If Formula One racing is to take place in Valencia for the 2008 season, far more Valencianos will be affected than by the America’s Cup, which is, after all out on the water. Racing in the streets of Valencia will be hard to ignore as it will be in our faces, and it will be loud. It will also be very exciting and that means that many of you who live in the South of Spain will no doubt make the trip for the event. So, unless you are already an aficianado, perhaps it would be a good thing for the rest of us if we all got to know a little about this new event that will galvanize our city, if it happens.
I visited the Wikipedia Encyclopedia on-line at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One to gather some facts and figures for us to use as background.
Formula One racing is quite simply the highest form of racing of this kind. The “Formula” is a set of rules that are applied to this class of race. Formula One rules are not quite the same as the rules for Formula Three. As a driver you are at the top of your sport if you are in the starting line-up of the 22 cars in a Formula One race.
Formula One Racing, usually abbreviated as F1, and also known as Grand Prix racing, is said to be the most expensive sport of all. However, when considering the mega-money spent by the America’s Cup teams that seems difficult to believe. We can say for sure that F1 is among the top five in the costliest sports. Budgets are a closely kept secret, but estimates put the figures at between $60 million to $400 million per team for a season’s racing. Such astronomical cost of the competition has caused 28 teams to withdraw since 1990.
F1 racing is regulated by the Federation Internationale de’ Automobile (FIA), which has its headquarters at Place de la Concorde, Paris. The famous face that is most familiar in association with F1 is that of Bernie Ecclstone.
The formalization of the sport began in 1946 with the standardization of rules under the FIA, and interest in the emerging genre grew slowly but steadily throughout the 50,s, 60s, and 70,s. From 1981 the sport came into its own with an explosion of interest, drawing unto itself a multitude of participants and would-be investors.
There soon came about a separation of the boys from the men due to rapidly rising costs. Cars that were built privately were soon outclassed by those built by established motor manufacturers to the extent that today, virtually all racing cars are built by name factories in their special divisions.
As part of the shake-out there are four giants that dominate the sport. They are Teams McLaren, Williams, Renault, and of course Ferrari, who have survived from the start. Since 1984 the world championships have been won by one of these four exclusively. However, for the 2006 season there were eleven teams competing.
During the early 2000 years public interest fell off due to the predictability of the outcome. Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari was unbeatable. During his 15 year racing career, Schumacher won a total of 91 Grand Prix titles. In the 2004 season, he won 13 of the 18 races. Overall, he won a total of seven World Championships, and was undisputed Champion for 1,800 successive days.
Racing is for two titles: The Driver’s Championship, and The Constructor’s Championship. Schumacher won seven Driver’s, and Ferrari has won fourteen Constructor’s championships. Fernando Alonso ended Schumacher’s reign by winning the 2005 Championship and that led to the retirement of one of the greatest drivers who has left an imposing record to beat.
A race covers 305 kilometres and can last not longer than two hours, but usually is over within ninety minutes. Only the first eight finishers of the twenty-two starters receive points on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. First place gains 10 points, second place 8, and third place 6, and so on. These points count toward the end of season result. Rules are somewhat complex, but broadly speaking a participant is allowed two stops for change of tyres and two for fuel during a race.
Currently, engines are standardised at 2.4 litres and V8 cylinder configuration producing 740 bhp and 20,000 rpm. (revolutions per minute). Attainable speeds of 350 km/h have been reached on track, but Honda, in an off-track experiment adhering to FIA rules reached 415 km/h. The fuel that is used is similar to that which is commercially available, although it smells more like aviation fuel.
Also, just so you know, what seems like a fireball from the rear of the car is not from the exhaust, but is in fact a light that is evidence that the traction control is working to keep the car from fishtailing.
Another particularly interesting factoid is that normally, an F1 course runs clockwise, but the course at Cheste runs counter-clockwise. This means that extreme stress will be placed upon drivers by the high G-forces present when they are cornering in mostly left-hand bends, and those G-forces will pull driver’s heads in the opposite direction than normal.
The primary consideration of the FIA in their rule book is that of safety. There were two deaths of drivers while behind the wheel in 1994, but since then there have not been any further such incidents, although two track marshals somehow got themselves killed.
During February there was F1 practising at the track in Cheste. I visited there in the company of a Dutch racing car driver, Jan de Jonge and his family, as they were interested to see how the Dutch team Spyker were getting along. You will immediately recognize the Spyker car as it is a brilliant Orange colour. Jan proved to be a valuable guide, and in a subsequent column we will be talking with him about racing as seen “From the Driver’s Seat.”
Always practice caution when driving. Remember, Care will get you There!
Copyright (c) 2007 Eugene Carmichael
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