You’d be forgiven for thinking that Formula One is just cars driving around in circles for two hours, but with a rich and storied history spanning over 70 years, and with hundreds of millions tuning in 22 sundays a year, it is clear the sport is much much more than that.
You have to go back to the 1920s and 30s to find the roots of Formula One. Initially just a few French people racing cars around roads, the sport quickly grew and a European Grand Prix Championship was set up in the 1920s. These championships were placed on hold during World War II, and after the war was over the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (International Automobile Federation) created a set of rules, and in 1946 we saw the sport first defined. 4 years later a championship was created, and in 1950 the first official Formula One World Championship event was held at Silverstone as the British Grand Prix. The series quickly gained notoriety, and thousands would watch each Grand Prix in person, as the likes of Nino Farina, Alberto Ascari, Sir Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn, Sir Jack Brabham and Juan Manuel Fangio among many others became household names.
The early years of the sport were dominated by Fangio, with the Argentine winning 5 of the first 8 World Drivers Championships, with Nino Farina and Alberto Ascari the only other drivers to become world champion in this period.
Between 1950 and 1960, the Indianapolis 500 was counted as a championship race in order to justify the “World Championship” tag given to the drivers standings. However, there was very little crossover between the Indy 500 and the European Grand Prix, with the cars not even being of the same specifications. The only World Champion to compete in the Indy 500 during this period was Alberto Ascari in 1952.
After the end of Fangio’s dominance, we entered a new period of dominance. This time not by a single driver – but an empire. Between 1958 and 1969 every single World Champion came from either the United Kingdom or a former colony of the United Kingdom – with only Phil Hill in 1961 being from a country outside of the Commonwealth. This period had some of the most incredible racers there has ever been, with the likes of Mike Hawthorn, Sir Jack Brabham, Wolfgang Von Trips, Phil Hill, Sir Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Denny Hulme and Sir Jackie Stewart all competing and winning races in this era.
With the turn of a new decade came an end to this dominance, and in 1970 we saw Austrian Jochen Rindt become World Champion. This was an incredible achievement in itself, but even more so when you consider the fact Rindt had died 4 rounds before the end of the season in a qualifying accident at Monza, aged just 28 – one of the sport’s greatest losses.
Stewart went on to win a second title in 1971, and him and Emerson Fittipaldi swapped Championships until 1975 – where Niki Lauda won his first title. Lauda was incredibly talented, and when he had a horrific crash at the Nürburgring the following year Formula 1 stood in shock. Despite being read his last rite Lauda returned to a Formula 1 car two rounds later. This wasn’t enough however and Lauda lost the title to James Hunt by a single point. The incredible title fight in that season was detailed in the film “Rush”. Lauda passed away in 2019, and he is still remembered today for his incredible bravery and ability behind the wheel.
Lauda won his second title in 1977, followed the next year by American Mario Andretti, winning the title after the death of Ronnie Peterson after the 1978 Italian Grand Prix. Scheckter won the title in 1979 – the only African to win the World Championship, and the following year Alan Jones won Williams their first World Championship.
1981 brought a new ara of dominance, with Brazilians winning 6 of the next 11 world titles, and the decade with some of the most fondly remembered drivers there has ever been. We started out with Piquet winning his first title in 1981, before Keke Rosberg won his only title the following year. In 1983 Piquet returned to the top of the standings, and then in 1984 Lauda won his third and final World title. The next two years saw Alain Prost come out as champion, before Nelson Piquet won his third title in 1987.
Then we saw an era of utter dominance by McLaren that may be impossible to match. In 1988 Mclaren won all but one race as a certain Ayrton Senna won the world title for the first time. Senna transcended the sport, with him being one of the most loved drivers in the sport to this day. Senna did much much more outside the cockpit – helping those less fortunate than himself throughout Brazil and saved the life of fellow racer Erik Comas. Senna died in 1994 after a crash during the San Marino Grand Prix, one of the most tragic weekends in sporting history, the day after Roland Ratzenberger was also killed in a qualifying crash at the Grand Prix. The morning of his death Senna had agreed to become chairman of the soon to be reformed Grand Prix Drivers Association, campaigning for safety improvements. Senna was a deeply charitable man, donating over $400 million of his personal fortune to help poor children, and the Instituto Ayrton Senna was set up shortly after his death, has invested nearly US$80 million over the last 12 years in social programs and actions in partnership with schools, government, NGOs, and the private sector.
Prost beat Senna to the title in 1989, before the Brazilian won two further titles in 1990 and 1991. The following year saw Nigel Mansell finally winning his only world title – having been runner up on three seperate occasions before – in arguably the single greatest season a driver has ever achieved. Williams continued their championship dominance the following yearwith Alain Prost winning his fourth world title in 1993.
After the untimely deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in 1994, Formula 1 increased it’s safety dramatically – leading to some of the most unusually circuit configurations there has ever been. Because every previous World Champion was either dead or retired, the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix was the first Grand Prix since 1958 to have no former World Champion to contest it.
The Monaco Grand Prix that very year was won by a certain Michael Schumacher, who went on to win the world title in 1994 and 1995, before Damon Hill became World Champion in 1996 – marking the first time a father and son had both won World Titles, with his father Graham Hill having been World Champion in 1962 and 1968.
In 1997 we saw the son of another Formula One great become World Champion – this time Jacques Villeneuve, son of Gilles Villeneuve. The final race of the 1997 season, in Jerez, was won by Mika Hakkinen for the first time, who then went on to claim the 1998 and 1999 world titles after tough title fights against Michael Schumacher in 1998 and Eddie Irvine in 1999.
With the dawn of a new millenium came the dawn of a new era of Formula 1, and it was Michael Schumacher who took this era by the throat. 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 all saw Michael Schumacher on top of the standings – an unprecedented 5 titles in a row – as the German brought his total up to 7 World Championships. Schumacher broke almost every record in the book during this era, and his dominance was so much that Formula 1 changed the rules to attempt to stop him.
Schumacher had a horrific skiing crash in 2013, and still has not recovered from it. His son, Mick Schumacher, currently drives in Formula 1 for Haas. He is missed by many, and it feels appropriate to leave a message for him. Keep fighting Michael.
A change in the rules brought a changing of the guards, and Fernando Alonso won the world title in 2005 and 2006, becoming the sport’s youngest World Champion to that point. In 2007 Alonso moved to McLaren, and became teammate to rookie Lewis Hamilton. The two would battle it out all season, and were so inseperable they finished with the exact same points total. Unfortunately for the two of them though, their constant fighting saw Kimi Raikkonen take a deserved world title by a single point – the closest top 3 in Formula 1 history.
2008 saw the first of many championships by Sir Lewis Hamilton, who not only became the only black World Champion – but the only black driver to ever compete in Grand Prix racing – but we’ll get onto him in a bit.
In 2009 we saw the biggest shock in Formula 1 history, as Brawn GP won both World Championships in their first and only season in the sport, with Jenson Button being the man to win the world title.
2000 saw the beginning of an era of dominance for one German driver, 10 years later saw the beginning of an era of dominance for another German driver. It was Sebastian Vettel who became champion in 2010, after a four way title decider on the final race in Abu Dhabi. Vettel then continued this through to 2011, winning 11 of the 19 races, then again winning in 2012 with one of the greatest comeback drives at a wet Interlagos for the season finale.
2013 saw a new level for Vettel, who went on to win a record equalling 13 races that season, including an incredible 9 races in a row – a feat unmatched before and after.
2014 saw new regulations, and with it 7 consecutive drivers titles, and 8 consecutive constructors titles for Mercedes. Sir Lewis Hamilton won his second and third world titles in 2014 and 2015, before Nico Rosberg became champion in 2016 and subsequently retired from Formula 1, becoming the second son of a World Champion to win the title – this time being the son of 1982 Champion Keke Rosberg.
Hamilton then continued where he left off, winning the next four titles in a row, in 2017, 2018. 2019 and 2020, getting the record number of wins and pole positions along the way, and cementing himself as one of Formula One’s very greatest.
Hamilton was within one lap of making it five titles in a row, and becoming an eight time world champion, before Max Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the final lap for the race lead and became the first Dutch World Champion.
You cannot talk about Formula One without mentioning the incredible danger the drivers must go through in order to race. Sometimes the danger has proven too great, and on many occasions it has taken the life of a driver. Thirty-two times has a driver died from an incident during a Grand Prix race weekend which formed part of the World Championship.
Some may see Formula 1 as winning, joy, excitement, bravery and various other positive descriptors. While these words all may be true, they are not what draws us towards the sport. It is the pain, dissappointment, agony, loss, and drama that we watch for. Despite what we know can happen when things go wrong, we are still glued to our screens. None of us want to see anyone die in an F1 car, we don’t want to see anyone get hurt, we don’t want to see someone crash – yet it’s the very threat of these things happening that keeps us watching, keeps us transfixed.
We love seeing drivers go wheel-to-wheel, grazing eachother and coming within millimetres of a crash. We love watching drivers come ever so close to certain death but avoiding it through sheer skill. We love the ensuing chaos caused by a big crash where the drivers are okay.
Martin Brundle put it best when he said:
“It’s a dangerous sport – that’s why we’re tuned in.“
And I don’t think there’s a quote that encaptulates the essence of our fascination with cars driving around fast.
We love the danger, and the danger makes us love the sport.