What is Formula 1?
It has been described as the world's biggest Maths competition by Hannah Fry, and involves a colourful international circus of glamour and horsepower on their annual trek around the globe.
The US company Liberty Media has taken over the reigns in the recent years, which also made the sport a little more accessible to newcomers.
If you only know it from the Netflix docuseries "Drive to Survive" you might think it is a competition in creative swearing.
This year Sir Lewis Hamilton is attempting to break all remaining records, aiming for his 8th world championship title. Last year he had it in the bag with a few races to spare, since the Mercedes AMG team was simply dominant and no other team even got close. Ferrari, their main competitor in 2018 and 2019, have not technically been cheating, but after they stopped "not cheating" their engines were down on power.
Why is this year different?
This is Hondas last year as engine supplier, and they are going all-in, while Mercedes is perhaps more forward-looking. The regulations of the sport will change quite significantly in 2022, that means the cars will look very different from next year. While Mercedes will be more interested in developing an engine for 2022 and beyond, Honda puts everything into this years' power unit. The teams supplied by Honda (Red Bull and Italian Red Bull, see below) will be going for it, and the spearhead of this attack is Max Verstappen, the Dutch Wunderkind and son of former F1 driver Joss Verstappen.
That brings us to:
The Teams and Drivers
Team (Country) - Power Unit (boldened how the team is typically referred to)
Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen (Switzerland) - Ferrari
The Cars
Formula 1 cars are purpose-built to go as fast as possible around a series of different international racetracks.
It is quite noticeable that the only US team in the grid drives with a giant Russian flag on it's side.
While they might look similar at first glance, they are not. F1 is a manufacturers championship, so every team needs to design and build their own cars. Only a few key components can be purchased from other suppliers (usually other teams), such as the engine or the gearbox. The only parts all teams have in common are: the tyres, the halo protection device and the TV cameras mounted on top of the car.
They might not look like your typical Toyota Prius, but all F1 cars are hybrid vehicles, running on the unholy combination of lightning and dead dinosaurs. There are 4 engine suppliers in the sport at the moment:
Mercedes, who have dominated the current F1 era since 2014;
Ferrari, who have dominated suicide notes since 2008;
Renault, who in 2015 claimed to compete for race wins in 2018;
Honda, who spent years trying to catch up with the other three and have the tendency to quit F1 as soon as they have a competitive engine and car. Writing this at the beginning of the 2021 season, the engine looks rather mighty...
The Schedule
Bahrain GP 28th March (HAM/VET/BOT)
Imola (Italian) GP 18th April
Portugese GP 2nd May
Spanish GP 9th May
Monaco GP 23rd May
Azerbaijan GP 6th June
Canadian GP 13th June
French GP 27th June
Austrian GP 4th July
British GP 18th July
Hungarian GP 1st August
Belgian GP 29th August
Dutch GP 5th September
Italian GP (Monza) 12th September
Russian GP 26th September
Singapore GP 3rd October
Japanese GP 10th October
United States GP 24th October
Mexico City GP 31st October
Sao Paulo GP 7th November
Australian GP 21st November
Saudi Arabian GP 5th December
Abu Dhabi GP 12th December (finale)
Current Standings (after 1 GP)
Lewis Hamilton
Max Verstappen
Valterri Bottas
Lando Norris
Sergio Perez
Charles Leclerc
Daniel Ricciardo
Carlos Sainz Jr
Yuki Tsunoda
Lance Stroll
rest of the field still zero points
Feel free to discuss other motorsports in this thread.
If there is enough interest for other racing series other OTs can be created, but for now:
It has been described as the world's biggest Maths competition by Hannah Fry, and involves a colourful international circus of glamour and horsepower on their annual trek around the globe.
The US company Liberty Media has taken over the reigns in the recent years, which also made the sport a little more accessible to newcomers.
If you only know it from the Netflix docuseries "Drive to Survive" you might think it is a competition in creative swearing.
This year Sir Lewis Hamilton is attempting to break all remaining records, aiming for his 8th world championship title. Last year he had it in the bag with a few races to spare, since the Mercedes AMG team was simply dominant and no other team even got close. Ferrari, their main competitor in 2018 and 2019, have not technically been cheating, but after they stopped "not cheating" their engines were down on power.
Why is this year different?
This is Hondas last year as engine supplier, and they are going all-in, while Mercedes is perhaps more forward-looking. The regulations of the sport will change quite significantly in 2022, that means the cars will look very different from next year. While Mercedes will be more interested in developing an engine for 2022 and beyond, Honda puts everything into this years' power unit. The teams supplied by Honda (Red Bull and Italian Red Bull, see below) will be going for it, and the spearhead of this attack is Max Verstappen, the Dutch Wunderkind and son of former F1 driver Joss Verstappen.
That brings us to:
The Teams and Drivers
Team (Country) - Power Unit (boldened how the team is typically referred to)
Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen (Switzerland) - Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen (7) Finland
Antonio Giovinazzi (99) Italy
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda (Italy) - HondaPierre Gasly (10) France
Yuki Tsunoda (22) Japan
Alpine F1 Team (France) - RenaultFernando Alonso (14) Spain
Esteban Ocon (31) France
Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (UK) - MercedesSebastian Vettel (5) Germany
Lance Stroll (18) Canada
Scuderia Mission Winnow Ferrari (Italy) - FerrariCharles Leclerc (16) Monaco
Carlos Sainz Jr. (55) Spain
Uralkali Haas F1 Team (US) - FerrariNikita Mazepin (9) Russia*
Mick Schumacher (47) Germany
McLaren F1 Team (UK) - MercedesDaniel Ricciardo (3) Australia
Lando Norris (4) UK
Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (Germany) - MercedesLewis Hamilton (44) UK
Valtteri Bottas (77) Finland
Red Bull Racing Honda (Austria) - HondaSergio Perez (11) Mexico
Max Verstappen (33) Netherlands
Williams Racing (UK) - MercedesNicholas Latifi (6) Canada
George Russel (63) UK
The Cars
Formula 1 cars are purpose-built to go as fast as possible around a series of different international racetracks.
It is quite noticeable that the only US team in the grid drives with a giant Russian flag on it's side.
While they might look similar at first glance, they are not. F1 is a manufacturers championship, so every team needs to design and build their own cars. Only a few key components can be purchased from other suppliers (usually other teams), such as the engine or the gearbox. The only parts all teams have in common are: the tyres, the halo protection device and the TV cameras mounted on top of the car.
They might not look like your typical Toyota Prius, but all F1 cars are hybrid vehicles, running on the unholy combination of lightning and dead dinosaurs. There are 4 engine suppliers in the sport at the moment:
Mercedes, who have dominated the current F1 era since 2014;
Ferrari, who have dominated suicide notes since 2008;
Renault, who in 2015 claimed to compete for race wins in 2018;
Honda, who spent years trying to catch up with the other three and have the tendency to quit F1 as soon as they have a competitive engine and car. Writing this at the beginning of the 2021 season, the engine looks rather mighty...
The Schedule
Bahrain GP 28th March (HAM/VET/BOT)
Imola (Italian) GP 18th April
Portugese GP 2nd May
Spanish GP 9th May
Monaco GP 23rd May
Azerbaijan GP 6th June
Canadian GP 13th June
French GP 27th June
Austrian GP 4th July
British GP 18th July
Hungarian GP 1st August
Belgian GP 29th August
Dutch GP 5th September
Italian GP (Monza) 12th September
Russian GP 26th September
Singapore GP 3rd October
Japanese GP 10th October
United States GP 24th October
Mexico City GP 31st October
Sao Paulo GP 7th November
Australian GP 21st November
Saudi Arabian GP 5th December
Abu Dhabi GP 12th December (finale)
Current Standings (after 1 GP)
Lewis Hamilton
Max Verstappen
Valterri Bottas
Lando Norris
Sergio Perez
Charles Leclerc
Daniel Ricciardo
Carlos Sainz Jr
Yuki Tsunoda
Lance Stroll
rest of the field still zero points
Feel free to discuss other motorsports in this thread.
If there is enough interest for other racing series other OTs can be created, but for now:
