and written media scrums as well as any one-to-one interviews. Additionally, every weekend there are two press conferences held by the FIA on Media Day. Ten drivers do the press conference with written media where the drivers are all sat together at a desk or on couches answering questions. The other ten drivers do the TV pen, which is a U-shape with all of the TV crews standing around the outside and each driver works their way around the U talking to each TV crew. Each crew gets a maximum of two questions per driver. After each practice session, qualifying, and the race itself, the drivers will do the TV pen again and speak to written media. The top three finishers also do the post-race press conference.

So feel free to use this information when writing fic, but also remember that you don’t have to have all of your facts absolutely perfectly correct! It’s called fiction for a reason!

There were a lot of other interesting questions and answers in the episode, which I also took notes on, and I will put those below the cut. (Read on to find out which driver has Strong Feelings about the roundabouts near Milton Keynes, and which world champions have accidentally pulled into the wrong pit boxes before, LOL.)

Is this the kind of thing that is interesting and useful? I have a summary written up already for the 2 November 2023 episode, because I thought the "what is race weekend like" question might be in that one, but this is already super long. Should I post the notes on that episode in a different post? I can do notes/summaries for other episodes if that's something people are interested in, but I have a bad history of spending a lot of time documenting things in fandom that no one else ever uses or looks at, so I'm trying to...better allocate my limited spare time.

F1 Explains – 9 November 2023 Quick-fire questions with Bernie Collins & Lawrence Barretto

First, a sidenote: Daniel Ricciardo once did a shoey from one of Lawrence Baretto’s shoes. Daniel signed it and Lawrence has it on desk now.

Q: What construction and logistics have to go into a new street circuit, and how to teams prepare for a brand new track?

A: The streets used for the race track have to be re-laid with new tarmac, there has to be coordination with street opening and closing, hotels and other businesses around the circuit, etc. There is a full episode on racetrack design. To prepare for a new track, teams look closely at historical weather data (including temperatures and wind). They’ll load 2D and sometimes 3D scans of the track into their simulators, although often there isn’t full information yet because the final track hasn’t been finished. Lots of simulations and calculations in an attempt to get as much data as they can in advance. There’s also a full episode about how simulators work.

Q: How important is the engine manufacturer? Are they a glorified sponsor that provides an F1-approved generic engine or are there real technical differences between the engines from different suppliers?

A: There are differences between power units from different manufacturers. It also gives them a chance to really stretch themselves and bring in expertise from all around the company (e.g. if they also manufacture jet engines) and to hopefully get some good PR that will lead to more people buying their street cars. In 2023 for the first time, each engine manufacturer showed their engine off to the press to show the differences between each unit. 2023 engine manufacturers were Ferrari, Renault, Mercedes, and Honda. In 2026, Ford and Audi will join as new manufacturers.

Q: Why do drivers and engineers do track walks? Do all teams and drivers do this?

A: Not all drivers do it, some of them will do a run or go out on a scooter. Reasons to do it include looking for changes from last year (new bumps, changes to gravel or curbs (kerbs), etc.) as well as having a bit of uninterrupted time for drivers and their race engineers to talk to each other. Also can be helpful to the commentators/presenters. Helps everyone build/remember their muscle memory of the track if they’ve been there before.

Q: Is F1 using AI? Could it be used for race strategy?

A: Yes, most teams are already doing machine learning in calculations and simulations, but for now human input is still required (and probably always will be).

(Repeating this here because this is where it was in the episode) Q: What are race weekends like for media and broadcasters? Are there dedicated times the media can speak to drivers?

A: F1 is one of the sports where media actually get the most availability of drivers for the media. Thursday is Media Day. Each team puts out a list of times, usually a 5-20 minute window, where TV or print media can come along and ask questions. For TV it’s called a “scrum” where the media are in a sort of arc around the driver with all of their cameras pointed at the driver and they take turns asking questions. Written media is similar. If the driver misses that time for whatever reason, there usually aren’t any backup times. Media can also request one-to-one interviews at a separate time, but that is negotiated and set weeks and weeks in advance. Each team puts aside one hour for media time on a Thursday that includes the TV and written media scrums as well as any one-to-one interviews. Additionally, every weekend there are two press conferences held by the FIA on Media Day. Ten drivers do the press conference with written media where the drivers are all sat together at a desk or on couches answering questions. The other ten drivers do the TV pen, which is a U-shape with all of the TV crews standing around the outside and each driver works their way around the U talking to each TV crew. Each crew gets a maximum of two questions per driver. After each practice session, qualifying, and the race itself, the drivers will do the TV pen again and speak to written media. The top three finishers also do the post-race press conference.

Q: How much interaction is there between broadcasting teams from different countries?

A: A lot. They all see each other regularly so they get to know each other, and they often chat amongst themselves to communicate about what drivers have said to their home broadcasters, because they usually give longer/more detailed answers when they’re speaking in their native language.

Q: How does breaking news get shared with everyone?

A: Press releases used to be printed out on paper and handed out in the Media Center. Now each F1 team has a WhatsApp group specifically for media so they send info that way (e.g. about driver availability for interviews or problems with the cars) in addition to email and social media.

Q: Is there a dedicated space for journalists to write up their race reports?

A: Yes, it’s called the Media Center, there are desks, TV screens, food, and drinks (especially coffee!). The press conference room is in the Media Center as well, adjacent to the work area where journalists can sit and write.

Q: Has Bernie ever had a debrief delayed [when she was a team strategist] due to media interviews running long?

A: Many of the debriefs have been delayed by drivers, and blaming it on the media is an easy out when maybe it was actually the driver who stopped to get a coffee or whatever. Each F1 driver has their own press officer who helps them meet all of their press responsibilities. Often the drivers will talk longer than they are supposed to; Alex Albon and Oscar Piastri are specifically named as drivers who are very good at going off on tangents and talking to the media for too long. One time, Alex spent a good amount of time ranting about the roundabouts in Milton Keynes near the Red Bull factory is based.

Q: How is the order of the garages in the pit lane decided? Are there advantages to being in certain positions and does it play into race strategy?

A: At most tracks, the garages are in order based on how the teams finished in the constructor’s championship the previous year, so over a given season, the garages on either side of your teams don’t change. Sometimes the previous champions are right at the pit lane entry, sometimes near the exit, that depends on the track. If you’re right at the entry, it’s easier to come in and pit (i.e. there aren’t any other team’s mechanics in your way), but more difficult to get back out on track. Near the pit exit, the opposite is true (harder to get in, easier to get out). Depending on the track, it can be helpful to be right near the pit exit (e.g. if you want to get right out on track with clear air in front of you, Bernie mentions Monaco) or further back (e.g. if it’s better to have some other cars go first in qualifying, Bernie mentions Monza). The only exception to the rule of “garages are in order of last year’s championship standings” is Silverstone, where the pit lane is at about the same height as the track in the middle but at either end the pit lane is lower than the track so visibility is impaired. Because of this, the garages in the center (with a good view of the track) are considered most desirable and are thus taken by the top teams.

Christian Hewgill points out how surprising/impressive it is that drivers don’t pull into the wrong pit box more often. For example, at the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix, Jenson Button accidentally parked in the wrong garage and it cost him the lead in the race to Sebastian Vettel. Bernie points out that teams have done a lot of things to help drivers get to the correct pit lanes. It often happens when drivers switch teams (e.g. Lewis Hamilton once went into the McLaren pit when he had just moved to Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel went to the Ferrari pit once after he had switched to Aston Martin).

Q: What is parc fermé? What are the restrictions? How are they enforced?

A: Parc fermé is a period of time in which teams are not allowed to touch their cars or make any changes related to performance, however they can make changes related to safety. It promotes sustainability and rewards teams that do well in practice figuring out what works best for that track. During sprint weekends, teams only have one practice before the cars go into parc fermé, which makes it particularly difficult to adjust the cars to the track. Cars do often get taken apart and reassembled while in parc fermé to check components, clean things, etc., but the F1/FIA scrutineers will put stickers on the car parts to make sure the same parts are used when reassembling the car.

Q: What is an anti-stall? How is it different from a regular stall?

A: (Note that I am basically quoting Bernie verbatim here because I’ve never driven a manual/stick-shift car and don’t understand the details of how they work!) An anti-stall is very similar to a normal stall, but F1 have come up with clever ways to make sure the car engines don’t actually stall. In a regular manual car, if you were to let the clutch out too much or not give it enough throttle and the car stalled, the engine would cut out. At the starting grid, the driver might do the same thing (e.g. not give it enough throttle) and the car might stall, but the engine doesn’t actually cut out. (Another note: it’s not explicitly stated, but I think this is a safety thing so that even if the car stalls and doesn’t get a super fast start, the driver will be able to accelerate pretty quickly after, instead of sitting on the grid unable to move while the cars behind start crashing into the stalled car.)

Q: Why do F1 teams change names?

A: OK I started writing this in a way that makes sense beyond the short answers given on the podcast, but it really needs to be a separate post. The short answer to “why do teams change names?” is money. (Shocker!) 

Sometimes a team that also makes something else wants to promote one of their brands, e.g. Renault rebranding to Alpine, which is Renault’s sports car brand, or Toro Rosso rebranding to AlphaTauri, which is Red Bull’s clothing line. 

Sometimes a team will have a sponsor who pays enough money to be a title sponsor, e.g. Oracle Red Bull Racing or the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, where Oracle and Petronas are completely separate companies that pay a lot of money in addition to providing relevant expertise to their teams. 

(In the other post, I’ll get into Sauber/Alfa Romeo/Stake/Kick, don’t worry. 😂)

Q: How is the number of laps in a Grand Prix determined?

A: The number of laps for a given circuit is however many laps are needed to get to a 305 km (~190 mi) race distance. The exception is Monaco where the distance is 260 km (~162 mi).

[magicalrocketships]

ok im ready to be converted. what f1 fics do u recommend to start my full brain rot?

EXCELLENT, my plan is working (make people like what I like). Here is a very small and somewhat random selection, mostly Daniel/Max except where stated. Extremely loosely grouped. I've said if they're focused on them racing (grid), even if it's an AU. I have not associated anyone's ao3 handle with their tumblr name, so apologies for that. Do come back and tell me your thoughts and feelings. (!!)

F1 TASTING MENU (Maxiel Flavour)

Amuse Bouche: an opening vid

maxiel x 2022 season - “i would just draw it at like, i wouldn’t say love” by @daniel-enchante

Starters (shorter (ish) fics)

Cool Things to Say to Your Soulmate - words by powerfulowl, art by loveleah (grid, E): Only dumbasses get goosed. If a Soulmate Goose of Enforcement comes to intervene in your love life, it is a clear sign you have fucked up. You’re so bad at navigating human relationships that the universe thinks a violent waterfowl impervious to damage and capable of walking through walls will actually improve the situation. 

i carry your heart with me by capsize (grid, M): “What’s up little guy?” Daniel asks – because like his car, Max’s heart is a boy too – and moves the heart from the desk into his lap. “Is Max not paying attention to you? He can be a bit of a cunt, yeah? No, I know.” Or, five times someone found Max’s heart, and one time they kept it.

Just kissed you hello by charlotte_stant (grid, M): Everything freezes for a long moment—and then Daniel’s heart is back to beating and it’s fine, he can see how funny the situation is. “Maximus, my brother, my comrade,” he says, “what the fuck, mate. I’m not gay, ok?"

Amuse Bouche: another vid

max and daniel at redbull by @love-leah

Main Course (longer fics)

Good To You by TheNorthRemembers (grid, E): Max walks and talks like he has a big dick. He always has, and it’s not like Daniel ever really thought about Max’s dick, but he just- He assumed, maybe. That the equipment would match the attitude. That at the very least what Max is packing, would be completely average. The fact, that apparently it’s not- Well. Daniel doesn’t know what to do with that information, in more ways than one. Or: Max a small dick, Daniel is into it; lots of sex and a bit of angst ensue

my kind's your kind by hardlythewiser (grid, series, E, Max/Kelly/Daniel, resolving with Max/Daniel): Max can talk about it now, out of bed, casual. Kelly helped him practice, talking about it like it was just another activity, like her tennis lessons or nights out with friends, ever since that first time. But she doesn't say anything now.

To the Victor Belong the Spoils by powerfulowl (hunger games AU, E): Daniel didn’t kill anyone in the arena. He’s the one untarnished Hunger Games victor. The beautiful boy who stole the hearts of Panem with a fishing net and a smile. He can kiss babies and sell sun cream and fuck who they tell him to fuck and suck on the fingers that feed him– he’s not gonna bite. But then Max wins the Hunger Games. Max bites.

Amuse Bouche: vid time

"what's going on between you and max verstappen?" by @love-leah

Dessert (where the focus is on sex)

Sweeter than I ever knew by purples_all_the_way_down (grid, girls, E): Daniel has never had an orgasm. Somehow (Charles, it's always Charles), Max gets involved. Things get complicated.

I just want to know you like nobody ever has by 33Max (grid, E): They are in the bathroom, Daniel had insisted that he needed a shower if they were going to do this. He’s still damp, Max hadn’t even waited for him to dry himself off before he was pushing Daniel against the counter and dropping to his knees behind him.

Coffee (something different)

both hands tied on the wheel by kayshea (George Russell/Toto Wolff, grid, E): George feels, stupidly, like a cat that’s been stroked. Like his skin is electric. It’s what everyone has been saying to him all day, but it feels different, somehow, coming from Toto.

if i should come upon your house lonely by withfeathers (Lewis Hamilton/Hanna Prater/Sebastian Vettel, grid, E): The summer after Sebastian's retirement, Lewis visits Switzerland for a week. Nothing about it goes as he expected.

[fairie-grl]

inspired by @onadarklingplain 's 'Albon Pet Primer'

Sir Lewis Hamiltion has a dog, his dog is the goodest boy in the world, and I know too much about his dog so now you must suffer with this knowledge as well enjoy:

Lewis adopted Roscoe, a English bulldog, from an online adoption agency in 2013.Roscoe is a purebred bulldog with both his mom and dad being show dogs. Roscoe's name was chosen because Lewis thought it but Crofty calling Nico ‘Roscoe’ at the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix makes me have my doubts. Lewis later adopted Coco, a female bulldog. Coco’s breeder was originally going to put her down due to how expensive her health conditions, mostly likely a heart condition, were but Lewis stepped in. If you are trying to tell Coco and Roscoe apart in photos, Coco has a wider white stripe on her head. It is widest around the top of her head. Roscoe has more wrinkles and a brown spot on his snout and his strip ends at the top of his head and a new one starts off center in the back of his head. Coco’s fang teeth are also out more often compared to Roscoe's little teeth and she is a lighter color than Roscoe. Lewis expressed that he adopted the dog because his family has always had dogs, mostly labradors, but he said he always wanted an English bulldog. Coco lived till June 2020 when she passed in the night. Lewis and Roscoe were with her. His mom has five dogs! Both Roscoe and Coco have passports so they can travel with Lewis. Lewis was also granted special permission from Bernie Ecclestone to bring the dogs to the padlock (I assume Charles will ask Domenicali to bring Leo to the Padlock). 

Lewis brought a jet to fly with the dogs which he then sold in 2019. Roscoe is good with traveling due to his love of napping. In his first trip with Lewis he slept through most of the flight waking up to go to the bathroom and to make Lewis put him in his lap. Lewis followed Roscoe's command, sleeping with Roscoe in his lap like “a baby.” Lewis said, “Roscoe is the best travel pet, he just sleeps with you.” As Roscoe is getting older, Lewis has made the decision to travel less with him, as the time zones were getting hard on him. While Lewis is racing, Roscoe stays in Los Angeles, California with dog trainer Kirstin McMillan (adventuresindogtraining on instagram). Lewis says he gets pictures of Roscoe everyday and checks in on him. Roscoe also attends a dog park or “Los Angeles' first canine social club” as stated on their website called ‘Dog PPL’ in Santa Monica. It is about $120 a month for one dog.  

Not only is Roscoe Lewis’s son but also his best friend. Lewis talked about his instant connection when they first met. Roscoe gets sad when Lewis leaves and happy when he returns. Lewis says, “Then I get the Frisbee and play with him, and that’s, for me, the biggest highlight – the unconditional love you get from a pet like that.” Roscoe loves quad bikes. In one interview, Lewis said it’s because he’s lazy so he likes being driven around. However, I think it’s because he has taken after his dad and wants to race. Roscoe also loves frisbee and his ball; it seems like he enjoys fetching and chasing after things, like chasing other cars down… Roscoe WDC 2024 confirmed. Lewis also has Roscoe involved in many of his projects, Lewis has hinted that Roscoe has a cameo in ‘Apex’, his movie starring Brad Pitt. When Fortnite asked him to be in the game he said he would only agree if Roscoe was in the game with him. Fortnite, of course, agreed because Roscoe is an angel. They ended up putting him in a jet pack. He was 1,500 V-Bucks or 2,400 V-Bucks with the ‘Lewis Hamilton Budle’ (IDK if thats a lot I don’t play Fortnite). Lewis also said Roscoe is the only person he can count on to stand with him along with Bono.

After Coco’s death, Lewis took Roscoe to the vet where they recommended starting him on a vegan diet similar to what Lewis has. This vegan diet is often recommended to bulldogs because they often have food intolerances or allergies to the meat proteins that can affect the skin and gastrointestinal tract. The vegan diet Roscoe is on still includes the same things without the meat proteins in it that caused him to have health issues. Lewis has said his breathing has improved and that he no longer has skin allergies. Roscoe also has physical therapy and acupuncture every week to help with his joints.  Roscoe has also had health issues that caused him to ejaculate, often uncontrollably, scaring baby Roscoe and leading to him getting snipped in 2016. Lewis did have his sperm frozen so that Roscoe could have puppies. Lewis said, “It’s great his genes will live on.” Lewis said his plans were to have Roscoe’s puppies after he retires but with the fanzone in 2024 Australia GP, it sounds to me like he may be looking sooner to have Roscoe’s pups or to retire. Last year, around the British GP, Roscoe had some issues regarding his spine. If I remember correctly, it involved a slipped hernia in his spine. Luckily, he got stem therapy and was able to attend the GP. He has been improving, and as of today he is back to normal.

Now for the part most people know about. Roscoe started his instagram account, roscoelovescoco, in January 2015 with a post featuring Coco and him captioned “Thanks for following us :).” The instagram account was originally a joint account with both Coco and Roscoe until 2020, although both did get solo posts. As expected Roscoe does make money off his Instagram, but he is also a dog model. Lewis said in a Silver Arrows interview in 2021 that he gets paid $700 a day which goes in Roscoe's treat fund. Roscoe also has sponsorships. His Thanksgiving party was sponsored by Bramble Pets, and he did content (including a commercial) for Zapp, a food delivery company Lewis invested in. Roscoe also appears in Lewis' vlog channel (it hasn’t been updated since 2021) multiple times. His last appearance is in a video “Adventures with Roscoe! | Lewis Hamilton Vlogs” which is also the last updated video on Lewis channel. He reached 1 million followers in 2024, which is more than Chouprette Lagerfield, the cat of Karl Lagerfeld (I am not joking, this man left a good chunk of his fortune [~$300 million] to his cat). Roscoe’s captions on his instagram posts were originally typed in a sort of third person first person mix but in October 2020, Roscoe finally established his first first person post with his famous lisp. However, the conspiracy expands as prior to this first lisp post, there are two posts on instagram where Roscoe (and Coco) are talking to us. The first one was posted April 2024 with Roscoe saying, ‘They put a thermometer up me bum, dad!’ In this speech bubble, Roscoe doesn’t have a lisp but does speak in a sort of baby talk. The next post in October 2017 features both Roscoe and Coco with Roscoe saying, “We got acupuncture today Dad!” and Coco saying, “It’s my favorite.” (More info about the dogs getting acupuncture is in the health section.) I will note his lisp comes and goes on his posts around November 2020. His lisp finally stays and its intensity does increase. There are also a few posts taken with Mercedes that don’t feature the lisp, and a few posts talking about Roscoe or Coco written in their “Dad’s” pov where it obviously doesn’t use a lisp.

[inchidentally]

Is ao3 only a fiction site? Can I find more like biographic infos in there? Only lesteppan? 🫨

ao3 is just for fan fiction yes! and lestappen isn't personally one of my own ships but I do know it's one of the biggest ships in fandom so it probably just looks like it's mostly that asfgjagfl

I think for any biographic (that's reliable) sometimes F1.com or the driver's current or old team's website will publish articles and bios.

I know in hockey fandom some ppl made primers for individual players but idk if anyone's done anything like that for f1blr?

[hourcat]

I don’t know anything about the NFL but I am obsessed with your au. I can SO imagine Pierre being the cocky, dgaf about the media, just saying and doing whatever he wants. meanwhile Charles is softspoken and a huge people pleaser but they love each other so much <3 cuties

omg bestie you are so sweet. i promise, i know that no one in the venn diagram of f1blr residents & quietrumblings readers knows a thing about the nfl: i am going to assemble a little primer/informational post for reference!!!! really, you won't need to know a whole lot about the sport to read it bc it is, like all of my fics, more about The Journey than the setting

but also cocky pierre who loves to hit other guys out on the field and says whatever to the media is everything to me.... especially because charles, in the au, was actually on another team before this, so he's the more experienced of the two of them and pierre is going to be absolutely fascinated by his experience. this is all nfl au pierre has ever dreamed of!!! and CHARLES, his roommate of all things, is here to tell him every little detail he could ever imagine ❤️❤️

[usernyoom]

F1 tyres for rookies! Everything you need to know (and probably more)

Responding to @powerful-owl's call for primers with all of the knowledge I have gathered about TYRES in F1! This is hopefully super in-depth so you know what's going on all through the weekend!!

What are tyre compounds?

Pirelli's range of tyres has 5 different compounds, ranging from C1 - C5. Each weekend, Pirelli chooses 3 compounds from this range suited to the conditions of the track that weekend. These three compounds make up the 3 types used during the weekend - soft, medium, and hards.

Each tyre used in a weekend has different qualities:

Softs - softest compound. It has the most grip, but because of this heats up faster. This leads to degradation so the tyres wear more quickly and then need to be replaced earlier. Good for speed and often used in starts when a team wants a quick position gain. Qualifying is the soft tyre's natural habitat

Mediums - considered to be the allrounder. Less grip than the softs but longer lasting. Often used during the middle of the race as an intervening compound during a two-stop strategy, or as the tyre used in a long initial stint when a driver is on a one-stop strategy.

Hards - hardest compound. The least grip, but the longest lasting. Least likely to grain. Takes a lot of work to get the tyre up to the heat needed for suitable grip, so cool tracks like Spa, Zandvoort and Las Vegas can make these tyres disadvantageous. Also often used as a second tyre during a two-stop strategy

Pirelli also provide tyres with extreme grip to be used during rain. These tyres are designed to grip even when wet, but are also engineered to throw water up from the track to help dry it out quickly. There are two types:

Intermediates - more grip. Designed for use during light to intermediate rain

Wets - full wet tyres designed for use during downpours. Commonly sighted in Spa

Wait - if intermediate and wet tyres have more grip, why don't we use them during dry conditions?

The intermediate and wet tyres are designed to have enough grip that the cars can maintain speed even when the track has water on it. This amount of grip means that without water on the track to cool the tyre and mitigate the extra grip, the tyres overheat much more than they can handle. This can lead to severe graining, or the tyre beginning to fall apart (not good!)

What are slicks? Are they a secret third wet tyre?

Teams and commentators often refer to 'slicks' during wet conditions. These are just slick tyres - the usual compounds during a weekend but a bit wet. Teams often prefer to use these to intermediates or wets when it begins to rain, as switching to intermediates too early can be dangerous for a driver's position - if they overjudge the intensity or length of the rain, the driver will have to pit again for the usual compound, and their competitors may not have to. Some drivers have incredible instincts when it comes to these decisions - Fernando Alonso has made amazing judgement calls this season!

Why do Pirelli select 3 compounds from the range for each race? Can't we use the same 3 each time?

Lots of factors affect the way tyres heat up and degrade! Here's a list:

The general grip of the track - some tracks have loads of grip, so the tyres heat up quickly because of friction. This means they require less work, but can also degrade much more quickly - often, the harder compounds from the range are used for these tracks

Track temperature - the ambient temperature (air temperature) at a track can affect the track temperature. In warmer countries, we often see track temperatures at 40 - 50 degrees centigrade. This means the tyres warm up quickly, so they have loads of grip here too! However, in other places, the track temperature is super low, so it takes a lot of work to get tyres up to temperature

Configuration of the track - tracks have different combinations of straights, high speed corners and low speed corners, as well as different amounts of left and right turns. These factors can all put pressure on different parts of the tyre, so they'll degrade differently at different tracks

Support races - lower formulas like F2 often follow the F1 calendar. They have their feature races and practice sessions before the F1 drivers. They can help to rubber in the track, and clean up areas outside the racing line - dirt often accumulates on areas on the track that are not commonly used. This can affect grip and cause drivers to spin out when they stray into them!

How often the track is used - some tracks like COTA have several different types of motorsport use them, such as Moto GP. This means the track is much cleaner than other tracks used exclusively by the formulas etc.

To make things safe for the drivers, we need a wider range of compounds to account for all these conditions. Pirelli do analysis before the race weekend to pick which 3 compounds to use, accounting for these factors

What does it mean to 'get tyres up to temperature'?

Each tyre compound has different temperatures that they perform optimally at. To get the tyres up to this temperature, the heat provided by the friction of tyre against track is needed. At the right heat, the tyre performs at its best! This explains:

Why drivers weave during the formation lap/safety cars - weaving increases friction between the tyre and the track to heat them up faster. This gets them to/keeps them at a good temperature when the race gets going!

Why we have tyre blankets - you can often see mechanics on the grid warming tyres with heated blankets! The FIA regulations allow the heating up tyres up to 70 degrees centigrade for up to two hours before the tyres are used. This can be done for tyres used during pitstops in the race too! The FIA will likely disallow the use of tyre blankets in the 2024 season

What's a flat spot?

When drivers have a lock-up (the brakes cause too much friction and stop the tyres turning completely) the same spot on the tyre rubs against the track for an extended period of time. This is what produces the smoke you see. This causes a literal flat spot on the circumference of the tyre, which often causes bumps and is sometimes uncomfortable for the driver. Flat spots make lock-ups with that set of tyres more likely, which can make the flat spot worse over time. Teams often try to pit and change tyres with flat-spots to avoid this

Why do commentators say things like: "he has three sets left for the race"?

Each driver has a number of tyres of different compounds allocated to them for the weekend. These amount to 13 sets overall:

Softs: 8 sets

Mediums: 3 sets

Hards: 2 sets

Additionally; Intermediates: 4 sets

Wets: 3 sets

After each free practice sessions, teams are required to return two sets of tyres per driver back to Pirelli. This means all 20 drivers have only 7 sets available to them during qualifying. Additionally, the top 10 qualifiers (P10 - P1) have to hand back an additional set to Pirelli after qualifying. This means the back 10 drivers (P20 - P11) could have an extra advantage over the front runners. This means strategy for tyres during the rest of the weekend is important - teams don't only have the race to consider!

Sometimes this means drivers will use 'used' tyres during qualifying or the race. This just refers to tyres that have been used during previous sessions and haven't been returned to Pirelli. On some tracks, a tyre that has had a heat cycle run through before its second use is better than a fresh tyre! However, most of the time, it means the tyre has less grip than a new set of the same compound

If teams have all of this information, why do we need so much testing in free practice?

Although lots of analysis can be done before the weekend, conditions can be unpredictable and therefore its important to get all of the testing done in low-pressure sessions like free practice so the teams know what to expect during the race.

Different cars also affect how the tyres degrade! This season, the Ferraris and Haas are particularly notorious for gobbling up their tyres. This just means that the way their car is designed/set-up just applies more friction to the tyres than other cars, which affects degradation.

Ferrari have also found their tyres to particularly unpredictable this season. Charles Leclerc has said several times that he can't predict what each tyre is going to do in each corner. This is obviously problematic, so free practice sessions are important in helping drivers to become familiar with the way different tyres act with their car for this season at different tracks

I hope that helped! Send me asks if you have anymore questions :)

[notyourprof]

A’s Very Incomplete But Hopefully Easily-Digestible F1 & F1 Fandom 101

Since @powerful-owl's call for F1 Primers, I’ve seen several really nice, detailed, intro-to-race weekend primers, but I wanted to provide a…slightly less intense one for folks who are brand new and aren’t yet interested in learning about the difference between understeer and undercutting. So, just in time for the final race of 2023, in the style of @writesharriet's The Untamed 101, please enjoy A’s Very Incomplete But Hopefully Easily-Digestible F1 & F1 Fandom 101.

1) Okay, fine. What is Formula 1?

Formula 1, aka F1, is an international car racing series that’s been happening annually since 1950*. There is a new racing season each year, and the number of races per year has increased over time. In 2024, there are 24 races scheduled, the most ever, and they will take place in 21 different countries, starting in March and ending in December. Drivers earn points primarily by finishing in the top ten places of a race. (There are other ways to earn points, but that is the main way.) The higher a driver finishes, the more points they get. Each season there are two championships up for grabs: one for the driver who scores the most points, called the World Drivers’ Championship or WDC, and one for the team that scores the most points, called the World Constructors’ Championship.

*Technically, some F1 races happened before 1950, but 1950 was the first year of the championship series.

2) Wait, there are teams? Isn’t racing, like, an individual sport?

Yes, and also yes. There are currently (as of 2023) ten teams in F1, and each team has two cars (and corresponding drivers) in each race. There is a long set of rules that each team must follow when constructing their cars, aka the “formula” of Formula 1. There is, however, flexibility in the rules for team engineers to be creative and innovative, so there are (sometimes drastic) differences between the cars in a given year. The popular names of the ten teams in the 2023 season are: Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri, Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Haas, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Williams. All ten of those teams will be back for 2024, but a few will have new names.

(Many of the teams have longer names that often include sponsors, e.g. the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, and some of the current teams have changed names over the years, and/or have upcoming name changes. The intricacies of team/constructor names are a subject for a different post.)

3) Okay but what about the drivers?

Most teams have the same two primary drivers for the duration of a given season, and these days, many drivers will be with the same team for a large part of their career. Most teams also have a third (aka reserve, or backup) driver who can step in at the last minute if a primary driver is injured or ill. It is also possible for teams to replace their primary drivers mid-season. This is especially common among teams that have close partnerships with each other (e.g. Mercedes and Williams) and/or are owned by the same company (e.g. Red Bull and AlphaTauri).

But in general, you can usually assume that the drivers for a given team will be the same for an entire season. This can lead to intense rivalries! (If you like enemies/rivals to lovers, you are in luck in this fandom!) It’s often stated that the only “true” way to compare two drivers against each other is if they are teammates and therefore driving identical cars, because then it’s down to the driving prowess of the driver. (It is, of course, more complicated than that, but those intricacies are again beyond the scope of this post.)

For the past few decades, it has been common for there to be dominant drivers (in dominant cars) who win a number of WDCs in a row. For example, if we look at the WDC winners (and their teams) since 2010, they are:

2010: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

2011: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

2012: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

2013: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

2014: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2015: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2016: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

2017: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2018: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2019: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2020: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2021: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

2022: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

2023: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Unsurprisingly, you will find a lot of fannish content about the recently-dominant drivers.

4) Who are the current drivers? What about next year?

I have a spreadsheet for that! It is incomplete, but I’m working on filling it out, as well as extending it back in time.

You can use the tabs at the bottom to switch between different ways of sorting/viewing the information, i.e. by driver vs by team.

4b) Okay but who are the people I need to know about for fandom?

The drivers you’re most likely to run into in fic, in alphabetical order by last name, are:

Alex Albon

Lewis Hamilton

Charles Leclerc

Lando Norris

Daniel Ricciardo

Nico Rosberg

George Russell

Carlos Sainz

Max Verstappen

Sebastian Vettel 

Some of the team principals (essentially, the leaders of each team) show up often as well, mostly:

Christian Horner (Team Principal for Red Bull, married to Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice)

Toto Wolff (Team Principal for Mercedes, married to Susie Woff, nee Stoddart, who is a former driver herself, currently runs the F1 Academy series for developing young female drivers, and deserves her own post)

Common ships are:

Max Verstappen/Daniel Ricciardo (aka Maxiel)

Lewis Hamilton/Nico Rosberg (aka Brocedes)

George Russel/Alex Albon (aka Galex)

Max Verstappen/Charles Leclerc (aka Lestappen)

Lewis Hamilton/Sebastian Vettel (aka Sewis)

Carlos Sainz/Lando Norris (aka Carlando)

5) Isn’t there a Netflix show too? What’s the deal with that?

Yes, there is! It’s called Drive to Survive (usually abbreviated as DTS) and it’s both a great way to get to know the personalities of the drivers and also not a 100% accurate portrayal of the interpersonal relationships between drivers. For example, one of the drivers was so displeased by the portrayal of the relationship between him and a former teammate that he basically refused to participate for the next few seasons. (The relationship was portrayed as far more acrimonious than it actually was.) That said, you can absolutely participate in F1 fandom having only ever watched DTS and never watched a race or any other content! Your experience will just be enriched if you also do things like follow the drivers & teams on social media and start to watch races as well.

6) So what are the barriers to entry?

Well first, you have to acknowledge that this is a very silly sport in which most participants are tax-dodging millionaires and billionaires yet still somehow likeable. Once you get past that...

You need a Netflix subscription to watch DTS, but otherwise, that part is pretty straightforward. Watching the actual races (and everything else associated with a race weekend) is a bit more complicated…

7) Okay, FINE, if I were going to watch a race how would I do that?

First, a heads-up that the actual race (aka the Grand Prix) is not the only thing that happens, there is an entire race weekend. A typical race weekend involves: two practice sessions on Friday, one practice session and one qualifying session on Saturday, and the race itself on Sunday. The practice sessions (officially called “free practices” and abbreviated as FP1, FP2, and FP3) allow teams and drivers to get used to the track as well as play around with different ways of setting up the car. The qualifying session is used to set the start order (called “the grid”) for Sunday’s race. It’s broken down into three parts, and the start order is determined by the lap times the drivers set–the faster the lap time, the higher up a driver starts on the grid. (For the most part. There can be other factors in play such as grid position penalties. Again, the details of qualifying and grid penalties are beyond the scope of this post.) 

Note that for the past few years, a few weekends per season are “sprint weekends”, which have a different format. Again, the details aren’t really for this post, but I plan to write another post specifically about sprint weekends sometime in the near future. Even on sprint weekends, there is still the actual race on Sunday.

New fans might not find the practices very interesting, so I would generally recommend starting with a race itself and perhaps qualifying (aka “quali”) also. 

(Podium celebrations for the top three at the conclusion of a race involve lots of sparkling wine spraying everywhere.)

7b) Okay, so how would one watch the race itself? 

It is…complicated, and very region-dependent. 

If you’re in the UK, you need to have a subscription to Sky Sports to watch anything from a race weekend live. Note that if you don’t have a Sky Box, there is only a short period of time in which you can watch a race back…after that, you can only watch race highlights on Sky. 

In the US, you need a combination of ESPN cable channels (e.g. ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU) and ESPN+ access to watch everything, although sometimes the race will also be shown on ABC. Alternatively, you can subscribe to F1 TV Pro, which gives you live streaming of everything from race weekends, plus access to watch all of the past races. 

Frustratingly, F1 TV Pro is not available in all countries (notably, not the UK), and in those countries the only option is F1 TV Access, which is cheaper, but does not include anything from the current season, just the archived seasons. You can check what’s available in your country here: https://www.formula1.com/en/toolbar/content_schedule.html Unfortunately, I am not familiar with other viewing options in other countries, but if anyone adds info in replies or reblogs, I will add it in! 

As you watch the race, you will hear the commentators use a lot of jargon that you can find explained in other, more detailed, primers, but even if you don’t understand a whole lot of what they’re saying, it’s still enjoyable to just watch the racing!

Even if you can’t ever watch a race live, F1 puts a lot of content on their YouTube channel, including race recaps and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/@Formula1 They also have a lot of fun content with the drivers (see the “Grill The Grid” series, especially) in addition to plenty of explainers about the tech and design of the cars. The individual teams also have great YouTube channels with lots of general and race-specific information as well as fun content with their drivers.

Okay, I think this primer has managed to be both too much and not enough, LOL, so it’s time to call it. Happy race-watching, folks! 🏎

(If you spot any factual or grammatical errors in this, please let me know so I can fix them! I wasn’t able to get someone to read this over in advance, so it’s very possible there are some!)

[notyourprof]

F1 Explains – 2 November 2023 – Notes/Summary

Another round of Qs and As with Bernie & Lawrence! This one is somewhat technical, so read on if you want to learn about racing lines, tracks gaining grip, what the Paddock Club is (and how much it costs to get access), car design philosophies, and, most importantly for our little corner of the internet, the similarities between F1 drivers and pregnant people...

As before, feel free to use this information when writing fic, but also remember that you don’t have to have all of your facts absolutely perfectly correct! It’s called fiction for a reason!

F1 Explains – 2 November 2023 Quick-fire questions with Bernie Collins & Lawrence Barretto

Q: What is the racing line? How do the drivers know what it is? Is there more than one [on a given track]? Does it change at all? How important is it that the drivers stick to it? 

A: Essentially, the racing line is the fastest route around a track. You can often see it develop as rubber is laid down during practices etc. because it will look darker than the surrounding asphalt. There can be slight variations in the race line based on if drivers take corners with more of a U shape or more of a V shape, and drivers will often purposely leave the race line to set up for an overtake. Usually it’s best to stick to the race line, except during wet conditions because then the rubber that has already been laid down is pretty slippery.

Q: How do race courses gain grip throughout practice sessions and during a race? Are the courses swept or otherwise cleaned before race weekend and between sessions during a weekend?

A: This varies a lot depending on the track. Street circuits like Monaco don’t have any inherent grip levels built up, they’re cleaned throughout the year by road sweepers, sometimes they are even opened back up during the race weekend for civilian traffic. Depending on the weekend, if there are other race series happening (e.g. F2, F1 Academy, etc.) that can help build up the grip on the roads. A little bit of discussion in here about what “laying rubber down” means. Some tracks are just swept of major debris, some are cleaned more abrasively. Some dedicated race tracks host many types of races throughout the year (e.g. COTA) whereas others (e.g. Baku) only ever have the F1 race weekend each year.

Q: Why do the drivers drink from the long bendy straws?

A: The long bendy straws are necessary for the drivers to be able to drink when they have their helmets on, and it’s more efficient to just use the same drinks container the whole time. This also helps the trainers monitor exactly how much of the hydration drinks the drivers are drinking without worrying about evaporation or spills, and helps keep the drinks at the correct temperatures. There is also an actual discussion of how these are very similar to the large water jugs with long straws that hospitals (at least in the US) give to folks who are about to/have just given birth. One of the co-hosts says, of the drivers, “so it’s easier for them to drink with those bendy straws, and they might be pregnant,” and “there are more similarities, when you think about it, between Formula 1 drivers and pregnant people, than you might think…” DO WITH THAT AS YOU WISH, FIC WRITERS.

Q: What actually goes on in the hospitality suites? What is the food like? How do you pay? Who’s in there?

A: The F1 Paddock Club is the highest-end suite and entry costs between $5000 - $9000 per person. There’s another level below that which is slightly cheaper. Each team also has their own hospitality suite. In all of them, there’s an endless supply of very nice food and drinks (sometimes even dedicated pastry chefs), and you don’t pay per item, it’s all covered by your entry. There are lots of special guests as well as clients, potential future partners/sponsors, etc. Sometimes press are invited in as well. The catering teams also look after the crew of their team, most of whom eat all of their meals at the track all weekend.

Q: How can one get a job as an F1 Strategist? Do teams offer internships?

 A: Most strategists have done a mathematics- or engineering-related degree. All of the teams do internships and a lot of them have graduate schemes for folks who have just graduated. Most teams have 50-60 people working on strategy.

Q: What’s the deal with #1 and #2 drivers?

A: Teams often don’t like to admit they have a #1 and #2 driver unless it’s the best strategy to win races or the championships, by having the second driver help out the first driver. A lot of times it is just a matter of which driver performs better over the season. Usually, the best way to get the best out of both drivers is to let them try to outrace their teammate. Whichever driver is ahead after qualifying or the first stint in the race will usually get priority for pit stops, etc. The teams are fundamentally only concerned with team points, not individual driver points. Drivers have agreed to the team’s rules about priorities in advance, even if they do end up arguing about strategy on the radio during the race.

Q: How does the extra point for fastest lap work?

A: A driver can only get that extra point for the fastest lap if they finish in the top ten of the race. There can be some strategy in this as well, e.g. if a driver wants to show their team they do in fact have good pace and should be allowed to pass their teammate. Or, if two drivers are in a close battle for the WDC, and one driver knows they aren’t going to finish in the top ten, they might still pit for fresh tires right at the end of the race and attempt to set the fastest lap, knowing that even though they won’t get the point for it, they will keep their competition from getting that extra point.

Q: How much technology/research from one year’s car can be brought from one year to the next?

A: Even if there are no major regulation changes, teams spend a lot of the year (not just the off-season) working on improving their car. A lot of work is done over the off-season break, though, and sometimes one team will make a massive leap forward in just that off-season development, whereas other teams have to spend the first half of the season still working and bringing upgrades to attempt to catch up. Also, there are often changes from year to year, especially when it comes to the tire compounds that Pirelli provides for that year. (And sometimes there are major regulation changes that must be incorporated into the next year’s car.) Teams can also choose different philosophies in how they design their cars, e.g. whether they want them to be more “slippery” and better on long straights vs. have more downforce which makes them better (faster) at circuits with a lot of corners.

[f1-primers]

check out the main post with suggestions for f1 primers here! [please note: this post is a work in progress & will get added to as more intros, 101s, primers etc are either sent to me or written!] there's a 'submit' button on the profile - please feel free to submit posts :) there's also an ask box, so if you're searching for something in particular send an ask & we'll see if the good people of f1blr can find it for you! FIC WRITERS: check driver tags for plenty of lore posts!

glossaries masterlists intros to f1 essays

f1 primers: technical - overall tag - for anything relating to the cars, how a race works, race weekends, etc - anything non-drivers, pretty much! at some point i wil alphabetise this...

tracks

the cars

race weekends

testing

flags

tyres

corners

physics - a silly tag name but anything to do with aerodynamics, towing, slipstreams, drs, etc etc etc - not specifically relating to bodywork on the car

regulations

strategy

pit stops

driving styles

helmets

media

FIA

business - i.e. anything regarding the commercial aspect of F1

feeder series

medical / training - stuff relating to either the physical training for F1 that drivers do, or relating to medical issues (including - potentially - injuries)

safety

teams: team roles, how they work, etc

mclaren

mercedes

ferrari

haas

alfa romeo

alpha tauri

red bull racing

williams

aston martin

alpine

team roles

f1 primers: fandom - overall tag drivers (listed are 2023 grid) - these tags will have lore, info about etc

lewis hamilton

george russell

max verstappen

sergio perez

charles leclerc

carlos sainz

esteban ocon

pierre gasly

alex albon

logan sargeant

nico hulkenberg

kevin magnussen

yuki tsunoda

daniel ricciardo

valtteri bottas

zhou guanyu

fernando alonso

lance stroll

lando norris

oscar piastri

ex-drivers (will add to this as i go - let me know if you spot any i haven't added but have posted!)

kimi raikkonen

sebastian vettel

nico rosberg

michael schumacher

alain prost

ayrton senna

jenson button

other fandom stuff:

ships - general tag (see below for more specific tags)

rivalries - general tag (see below for more specific tags)

fic help (i.e. details that might be useful when writing about drivers in fic)

ships & rivalries (will add to this as i go - let know if you spot any i haven't added but have posted):

lewis hamilton & nico rosberg - brocedes/the silver war

alain prost & ayrton senna - prosenna

lewis hamilton & sebastian vettel - sewis

max verstappen & charles leclerc - lestappen

max verstappen & daniel ricciardo - maxiel

george russell & alex albon - galex

carloz sainz & oscar piastri - carcar

sebastian vettel & mark webber - sebmark

f1 primers: history - overall tag

controversies

past races - including good ones to watch, etc

f1 primers: resources - overall tag

books or articles to read

tv shows/movies/videos to watch

podcasts

[f1-primers]

This is not a primer per se but does contain a lot of early Maxiel moments (why it even became a ship lol) so might be interesting?

https://www.tumblr.com/catalana33/680537070461222912/part-2-giving-thougtful-gifts-x-x

thank you!!! i think for the drivers' ship/rivalries/lore stuff things like this are great - they're perfect for fic writers (or anyone who just wants to absorb The Lore)

and i really appreciate everyone rallying round sending cool stuff in/writing stuff already - f1blr's answer to wikipedia incoming 😎