Formula One Racing is, quite simply, the paramount of karting. It is the professional form of the sport in its entirety. Formula One is an international phenomenon, a media conglomerate that rakes in millions and millions of dollars a year from advertising, sponsorship, and broadcast revenues. Professional drivers with millionaire bank accounts race these majestic kart marvels that are unprecedented, flush with technological luxuries – everything from hard to produce lightweight frames that glide the machine to tires with unsurpassed grooving style that exemplify powerful movement on the circuit.

There is no sport that bests epitomizes the term “global sport” like Formula One racing. Many countries serve as active participants in shaping the professional karting scene – for example, Malaysia is a hot spot for racing (Fernando Alonso, a Spanish-born driver under Team Renault recently won a race there) and Italy plays a vital role in designing and manufacturing first class, top-of-the-line karts. Drivers and racing personalities hail from all parts of the word – you have the charismatic and popular Italian Renault boss Flavio Briatore, the handsome young 23 year old racing prodigy in Fernando Alonso who stars in a Renault Megane commercial with his pet pig, and one of the highest earning sports figures in world history in Michael Schumacher. Rivalries are common in Formula One – adding the edge of excitement with every zip of the curve and nitrous boost of the machine.

In order to better become acquainted with Formula One racing, we must understand its organization. Karting goes way beyond pitting 3 2-cycle engine machines against each other on an oval circuit. Formula One is divided into drivers & their respective teams. Under such trademark car companies like Renault, Ferrari, and Toyota – each driver has an assembling cast of staffers consisting of mechanics, engineers, and designers all working towards one goal: to make that speedster faster using all the resources at their disposal. Headed by team bosses that are adept at creating sponsorship opportunities and assembling the best cast for each team, Formula One employs the finest specialists in the business with backgrounds in computer and automobile – even specialists with aerospace experience! High end, (rare technology reserved for space projects) in some instances, create the fastest and most efficient car possible. According to FI rules, racing teams must design, construct, and built their own karts from scratch. The staff is the pride of each individual team – capable and able to win every 57 lap enduro race from Malaysia to Great Britain.

Formula One cars can be summed up in two words: technological marvels. These sleek, low riding gems ripping through laps at speeds topping 200 mph. consist of more than just a chassis, an engine, and four wheels. For starters, the engine is located behind the cockpit as opposed to standard automobiles. They consist of 10 cylinder engines that produce heat which propel the kart forward. Team engineers are always looking into ways to make their engines more powerful. Currently, 1000 bhp (a scale for horsepower) has not been topped – it is up to the teams to produce an engine which would fare well supporting speed as well as support the chassis. And as we know, there is a snug open cockpit for Jarno Trulli to maneuver his machine in.

Construction of Formula One race cars is unprecedented. The first rule of thumb in designing a bonafide piece of framework is to make it weigh as least as possible. Less kart weight correlates to faster speeds. For this reason, team brains use lightweight material that is hard to construct. The minimum weight of a kart must be 600 kg including the driver. This ensures a level playing field, although teams are allowed to keep their money making construction methods a secret from other teams. Team staff is very highly regarded in the Formula One business. Their technological and dynamical know-how of the machines they build is a valuable asset to any team. And like free agents, they are lured and signed by the likes of companies creating a recruiting war for their services. Of course, there are restrictions for creating karts. You cannot add nitro boosts to your machine or use technology that resembles life in the year 3000. Teams are always looking to bend the rules slightly and coming up ways to beat the competition legally.

Professional kart tires have to have optimum characteristics to ensure smooth driving. For one, tires have to have grooving technology built into them. For the novices, grooves are indented lines in tires that allow for it to slow down considerably on turns and to adapt to the track surface. No matter what the technology, kart tires are simply not adept at withstanding the rigors of asphalt, concrete, and dirt. For this reason, Formula One racers are allotted two pit stops during the course of a 57 lap race to change tires. If you’ve ever watched a Formula One race, team staffers with lightning quick hands have an extremely limited time for which to remove and replace tires in the pit stop – often times not exceeding over 7 seconds! Regulations are placed on tire grooves (a minimum of four) to allow for an even playing field for all racers. Remember enthusiasts, grooves serve more to slow down the kart than to speed it up.

Chassis construction with its illustrious carbon fiber material, tires with indented grooves, team specialists with a knack for speed, and engines which burn heat like calories is the epitome of a Formula One race car. All of these attributes contribute to the performance of the vehicle in racing lap after lap. As a result of all this technology, Formula One cars leave people breathless reaching consistent speeds of 200 mph. on the race track. More impressive is the time needed to go from 0 mph to 100 mph – 5 seconds! Formula One is only moving forward with the advent of new features – like improved horsepower engines, more lightweight materials, new ballasts to add weight to the car, and more. Behind that stylish, mind blowing chassis that pique our interest is that top-class technology that makes Formula One racing so great.

The development of Formula 1 is attributed to the earliest motor racing days.  During the 1930s, a few people start to discuss about the championship of the formula one drivers.  However, the plan has to be postponed due to the World War II.

In 1946, the idea was re-mentioned again. The Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) was responsible of creating the formula one. In the beginning, the formula one is called formula A.  Despite that, many people are used to calling formula A as formula one. In 1950, formula one becomes the official name.

The formula one originally follow the pre war regulations. The pre war regulations set a standard for the cars used in formula one.  In the next year, the he first championship was held. In the 1956, the first world championship for formula 1 takes place at Silverstone. The first Formula 1 race took place in the previous month in Pau. There are also several non championship formula races that are held until the 1983. In 1983, Formula 1 feels that it is not profitable to run the non championship races so they are cancelled.

They are no lack of private drivers. The private drivers are those who purchase their own car and compete in the race. The cars used in formula 1 race include Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati. The most important driver is Juan Manual Fangio. Juan Manual Fangio won driver F1 championships  by using cars from different manufacturers. The man who obtain the inaugural title is called Giuseppe Farina.

In the 1958, the route of the races are shortened to 500 km/300 miles. Later, Fangio retired from the Formula races. Mike Hawthorn becomes  the next person to take up the 1958 championship. Mike Hawthorn comes from England.  He was the first person to represent his country in the formula races.

The funding of Formula 1 is a mystery for many fans and even those inside the sport’s inner circles have trouble understanding the complexities. What is generally known is that funding for Formula 1 consists of huge sponsorship, television coverage and merchandise sales. The merchandise sales are somewhat of an afterthought for sponsors but as the popularity of Formula 1 is growing the merchandise market is also on the increase.
Formula 1 is like many other sports in respect to television coverage. Advertisers will pay for slots in the TV coverage and may even sponsor a specific channel’s coverage of an event. This lucrative method brings vast amounts of funding to the organising body of Formula 1, the FIA as well as its funding company, Formula One. This is important as Formula One is in the driving seat of presenting the Formula 1 package to the public, hence it needs immense funding to carry out these roles.
The Formula 1 teams support themselves in a number of ways; the bigger teams will be able to court sponsors from some of the biggest names in business, whereas smaller teams must make do with lower profiles patrons. Teams also produce their own merchandise ranges to cater for the needs of the average fans; once again the more popular teams obviously make more money.
Venues in the Formula 1 calendar are somewhat limited with their advertising freedom. As Formula 1 is ran by a small number of big business share holders the venue bosses are pushed out of the commercial decisions. Most venues do not have the rights to place their own signage and must pay to host the race. The majority of money made by venues is in the ticket and merchandise sales once fans are inside the track.
This explains why Formula 1 tickets can be very expensive, mainly due to venue managers trying to recoup some of the 13 million dollars they fork out annually to host a race. Hosting a Formula 1 race however is more about the prestige of being a premier world race track.
Formula One is the name of the business behind the sport of Formula 1; it is these businessmen and financiers that control how each race is funded and which sponsors are given preferential treatment. They also decide how much to ‘top up’ F1 teams’ merchandise and sponsorship profits; although this is kept a secret and can sometimes cause friction between teams.
The teams in recent years have not been making enough money from merchandise and sponsorship sales and are beginning to barter for more money from Formula One. Their argument is that they are the entertainers in the sport and so should get a bigger slice of the cake, whether this will be successful is doubtable.
The drivers are not paid from Formula One funds but are employees of the racing teams. The astronomical sums that many of them receive are incomprehensible to those on an average wage, they are however the best drivers in the world and have worked hard to get where they are. The popular drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso can also sign separate merchandising deals, usually for such luxury items as watches and jewellery.
The Formula 1 gravy train is driven by the big business that is Formula One, while Bernie Ecclestone holds a small part of the power in Formula 1; the big businesses that put up a lot of the funding ultimately demand respect. The bankers of the Formula One Company balance payment and income to keep Formula 1 at the pinnacle of motor racing entertainment.
Seemingly the biggest losers in the Formula 1 world are the venues, as ticket sales are most probably the smallest income when compared with the huge TV sponsorship and merchandise deals. In what is seen as an exclusive sport for the rich, the average fan can only afford his team’s merchandise. With high ticket prices and the worldwide nature of the sport it is hard for anyone but the super rich to follow this sport closely from the trackside.

* Subject to circuit approval

Most guys have at one time or another dreamed or driving the latest Ferrari or getting into a classic Lamborghini Diablo and these ambitions and now quite simple to achieve. Track days are now popping up all over the country with either work related team bonding days or just private people turning up to fulfil their passion of driving fast cars.

Many of the cars are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and are of course out of the reach of all but the super rich but these race days allow ordinary people the chance to feel like a formula one racer for the day. Most cars will do twice the legal speed limits and some even more.

Safety is paramount and you are taught how to handle the cars and important things like the optimum racing line and what all the safety flags mean. The day normally starts with a hour in the class room followed by couple of laps with and instructor in a more basic car before moving up to the supercars.

I would really recommend one of these days out as the perfect gift idea for the petrol head in your life.