There are about a thousand different sports out there. I personally think that the best one has to be Formula 1 racing. There are a lot of people that actually do not know what this sport entails, so for those people: it is basically really fast cars that go around a track. Now this is a really broad description, but before I get into it, we need to know the different teams and racers of this sport.

Red Bull Racing

Manager: Christian Horner
Drivers
​
Max Verstappen (my husband)
Age: 26
Nationality: Dutch
Sergio “Checo” Perez
Age: 33
Nationality: Mexican

Mercedes

Manager: Toto Wolff
Drivers
​
Lewis Hamilton
Age: 38
Nationality: British
George Russell
Age: 25
Nationality: British

Ferrari

Manager: Frederick Vasseur
Drivers
​
Carlos Sainz Jr.
Age: 29
Nationality: Spanish
Charles Leclerc
Age: 25
Nationality: Monégasque

Aston Martin

​Manager: Mike Krack
​Drivers
​
Fernando Alonso
Age: 42
Nationality: Spanish
Lance Stroll
Age: 24
Nationality: Canadian

McLaren

Manager: Andrea Stella
​Drivers
​
Oscar Piastri
Age: 22
Nationality: Australian
Lando Norris
Age: 23
Nationality: British

Alpine

Manager: Bruno Famin
​Drivers
​
Esteban Ocon
Age: 27
Nationality: French
Pierre Gasly
Age: 27
Nationality: French

​Williams

Manager: James Vowles
​Drivers
Alexander Albon
Age: 27
Nationality: Thai
Logan Sargeant
Age: 22
Nationality: American

Alfa Romeo

Manager: Alessandro Alunni Bravi
​Drivers
​
Valtteri Bottas
Age: 34
Nationality: Finnish
Zhou Guanyu
Age: 24
Nationality: Chinese ​

Haas

Manager: Guenther Steiner
​Drivers
​
Nico Hulkenberg
Age: 36
Nationality: German
Kevin Magnussen
Age: 31
Nationality: Danish

AlphaTauri

Manager: Franz Tost
​Drivers

Yuki Tsunoda
Age: 23
Nationality: Japanese
Daniel Ricciardo
Age: 34
Nationality: Australian
Liam Lawson
Age: 21
Nationality: Australian
Hendrik Johannes Nicasius "Nyck" de Vries
Age: 28
Nationality: Dutch
(Yes there is 4 but that is because Nyck got kicked out and Daniel replaced him, but he got hurt so Liam went in. Daniel will be returning soon)
So now that we know who these people are, let’s get into what the sport actually is.

Schedule

The schedule for the race weekend is one of the most important things. The way it usually goes is that there is free practice 1 and 2 on Friday. This is basically used so the drivers can have a feel of the track and see if anything has changed since the last time they were there. The next day, Saturday, is reserved for free practice 3 and qualifying. The last practice is to get comfortable with the track in order to prepare for qualifying.
Now here is where the fun actually starts: qualifying. It is separated into 3 different parts: Q1, Q2, and Q3. After each section, the five drivers with the lowest times are eliminated. At the end, the person with the best time is the person who is one pole position, or basically first place for the start of the race. Qualifying basically determines what positions the racers start from on race day. 
And finally, we have the race on Sunday. This is basically self-explanatory: racers go around the track for a certain amount of laps and the person with the best time wins, with second and third coming into podium positions. There are certain weekends when we have a sprint and sprint shootout. Instead of there being two practices on Friday, there is usually only one and qualifying. On Saturday we have the sprint shootout and the sprint. It is basically a chance to spice things up and have more excitement. The shootout is like qualifying and determines the places of the sprint race. Then later in the day, we have the sprint.

Grand Prix

So what actually is a grand prix in Formula 1 racing? If you have ever played Mario Kart, it’s the different races you have in a competition. There are around 23 different races in a season. This usually depends on how many years a track has and the weather conditions leading up to the grand prix weekend. Each track has a contract for a certain amount of years, for instance, Qatar has a track that has been given a contract for 10 years. This means that for the next 9 years, there will be a race at some point in the season in Qatar. ​
Weather has a huge role in how a race weekend functions: it could determine whether there’s going to be a race or not. One huge factor of the weather is heat and rain. There have been many instances in which the drivers have had to race in the rain this year, but it often results in a safety car or the race pausing so they can wait out the rain. There have only been a few instances in which the rain has affected racing conditions to the point where certain events are being canceled
Like I stated previously, heat is also a huge factor. A huge example of this was in the 2023 Qatar grand prix. The drivers were racing in horrible conditions, Logan had to retire due to heat exhaustion, two drivers could barely get out of their cars, and a lot of other ones were putting the visor on their helmets up in order to get air. In the end, there are very different weather conditions that could affect how a race runs. But these races show us how each team is advancing with their cars and the different upgrades they have made.

Tires

There are different tires used for the races. These are soft, medium, and hard tires. Each has their own purpose in helping a driver win. The soft ones are used to provide the most grip on the track, but they are not very durable because they get run down quickly. The medium tires are used to also have a grip on the track, but the bright side to them is that they are very durable and allow a driver to go many laps on them. Lastly, we have the hard tires, which are mainly used to help the driver go for many laps. They do not have a strong grip, but the reason why these can be preferred is if the manager wants the car to stay on the track for a while. As I mentioned, tires lose their grip due to the fact that they are being used at high speeds for such a long time. ​
This takes us to pit stops. This is when a driver goes into the pit lane in order to change their tires. It is often the race engineers that call when it is time to change the tires, but there are certain times when the driver gets to have a say in this as well. These pit stops are timed, as it is important to get the lowest time because it could decide what position someone comes in once the tires are changed.

Points

There are a couple different ways to get points in a race weekend. The most common one is after the actual race. 1st through 10th place receive points. First receives around 25 points while tenth only receives 1 or 2 points. The amount of points goes down as each place goes down. Points are important because they determines who our world champion is. The more points a driver has the better because they are closer to winning the world championship.
As of Saturday October 6, Max Verstappen won the championship with 407 points. The other way that someone could win points is with the sprint. Like I said before, it is a way to keep people pumped up for things to come. The only thing that is different is that only the top 8 places receive points. And the maximum amount of points a person can receive is 8. There is one final way to receive a point, and that is by receiving the fastest lap. This pretty much explains itself: if you get the fastest lap, you get a point. 

Safety Car

This is something that can be a bit self explanatory as well. It’s a car that comes out to make sure the drivers are being safe around the track when something happens. It is only used when people crash and they want drivers to be careful and not crash themselves or so they don’t damage their cars in any way. ​

DNF/ Retiring/ DNS

DNF, or did not finish, is what you think it is. A driver did not finish the race due to different reasons. The main reason for this is that a driver crashed and was not able to finish the race. Next, we go on to something like retiring the car. It is when a driver can not continue anymore and has to stop racing. It could be because they are sick or simply because the car itself has a problem. We can continue on with the complete opposite of these:  the DNS, or did not start. Once again, it can explain itself, saying that a driver did not start the race.
Now that I've given you some valuable information, you can go out and watch a race so you actually understand it. Just know that if you do end up liking it, you will be roped into the F1 cult.

Karla Lopez