The General History Of F1 (and safety?):
Formula One originated from the World Manufacturers' Championship (1925–1930) and European Drivers' Championship (1931–1939).
Formula One is the biggest stage of... "
Okay then.
The first official Formula One Grand Prix was the held at the Silverstone Circuit on May 13th, 1950
Giuseppe Farina would win the race
Now, all of these races were being raced in these low-engineered cars:
Until Bugatti said "no" and came up with the... mid-engineered car (mind-blowing ik)
By 1961, the entire grid was made up of these cars
Jump to the 1980's, and we can see McLaren and Williams are dominating the grid.
From 1981-1998, McLaren would win 16 of the 34 combined Drivers and Constructers championships.
Williams would do the same.
Aryton Senna
Alain Prost
If you've ever dabbled in F1, you've heard these guys names.
And you know what's about to happen.
These guys were teamates, but also bitter rivals fighting for the crown every year, until Prost retired at the end of the 1993 season.
The next year, Aryton Senna would suit up for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix (now referred to as Imola.) Exiting the old corner known as Tamburello, Senna would crash into the barriers. Aryton Senna had passed away after crashing. (R.I.P.)
Ronald Ratzenberger had crashed and passed away in qualifying the day before. (He shall also R.I.P.)
This was a weekend nobody would forget.
It sparked a massive flame in the security of the F1 cars.
And it showed almost exactly 20 years later.
The 2014 Japanese Grand Prix
It was also a wet one
After an unknown driver had crashed into the barriers at Japan, a VSC (Virtual Safety Car) was deployed, along with a recovery vehicle to clear the track hazard.
Jules Bianchi would hydroplane right into the recovery car .
He would pass away 9 months later from his injuries (R.I.P.)
Another spark in safety would ensue.
This led to the introduction of the halo in 2018
This has saved countless lives, including Roman Grosejean's horrifying crash into the barriers at Bahrain, which lit his car on fire, so the fireproof vest did help him lots, but the halo prevented his direct crash into the barrier, which would have caused almost 30g's of force to hit his helmet and eventually his head
yes it's me, I haven't been possessed by some random historian (trust), but this is a project I wanted to work on.
Which is a summary
Of the entire history of Formula One and itself
vroom vroom
I might be able to turn this into a book at some point...
(note: this will span over multiple posts for sure)
Bonus segments:
The tradition of the 1 car:
Before 2014, championship winners were just given a funny trophy and lots of money, but now they carry a tradition.
Max Verstappen would use the number 33 this year if he didn't win last years championship. Here's why.
In 2014, they gave Sebastian Vettel the Number 1 car for winning the championship and being the... well... number 1 driver.
The FIA would soon reserve this for that year's drivers champion
Lewis Hamilton ruined our fun and decided to not do it
But Verstappen said yes.
And since he's going on an ungodly run, he's had the 1 for a while.