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A Peep into the History of Formula One Race

From ancient times mankind has made immense effort to build technological marvel that can fly like a bird and run like a horse. The passion for speed and the wish to fly have given birth to many exhilarating sports. Formula One race being one of them carries an interesting origin. This glamorous racing sports has come through a long way till it become one of the most popular racing event in the world.

The origin of F1 racing started from European Grand Prix Motor Racing in early 20th century. These races originated from France and slowly spread to Italy, Spain, and Germany. The first F1 world championship race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950.

After the World War II in 1950, FIA (Federation of International Automobile) announced their plans for a more structured world championship. On 10th April 1950, the first contest titled as International formula One race was held. Juan Manuel Fangio won the first race at the Pau grand prix in his Alfa Romeo.

During the first two decades, the F1 cars did not have any regulations in parameters like weight and construction. Cars from the different brand had dissimilar weight and designs. Even the tyres were not of uniform type. Aerodynamics was restricted to long cylindrical shape without any wings and air vents. Then with the passage of time this sport start gaining popularity along with changes in rules and regulations.

The major development in the design of the Formula1 cars happened during 70s when aerofoils or wings were introduced to increase the down force. The technology used Bernoulli's Principle, exactly the same principle used in aircraft wings but with minor changes. The wings creates huge amount of downforce which helps the car to spin off during cornering while providing the drivers more control on the vehicle. This dramatically increases the speed of the F1 cars. It amazingly improves the traction of the vehicles on the track. Other innovations in the design of the F1cars include nose wings and airboxes.

This era also witnessed numerous regulations in the entire sport by the governing body and the FIA. The regulations were made for the design of the cars, safety, drivers, and circuits. Safety became a very important subject for regulators due to increasing fatalities during that time. The specific regulations for safety included the defining of cockpit size, mandatory design specifications for fuel tank and body, introduction of gravel arrested roads, and standardisation of helmets.

The new implemented rules brought a complete change in the F1 cars. The uniform specifications for the engines gave the manufacturers a tough time to design more reliable engines with better performance than their competitors. The leading manufactures like Ferrari, Brabham, Lotus, McLaren were innovative and efficient enough to designing cars with those new regulations and changed the face of the F1 for ever.

Eventually, various big companies start showing interest in the sports and begin investing huge amount. The game gradually becomes a fashion icon with many renowned brands and celebrities sponsoring it. This was the time when F1 witnessed three of its most talented drivers- Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Niki Lauda.

The next decade (1980-1990) was more eventful in terms of new emerging design, competitions and regulations. Carbon fibre was first introduced this time that is still use in the construction of F1 cars. Early 80s saw the entry turbocharged engines.

Popular teams like Williams, Renault, and Benetton actively became the part of the sport. Many more standardisation exercises like uniform tyre components, pit lane restrictions, more track rules etc were introduced by the organizers. Computerised designing also became popular among manufacturers. Millions of dollars were invested in designing the cars. The McLaren dominated the second half of the decade. The two new legends Ayerton Senna and Alain Prost gave some spectacular wheel races in the history of Formula1. Nelson Piquet was another great driver of this era who won the championship thrice.

During 90s, the F1 race experienced a mixed feeling. In one side when it lost one of the greatest drivers Ayerton Senna, in the side it got the most successful and popular driver Michael Shcumacher. The beginning of the decade started with the same note the previous decade ended i.e witnessing the fearsome battle between Prost and Senna. The nineties started with computerisation taking complete control on performance. It was clearly a game of money and technology and the ability of the driver came second. This was then slowly realised by FIA and in 1994, they restructured specifications which shifted the challenges to the driver to reflect the true abilities.It was a completely new game after that.

After Senna's tragic death on May 1st, 1994 during San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, FIA introduced many safety measures which includes mandating pit speed limits, modifications which reduces downforce, limited wing sizes, increased cockpit openings etc.

One major change in an F1 car during the first half of nineties was the steering wheel. Earlier, the steering wheel of the F1 cars was just like a normal steering wheel with just two or three buttons on it. With new innovations, the steering wheels got transformed to a complete control centre of the car, enabling the drivers to have more accurate and safe driving. The new steering wheel had controls for gear shifts, engine mapping, launch control, traction control, radio controls, pitlane speed limiter, differentials, display, breaking settings and many more. With more than 12 controls, nearly 150 separate items, the transformation of the steering wheel is definitely the most important change happened for a Formula1 car during this decade.

The strict parameters introduced for each and every component from the engine to suspension, F1 cars looked alike except for the colour by the end of nineties. During this time, Schumacher stepped into the game along with the great driver Finnish Mika Hakkinen who won two world titles.

The new century saw Formula1 races transforming to an extremely sophisticated and complex sport. With over 65 percent of design happening on the computer, and huge spending on testing the vehicle before the launch and manufacturer's budget went up exorbitantly. Commercial aspect became the most important factor in designing the race schedules and sponsorships. Meanwhile the cars became way more complex than their ancestors. Even the tyre components took lot of research to develop. Widespread use of computers resulted in monitoring every movement of the car and its functioning. Accurate timing of each activity made the competition much more difficult for each team to win. FIA introduced many more regulations including those for the pit lane, parc ferme', race start etc. The F1 car design team has very limited scope for improvising the performance of the car because of the strict specification charts decided by the ruling body. Still they find enough scope for optimisation making their car a tough competitor.

The first 5 years in a row was a complete domination by Michael Schumacher who secured world championship titles for each season. With seven titles, he easily became the greatest driver.

Fernando Alonso gave tough competition to the rest in 2005 and 2006 and became world champion for two consecutive years. In 2005, he became the youngest champion at the age of 24 (Until the world saw another young and challenging driver Lewis Hamilton securing the title at 23yrs). Iceman Kimi Raikinon is another talented and very popular world champion of this decade.

Formula One is one of the sports which has undergone the maximum changes in the sporting history. The recent global economic crisis is forcing the manufacturers now to reduce cost. One of the very prominent team Honda withdrew its hands from the sport. FIA has introduced a lot of new regulations to help reduce expenses. New cars are designed with better fuel economy and longer life. This would be the beginning of cost cutting, letting F1 fans to see yet another transformation to the cars and the sport.

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