Formula One (Open Topic)

Recently, I was scrolling on my phone, watching reels on Instagram, and suddenly, I came across a reel talking about the sport of fast racing, F1. I had heard about it before but had not given it much attention. What stood out to me was how they were racing in Las Vegas, down the strip, for the first time ever. Which immediately piqued my interest. I was reading many of the comments, and a lot were implying that Las Vegas was doing a lot in terms of roadwork and repaving for most of the competitors to be fighting from second, which struck me as odd. Why Second and not first? So I googled it: Max Verstappen, a Dutch racer who races with Red Bull Racing, has 13 wins and 400 points on the season; you get points based on race placement, and the leader wins a championship at the end. Twenty total competitors compete for ten different racing teams. These racing teams are also fighting for a championship because both drivers accumulate points for the team. However, Red Bull Racing has dominated this season and already won with five or so races left. As you can tell, I became enamored with the sport, its fast-paced pace and constant action, and the thrill of seeing a crash happen at 300 kilometers per hour, assuming the drivers are okay. This high rate of speed and the car technology make this sport way more interesting than NASCAR. Not only that, but the track design is something to note. In my experience, NASCAR is one straight circle on a track; F1 has an intricately designed track with tight turns and long turns to allow any rider with any setup of car to make a run at victory and make up speed. There are different combinations of cars you can set, like preferring higher speeds while sacrificing downforce (Which helps with turning into corners), preferring downforce while sacrificing higher speeds, or even tire pressure; the lower it is, the more grip they have, but the lower acceleration they have out of turns. Even type of tire, they have soft, medium, and hard; these in long races with 50+ laps are crucial decisions to make, as soft tires are great for grip and making turns easier but have way less of a lifespan (Meaning there grip gives out quicker), so you'd have to go to the pit (where they swap tires and refuel) stop earlier, which slows down your time. Hard tires sacrifice grip at the expense of having a long lifespan, meaning you don't lose that time from pitting. So a lot goes into it, adding so much anticipation to the sport, as Max Verstappen, like I mentioned prior, had been dominating. His team seemingly picked the wrong setup for his car, given the track layout in the Singapore race, and he placed around 10th. It's unbelievable and non-stop action that has caused me to become addicted.