It’s fast and furious as always. Formula 1 is roaring once again and is just around the corner. Starting on the 13th of May in Monte Carlo, the Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2010 is roaring with all the intensity. Yet again, we talk about the invincible drivers, the mighty constructors, the super engines, the dream cars and the unsurpassed speeds, slicing the winds.
Formula 1 has been one of the most celebrated motor races in decades. Officially known as the FIA Formula One World Championship, it is the highest ranked single seat auto racing authorised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Since its inauguration in 1950, the event’s popularity has paced parallel to the ever-improving speeds of the car.
A series of major auto racing events called Grand Prix formulate an F1 season. For a race to be called Grand Prix, it should have a racetrack of at least 300 km held on purpose-built route. Over the years, the number of Grand Prix held in a season has increased steadily. Beginning with seven races in the 1950 World Championship, the races have almost been tripled over the years, with a maximum number of nineteen races held in 2005. A Formula One Grand Prix event stretches to a week, starting with two free practice sessions normally beginning on Friday. The race starts with a warm-up lap, which is called as the formation lap, in which there no overtaking is allowed.
This international event involves twenty-four drivers, grouped in twelve teams. Normally, drivers are contracted to a team for at least the entire season. However, the drivers are often fired or even switched during the course of the season. A number is designated to each driver according to the previous season's performance of their teams; the previous champion being designated number 1, with his teammate allotted number 2. The number 13 has so far not been used.
In the year 1950 the initial world championship race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom, which was followed by the constructors’ championship in 1958. Later, in 1960s and 1970s National championships existed in South Africa and the UK. Europe is the traditional centre of Formula One, almost half the races take place here and also all of the teams are based here. However, recently the events have shrunken in Europe and America due to the ever-swelling popularity of the game in Asia and the Far East. In 2007, eight of the total seventeen races were held outside Europe.
Italian Giuseppe Farina in his Alfa Romeo claimed the first Formula One World Championship. Juan Manuel Fangio, titled as the "grand master" of Formula One, was successful to snatch the title in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956 & 1957. For the next 45 years, his record of five World Championship titles stood protected, until German driver Michael Schumacher won his sixth title in 2003.
Road car manufacturers like Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes Benz and Maserati were primarily involved in the initial years of race. The initially used cars had their engines at the front equipped with narrow tires. Cooper's re-introduction of mid-engine cars was an evolution in the car-racing arena. The sport kept increasing its momentum by the ever-invading technological advancements by different manufacturers. From 1994 to 2004 Michael Schumacher and Ferrari won five consecutive exceptional drivers’ championships and also bagged six times consecutively constructors’ championships. Now for the 2011 the FIA and the manufacturers are discussing allowing the addition of bio-fuel engines.
Formula One is an exciting media event, which claims a global audience of 600 million people for each race. Being the world's most expensive sport, it has a far reaching economic significance, as well as its financial and political impacts could not be ignored. It magnetizes million dollars business from its sponsors and constructors for each of its event due to its high profile and popularity.
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