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Formula One

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Sports


                           Formula One
   The official Formula One logo is part of the Formula One
   Administration's efforts to give F1 a corporate identity.
   Sport        Auto racing
   Founded      1946
   No. of teams 11
   Country      Worldwide
   Fernando Alonso has won his second World Championship in 2006 with
   Renault.
   Enlarge
   Fernando Alonso has won his second World Championship in 2006 with
   Renault.

   Current Season Summary:

   2006 Formula One season
   Articles related to Formula One:

   History of Formula One
   Formula One regulations
   Formula One cars
   Formula One racing
   Future of Formula One

   Lists:
   Drivers ( Champions)
   Constructors ( Champions)
   Pointscoring system
   Grands Prix | Circuits
   Records | Engines
   Colors | Other People
   Fatal Accidents

   Portal Formula One portal

   Formula One, abbreviated to F1, and also known as Grand Prix racing, is
   the highest class of auto racing defined by the Fédération
   Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motor sport's world governing
   body. The "formula" in the name is a set of rules which all
   participants and cars must meet. The F1 world championship season
   consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held usually on
   purpose-built circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. The
   results of each race are combined to determine two annual World
   Championships, one for drivers and one for constructors. It is a
   massive television event with millions of people watching each race in
   more than 200 countries. The cars race at high speeds, often well above
   300 km/h (190 mph). The formula introduces a number of restrictions and
   specifications that cars must meet. These are designed, amongst other
   things, to keep the ever-increasing cornering speeds in safe ranges.
   The performance of the cars is highly dependent on electronics,
   aerodynamics, suspension and tyres. The formula has seen many
   evolutions and changes through the history of the sport. There have
   been many different types of engines; normally aspirated, supercharged
   and turbocharged, ranging from straight-4 to H16, with displacements
   from 1.5 litres to 4.5 litres. The maximum power achieved in the
   history of the series was around 1200 bhp in racing trim, during the
   1980s turbo era.

   Europe is Formula One's traditional centre and remains its leading
   market. However, Grands Prix have been held all over the world, and
   with new races in Bahrain, China, Malaysia and Turkey since 1999, its
   scope continues to expand. As the world's most expensive sport, its
   economic effect is significant, and its financial and political battles
   are widely observed. Its high profile and popularity makes it an
   obvious merchandising environment, which leads to very high investments
   from sponsors, translating into extremely high budgets for the
   constructor teams. In recent years several teams such as Prost and
   Arrows have gone bankrupt.

   The sport is regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
   (International Automobile Federation more commonly abbreviated as FIA),
   with its headquarters in Place de la Concorde, Paris. Its current
   president is Max Mosley. Formula One's commercial rights are vested in
   the Formula One Group, now owned by Alpha Prema. Although now a
   minority shareholder, the sport is still generally promoted and
   controlled by Bernie Ecclestone. Since CVC's purchase the complicated
   (and according to some sources such as The Economist "murky") business
   structure has been simplified, leading to suggestions that the Formula
   One Group could soon be floated.

History

   The Formula One series has its roots in the European Grand Prix motor
   racing (q.v. for pre-1947 history) of the 1920s and 1930s. The "
   formula" is a set of rules which all participants and cars must meet.
   Formula 1 was a new formula agreed after World War II in 1946, with the
   first non-championship races being held that year. A number of Grand
   Prix racing organisations had laid out rules for a World Championship
   before the war, but due to the suspension of racing during the
   conflict, the World Drivers Championship was not formalised until 1947.
   The first world championship race was held at Silverstone, Britain in
   1950. A championship for constructors followed in 1958. National
   championships existed in South Africa and the UK in the 1960s and
   1970s. Non-championship Formula One races were held for many years but
   due to the rising cost of competition, the last of these occurred in
   1983.

   The sport's title, Formula One, indicates that it is intended to be the
   most advanced and most competitive of the many racing formulae.

Formative years (1950–1980)

   Juan Manuel Fangio drove this Alfa Romeo 159 to the title in 1951.
   Enlarge
   Juan Manuel Fangio drove this Alfa Romeo 159 to the title in 1951.
   Stirling Moss at Nürburgring 1961
   Enlarge
   Stirling Moss at Nürburgring 1961

   The inaugural Formula One World Championship was won by Italian
   Giuseppe Farina in his Alfa Romeo in 1950, barely defeating his
   Argentine teammate Juan Manuel Fangio. However, Fangio won the title in
   1951 and four more in the next six years, his streak interrupted by
   two-time champion Alberto Ascari of Ferrari. Though Britain's Stirling
   Moss was able to compete regularly, he was never able to win the World
   Championship. Fangio is remembered for dominating Formula One's first
   decade and has long been considered the "grand master" of Formula One.

   The first major technological development, Cooper's re-introduction of
   mid-engined cars (following Ferdinand Porsche's pioneering and
   all-conquering Auto Unions of the 1930s), which evolved from the
   company's successful Formula 3 designs, occurred in the 1950s. Jack
   Brabham, champion in 1959 and 1960, soon proved the new design's
   superiority. By 1961, all competitors had switched to mid-engined cars.

   The first British World Champion was Mike Hawthorn, who drove a Ferrari
   to the title in 1958. However, when Colin Chapman entered F1 as a
   chassis designer and later founder of Team Lotus, British racing green
   came to dominate the field for the next decade. Between Jim Clark,
   Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, and Denny
   Hulme, British teams and Commonwealth drivers won twelve world
   championships between 1962 and 1973.

   In 1962, Lotus introduced a car with an aluminium sheet monocoque
   chassis instead of the traditional spaceframe design. This proved to be
   the greatest technological breakthrough since the introduction of
   mid-engined cars. In 1968, Lotus painted Imperial Tobacco livery on
   their cars, thus introducing sponsorship to the sport.

   Aerodynamic downforce slowly gained importance in car design from the
   appearance of aerofoils in the late 1960s. In the late 1970s Lotus
   introduced ground effect aerodynamics that provided enormous downforce
   and greatly increased cornering speeds (though the concept had
   previously been used on Jim Hall's Chaparral 2J in 1970).

   The formation of the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile
   (FISA) in 1979 set off the FISA-FOCA war, during which FISA and its
   president Jean Marie Balestre clashed repeatedly with the Formula One
   Constructors Association over television profits and technical
   regulations.

Rise in popularity (1981–2000)

   1981 saw the signing of the first Concorde Agreement, a contract which
   bound the teams to compete until its expiration and assured them a
   share of the profits from the sale of television rights, bringing an
   end to the FISA-FOCA War and contributing to Bernie Ecclestone's
   eventual complete financial control of the sport, after much
   negotiation.

   The FIA imposed a ban on ground effect aerodynamics in 1983. By then,
   however, turbocharged engines, which Renault had pioneered in 1977,
   were producing over 700  bhp (520  kW) and were essential to be
   competitive. In later years, notably 1986, the Formula One turbo cars
   produced in excess of 1,100 bhp in racing trim (and as much as 1,400
   bhp in qualifying trim). These cars were the most powerful open-wheel
   circuit racing cars ever. To reduce engine power output and thus
   speeds, the FIA limited fuel tank capacity in 1984 and boost pressures
   in 1988 before banning turbocharged engines in 1989.

   In the early 1990s, teams started introducing electronic driver aids
   such as active suspension, semi-automatic gearboxes and traction
   control. Some were borrowed from contemporary road cars. Some, like
   active suspension, were primarily developed for the track and later
   made their way to the showroom. The FIA, due to complaints that
   technology was determining the outcome of races more than driver skill,
   banned many such aids in 1994. However, many observers felt that the
   ban on driver aids was a ban in name only as the FIA did not have the
   technology or the methods to eliminate these features from competition.

   The teams signed a second Concorde Agreement in 1992 and a third in
   1997, which is due to expire on the last day of 2007.

   On the track, the McLaren and Williams teams dominated the 1980s and
   1990s. Powered by Porsche, Honda, and Mercedes-Benz McLaren won 16
   championships (seven constructor's, nine driver's) in that period,
   while Williams used engines from Ford, Honda, and Renault to also win
   16 titles (nine constructor's, seven driver's). The rivalry between
   racing legends Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost became F1's central focus
   in 1988, and continued until Prost retired at the end of 1993.
   Tragically, Senna died in a crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix
   having taken over Prost's lead drive at Williams that year. The FIA
   worked to improve the sport's safety standards since that terrible
   weekend, during which rookie driver Roland Ratzenberger also lost his
   life in an accident during Saturday qualifying. No driver has died on
   the track at the wheel of a Formula One car since, though two track
   marshalls have lost their life, one at the Italian Grand Prix of 2000,
   and the other at the Australian Grand Prix of 2001.

   Since Imola, the FIA has used safety as a reason to impose rule changes
   which otherwise, under the Concorde Agreement, would have had to be
   agreed upon by all the teams - most notably the changes introduced for
   1998. This so called 'narrow track' era resulted in cars with smaller
   rear tyres, a narrower track overall and the introduction of 'grooved'
   tyres to reduce mechanical grip. There would be 4 grooves, on the front
   and rear, that ran through the entire circumference of the tyre. The
   objective was to reduce cornering speeds and to produce racing similar
   to rain conditions by enforcing a smaller contact patch between tyre
   and track. This was to promote driver skill and provide a better
   spectacle.

   Results have been mixed as the lack of mechanical grip has resulted in
   the more ingenious designers clawing back the deficit with aerodynamic
   grip - pushing more force onto the tyres through wings, aerodynamic
   devices etc - which in turn has resulted in less overtaking as these
   devices tend to make the wake behind the car 'dirty' preventing other
   cars from following closely, due to their dependence on 'clean' air to
   make the car stick to the track. The grooved tyres also had the
   unfortunate side effect of initially being of a harder compound, to be
   able to hold the groove tread blocks, which resulted in spectacular
   accidents in times of aerodynamic grip failure e.g. rear wing failures,
   as the harder compound could not grip the track as well.

   The more innovative teams have found ways to maximise this dramatic
   change. McLaren, in a car designed by Adrian Newey, used a 'fiddle'
   brake on their 1998 car which allowed the driver to apply the brake to
   one or the other of the rear two wheels to provide them with a better
   'toe' into a corner. This was eventually banned as a driver aid.

   Drivers from McLaren, Williams, Renault (formerly Benetton) and
   Ferrari, dubbed the "Big Four", have won every World Championship from
   1984 to the present day. Due to the technological advances of the
   1990s, the cost of competing in Formula One rose dramatically. This
   increased financial burden, combined with four teams' dominance
   (largely funded by big car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz
   (DaimlerChrysler)), caused the poorer independent teams to struggle not
   only to remain competitive, but to stay in business. Financial troubles
   forced several teams to withdraw. Since 1990, 28 teams have pulled out
   of Formula One. This has prompted former Jordan owner Eddie Jordan to
   say that the days of competitive privateers are over.

Contemporary F1 (2001–present)

   Safety is of paramount concern in contemporary F1.
   Enlarge
   Safety is of paramount concern in contemporary F1.

   Many records were broken in the first few years of the 21st century by
   German Michael Schumacher and a resurgent Ferrari. In 2001, Schumacher
   set the new record for the most Grands Prix ever won (the previous
   record holder, Alain Prost, had 51 wins). Schumacher eventually retired
   with 91 Grand Prix victories. Schumacher also holds the record for the
   most Grand Prix wins in a season - in 2004 he won 13 of the 18 races
   held that year. In 2003 Schumacher broke the record for most driver's
   championships by obtaining his sixth, breaking Juan Manuel Fangio's
   previous record of five which had stood since 1957. In 2004 he won the
   driver's championship for a seventh time. He also broke the record for
   most points by scoring his 801st point in Suzuka, Japan. The previous
   record of 798.5 was also set by Alain Prost. In 2002, Schumacher also
   set a new record by winning the championship earlier in the season than
   any previous driver by winning the French Grand Prix in July that
   year..

   Despite Ferrari's dominance, Kimi Räikkönen driving for
   McLaren-Mercedes had a chance of claiming the championship in 2003
   right until the end of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix. Juan
   Pablo Montoya driving for Williams-BMW also came close. Also in 2003,
   Fernando Alonso became the youngest ever pole sitter by qualifying
   first at Malaysia. Later that year he became the youngest ever winner
   of a Grand Prix when he took the chequered flag in Hungary.
   Schumacher's championship streak finally came to an end on September
   25, 2005 when Alonso clinched the 2005 championship with a third place
   finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix to become the youngest champion to
   date, replacing previous record holder Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil.
   Michael Schumacher had been world champion for more than 1,800 days.

   In the rulebook, several driver aids returned due in part to
   developments that allowed teams to evade the FIA "restrictions".
   Meanwhile, several changes to the rules were made with the intention of
   improving the on-track action and cutting ever-increasing costs. Most
   notably, the qualifying format changed several times between 2003 and
   2006. Another new regulation made drivers start each race with the same
   level of fuel they had during qualifying, introducing a new tactical
   element to each team's strategy. Other new restrictions included one
   making it mandatory for each engine to last two races; a driver who had
   to have his engine replaced would be penalised by starting ten places
   lower than his actual qualifying position in the starting grid of the
   race. In 2005, drivers were not allowed to change tyres during the
   race, unless the tyres were dangerously worn. This rule was removed for
   the 2006 season. Slick tyres (tyres with no tread) are allowed for the
   2007 season after an absence of 10 years.

   The first few years of the 21st century in F1 also saw some
   controversies and scandals. At the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Rubens
   Barrichello, Schumacher's teammate at Ferrari who was 1st in the race,
   was ordered by Ferrari to allow Schumacher to overtake him under "team
   orders" and win the Grand Prix. Barrichello let him pass on the last
   lap at the finish line which greatly upset the spectators. At the
   podium, in response to the jeers of the crowd, Schumacher stood on the
   second place spot and Barrichello stood on top. Schumacher took the
   trophy for first place from the chancellor and gave it to Barrichello
   then took the second place trophy. Barrichello, Schumacher and Ferrari
   were fined one million U.S. dollars for the failure to observe Article
   170 of the Formula One Sporting Regulations concerning the podium
   ceremony. As a result of this the FIA declared new rules against "team
   orders" artificially affecting race results. In 2005, the United States
   Grand Prix at Indianapolis saw only three out of ten teams race in a
   bizarre mishap when it turned out that the Michelin tyres for the other
   seven teams could not be safely used on the surface of the track,
   causing them to withdraw from the race when the FIA refused a change
   for safety reasons, insisting on keeping to the letter of the
   regulations. Michelin has since announced that they will stop supplying
   tyres to F1 teams in 2007, sparking debate on whether this new system
   would make all F1 racing teams compete on a more equal ground.

   2005 marked the end of the V10 era in Formula One. After the banning of
   turbocharged engines in 1989, V10 became the most popular engine
   configuration in Formula One. To keep costs down, the configuration was
   made mandatory in 1998 so that engine builders would not develop and
   experiment with other configurations. Over this period, the statistics
   show a supremacy of the Renault and Ferrari engines, with Renault
   clinching five Constructors and four Drivers championships as engine
   suppliers and their first ever Drivers and Constructors Championships
   in a 100% Renault car in 2005. Renault was innovative during this
   period producing non-standard designs such as the 111° 10-cylinder
   engine for the 2003 RS23 which was designed to effectively lower the
   centre of gravity of the engine and thus improve the car's handling.
   This eventually proved too unreliable and heavy, so Renault returned to
   a more conventional development route. Ferrari also enjoyed great
   success in the V10 era, winning six constructors' championships from
   1999-2004.

   In the 2006 season the majority of teams had developed V8 engines as
   per the newly introduced regulations. However, 2006 also saw the
   introduction of new teams, and a number of teams being reformed under
   new management. After purchasing a 45% stake in the BAR team, Honda
   re-entered F1 as a full team, whereas previously they were only engine
   suppliers; Sauber was taken over by BMW as Peter Sauber stepped down
   from top-level management; the long-standing Jordan marque was taken
   over by Alex Shnaider to become Midland F1 (and late in the 2006
   season, purchased by a Dutch consortium headed by the Spyker brand);
   Red Bull acquired the assets to Minardi and spun off what effectively
   became a "junior" team to their main Red Bull marque, Scuderia Toro
   Rosso; finally, Aguri Suzuki, a previous F1 driver himself, acquired
   the assets to the ex-Arrows team which was reformed into the Super
   Aguri team. This amount of change was guaranteed to cause some problem,
   especially as most of the hand-overs occurred late into the 2005 season
   (especially with the new Super Aguri team). As such, Toro Rosso begun
   the 2006 season using restricted V10 engines, supplied by Cosworth. The
   2007 season will also see great change as engine homologation comes
   into effect, requiring that engine design and development is frozen at
   the end of the 2006 season. Once again Renault and Alonso won both
   titles. At the age of 25 Alonso became the youngest double F1 world
   Champion.

Racing and strategy

   A Formula One Grand Prix event spans an entire weekend, beginning with
   two free practices on Friday, and one free practice on Saturday. Third
   drivers are allowed to run on Fridays for teams that finished the
   preceding season in 5th place or lower. After these practice sessions,
   a qualifying session is held.

   The format of this qualifying session has been through several
   iterations since 2003. Attempts were made to reinvigorate interest in
   the qualifying session by using a "one-shot" system in which each
   driver would take turns on an empty track to set their one and only
   time.

   For the 2006 season a knockout qualifying system has been introduced.
   The FIA revised the 2006 procedures starting with Round 11, the 2006
   French Grand Prix. In the first phase, all 22 cars are permitted on the
   track for a 15-minute qualification session. Only their fastest time
   will count and drivers may complete as many laps as they wish. In the
   original format, the clocks were stopped immediately at the end of the
   session, which meant that drivers on a timed lap did not have their
   time registered once the 15 minutes were up. From Round 11, any car
   running a timed lap at the time of the chequered flag is entitled to
   complete the lap. The slowest six cars can take no further part in
   qualifying, these cars will make up the last six grid positions in the
   order of their times.

   The times for the sixteen remaining cars are reset for the next
   15-minute session. In the original format, the clocks were stopped
   immediately at the end of the session. From Round 11, cars running
   timed laps at the chequered flag are allowed to complete the lap. The
   slowest six cars will make up the grid in positions 11 to 16 in the
   order of their times.

   The times for the ten remaining cars will be reset for the next
   session. The shootout session lasted 20 minutes under the original
   regulations, changed to 15 minutes from Round 11. For the final period,
   the cars will be arranged on the grid in positions one to ten in the
   order of their times. In the first two 15-minute sessions, cars may run
   any fuel load and drivers knocked out after those sessions may refuel
   ahead of the race. However, the top-ten drivers must begin the final
   15-minute session with the fuel load on which they plan to start the
   race. They will be weighed before they leave the pits. Whatever fuel
   they use in the 15 minutes may be replaced at the end of the session
   provided that the laps they complete are all within 110% of their best
   session time; outlaps (a lap that started in the pitlane) and inlaps (a
   lap that ended in the pitlane) are permitted to be no more than 120% of
   the driver's best session time. Any fuel for a lap outside of the 110%
   time will not be replaced. As with the first two 15 minute sessions, if
   a driver starts a timed lap before the chequered flag falls for the 15
   minute session, their time will count even if they cross the finish
   line after the session has ended.

   The race begins with a warm-up formation lap, after which the cars
   assemble on the starting grid in the order they qualified. If a driver
   stalls before the parade lap, and the rest of the field passes him,
   then he must start from the back of the grid. As long as he moves off
   and at least one car is behind him, he can retake his original
   position. A racer may also elect to start from pit-lane if he has any
   last minute problems with the car. If they choose to do this, they must
   wait for all cars to pass pit-lane before they may begin the race.

   A light system above the track then signals the start of the race.
   Races are a little over 305 kilometres (190 miles) long and are limited
   to two hours, though in practice they usually last about ninety
   minutes. Throughout the race, drivers may make one or more pit stops in
   order to refuel and change tyres. Drivers have access to seven sets of
   dry-weather tyres, four sets of wet-weather tyres and three sets of
   extreme-weather tyres for the entire weekend. Drivers must choose the
   dry-weather compound they will use for the race ahead of qualifying.

   The FIA awards points to the top eight drivers and their respective
   teams of a grand prix on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis (the race winner
   receives ten points, the first runner-up eight, and so on). The winner
   of the two annual championships are the driver and the team who have
   accumulated the most points at the end of the season. If any drivers
   and/or teams have the exact amount of points and are both competing for
   the driver and/or team championships, the driver and/or team who has
   won more Grand Prix races during the course of the season is declared
   the winner.

Drivers and constructors

   Michael Schumacher and Scuderia Ferrari have each won their respective
   World Championships a record number of times.
   Enlarge
   Michael Schumacher and Scuderia Ferrari have each won their respective
   World Championships a record number of times.

   Formula One teams must build the chassis in which they compete, and
   consequently the terms "team" and "constructor" are more or less
   interchangeable. This requirement distinguishes the sport from series
   such as IRL, Champ Cars, and NASCAR, which allow teams to purchase
   chassis, and " spec series" such as GP2, which require all cars be kept
   to an identical specification. In its early years, Formula One teams
   sometimes also built their engines, though this became less common with
   the increased involvement of major car manufacturers such as BMW,
   Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Toyota, and Honda, whose large budgets rendered
   privately built engines less competitive (and redundant).

   Early manufacturer involvement came in the form of a "factory team"
   (that is, one owned and staffed by a major car company), such as those
   of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari ( FIAT) or Renault. Companies such as Climax,
   Repco, Cosworth, Hart, Judd and Supertec, which had no direct team
   affiliation, often sold engines to teams who could not afford to
   manufacture them. As the manufacturers' deep pockets and engineering
   ability took over, almost all engines are now produced by major
   manufacturers.

   After having virtually disappeared by the early 1980s, factory teams
   made a comeback in the 1990s and 2000s, and now form half the grid with
   Toyota, Ferrari ( FIAT), Honda, Renault and BMW either setting up their
   own teams or buying out existing ones. Mercedes-Benz (DaimlerChrysler)
   owns 40% of the McLaren team and manufactures the team's engines. The
   remaining teams buy engines from the factory teams or from Cosworth,
   currently the only commercial engine manufacturer.

   The sport's 1950 debut season saw eighteen teams compete, but due to
   high costs many dropped out quickly. In fact, such was the scarcity of
   competitive cars for much of the first decade of Formula One that
   Formula Two cars were admitted to fill the grids. Ferrari is the only
   still-active team which competed in 1950, and as of 2006 eleven teams
   remain on the grid, each fielding two cars. Although teams rarely
   disclose information about their budgets, it is estimated that they
   range from US$75 million to US$500 million each.

   Entering a new team in the Formula One World Championship requires a
   £25 million (about US$47 million) up-front payment to the FIA, which is
   then repaid to the team over the course of the season. As a
   consequence, constructors desiring to enter Formula One often prefer to
   buy an existing team: B.A.R.'s purchase of Tyrrell and Midland's
   purchase of Jordan allowed both of these teams to sidestep the large
   deposit.

   Each car is assigned a number. The previous season's World Drivers'
   Champion is designated number 1, with his teammate given number 2.
   Numbers are then assigned according to each team's position in the
   previous season's World Constructors' Championship. There have been
   exceptions to this rule, such as in 1993 and 1994, when the current
   World Drivers' Champion ( Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost, respectively)
   was no longer competing in Formula One. In this case the drivers for
   the team of the previous year's champion are given numbers 0 (Damon
   Hill, in both occasions) and 2 (Prost himself and Ayrton Senna -
   replaced after his death by David Coulthard - respectively). The number
   13 has not been used since 1974, before which it was occasionally
   assigned at the discretion of individual race organizers. Before 1996,
   only the world championship winning driver and his team generally
   swapped numbers with the previous champion – the remainder held their
   numbers from prior years, as they had been originally set at the start
   of the 1974 season. For many years, for example, Ferrari held numbers
   27 & 28, regardless of their finishing position in the world
   championship. As privateer teams quickly folded in the early 1990s,
   numbers were frequently shuffled around, until the current system was
   adopted in 1996.

   Michael Schumacher holds the record for having won the most Drivers'
   Championships (seven) and Ferrari holds the record for having won the
   most Constructors' Championships (fourteen). Jochen Rindt became the
   only posthumous World Champion after a fatal accident at the 1970
   Italian Grand Prix.

Grands Prix

   Cars wind through the infield section of the Indianapolis Motor
   Speedway at the 2003 United States Grand Prix
   Enlarge
   Cars wind through the infield section of the Indianapolis Motor
   Speedway at the 2003 United States Grand Prix

   The number of Grands Prix held in a season has varied over the years.
   Only seven races comprised the inaugural 1950 season; over the years
   the calendar has almost tripled in size. Though the number of races had
   stayed at sixteen or seventeen since the 1980s, it reached nineteen in
   2005.

   Six of the original seven races took place in Europe; the only
   non-European race that counted towards the World Championship in 1950
   was the Indianapolis 500, which, due to lack of participation by F1
   teams, since it required cars with different specifications from the
   other races, was later replaced by the United States Grand Prix. The F1
   championship gradually expanded to other non-European countries as
   well. Argentina hosted the first South American grand prix in 1953, and
   Morocco hosted the first African World Championship race in 1958. Asia
   (Japan in 1976) and Oceania (Australia in 1985) followed. The current
   eighteen races are spread over the continents of Europe, Asia, Oceania,
   North America, and South America.

   Traditionally, each nation has hosted a single grand prix that carries
   the name of the country. If a single country hosts multiple grands prix
   in a year, they receive different names. For example, every year two
   grands prix take place in Germany, one of which is known as the
   European Grand Prix.

   The grands prix, some of which have a history that predates the Formula
   One World Championship, are not always held on the same circuit every
   year. The British Grand Prix, for example, though held every year since
   1950, alternated between Brands Hatch and Silverstone from 1963 to
   1986. The only other race to have been included in every season is the
   Italian Grand Prix. The World Championship event has taken place
   exclusively at Monza with just one exception: in 1980, it was held at
   Imola, now host to the San Marino Grand Prix.

   One of the newest races on the Grand Prix calendar, held in Bahrain,
   represents Formula One's first penetration into the Middle East with a
   high tech purpose-built desert track. The Bahrain Grand Prix, along
   with other new races in China and Turkey, present new opportunities for
   the growth and evolution of the Formula One Grand Prix franchise whilst
   new facilities also raise the bar for other Formula One racing venues
   around the world.

Circuits

   The Autodromo Nazionale Monza, home to the Italian Grand Prix, is one
   of the oldest circuits still in use in Formula One.
   Enlarge
   The Autodromo Nazionale Monza, home to the Italian Grand Prix, is one
   of the oldest circuits still in use in Formula One.
   Countries which have had Formula One circuits
   Enlarge
   Countries which have had Formula One circuits

   A typical circuit usually features a stretch of straight road on which
   the starting grid is situated. The pit lane, where the drivers stop for
   fuel during the race, and where the teams work on the cars before the
   race, is normally located next to the starting grid. The layout of the
   rest of the circuit varies widely, although in most cases the circuit
   runs in a clockwise direction. Those few circuits that run
   anticlockwise (and therefore have predominantly left handed corners)
   can cause drivers neck problems due to the enormous lateral forces
   generated by F1 cars pulling their heads in the opposite direction to
   normal. Many corners have become well known in their own right, such as
   the high-speed Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps, the Parabolica at Monza
   and, before the addition of chicanes to tame it, the Tamburello corner
   at Imola. Others, like thirteenth turn at Indianapolis (road course
   configuration), are simply straights for the drivers, even having taken
   in consideration the G-forces acting on the suspension. Also
   particularly lamented are the circuits at Zandvoort in the Netherlands
   and Kyalami in South Africa, neither of which are now used by F1.

   Most of the circuits currently in use are specially constructed for
   competition. The only real street circuit is the Circuit de Monaco,
   used for the Monaco Grand Prix, although races in other urban locations
   come and go ( Las Vegas and Detroit, for example) and proposals for
   such races are often discussed – most recently for London and Beirut.
   Several other circuits are also completely or partially laid out on
   public roads, such as Spa-Francorchamps. The glamour and history of the
   Monaco race are the primary reasons why the circuit is still in use,
   since it is thought not to meet the strict safety requirements imposed
   on other tracks. Three-time World champion Nelson Piquet famously
   described racing in Monaco as "riding a bicycle around your living
   room."

   Circuit design to protect the safety of drivers is becoming
   increasingly sophisticated, as exemplified by the new Bahrain
   International Circuit, designed – like most of F1's new circuits – by
   Hermann Tilke. Whereas in the 1950s a driver was lucky to find a
   strategically placed bale of straw to absorb an impact, modern Formula
   One circuits feature large run-off areas, gravel traps and tyre
   barriers to reduce the risk of injury in crashes. This is an ongoing
   task – after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at
   Imola during the 1994 season, the FIA mandated further changes to
   circuits. These were mostly aimed at better matching the speed of a car
   with both the available space to slow down in before reaching a barrier
   and the ability of those barriers to safely absorb the energy of a
   crash.

   Several of the new circuits in F1, especially those designed by Tilke,
   have been criticized as lacking the "flow" of such classics as
   Spa-Francorchamps and Imola. His redesign of the Hockenheim circuit in
   Germany for example, while providing more capacity for grandstands and
   eliminating extremely long and dangerous straights, has been frowned
   upon by many who argue that part of the character of the Hockenheim
   circuits were the long and blinding straights into the Black Forest.
   These newer circuits, however are generally agreed upon to meet the
   safety standards of modern Formula One better than the older ones.

Cars and technology

   Modern Formula One cars are mid-engined open cockpit, open wheel
   single-seaters. The chassis is made largely of carbon fibre composites,
   rendering it light but extremely stiff and strong. The whole car,
   including engine, fluids and driver weighs only 605 kg. In fact this is
   the minimum weight set by the regulations – the cars are so light that
   they often have to be ballasted up to this minimum weight.

   The cornering speed of Formula One cars is largely determined by the
   aerodynamic downforce that they generate, which pushes the car down
   onto the track. This is mostly provided by 'wings' mounted at the front
   and rear of the vehicle, and to a lesser extent by ground effect
   created by the movement of air under the flat bottom of the car. The
   aerodynamic design of the cars is very heavily constrained to limit
   performance and the current generation of cars sport a large number of
   small winglets and turning vanes designed to closely control the flow
   of the air over the car.

   The other major factor controlling the cornering speed of the cars is
   the design of the tyres. Tyres in Formula One are not 'slicks' (tyres
   with no tread pattern) as in most other circuit racing series. Each
   tyre has four large circumferential grooves on its surface designed to
   further limit the cornering speed of the cars. Suspension is double
   wishbone or multilink all round with pushrod operated springs and
   dampers on the chassis. Carbon-Carbon disc brakes are used for reduced
   weight and increased frictional performance. These provide a very high
   level of braking performance and are usually the element which provokes
   the greatest reaction from drivers new to the formula.

   Engines are mandated as 2.4 litre normally aspirated V8s, with many
   other constraints on their design and the materials that may be used.
   The 2006 generation of engines rev close to 20,000 rpm and produce up
   to 800 bhp. The previous generation of 3-litre V10 engines are also
   allowed, albeit with their revs limited and with an air restrictor to
   limit performance. Engines run on unleaded fuel closely resembling
   publicly available petrol. The oil which lubricates and protects the
   engine from overheating is very similar in viscosity to that of water.

   A wide variety of technologies – including active suspension, ground
   effect aerodynamics and turbochargers – are banned under the current
   regulations. Despite this the 2006 generation of cars can reach speeds
   of up to 350 km/h (around 220 mph) at some circuits (Monza). A Honda
   Formula One car, running with minimum downforce at the Bonneville Salt
   Flats achieved a top speed of 400 kph in early 2006. Even with the
   limitations on aerodynamics, at 160 kph, aerodynamically generated
   downforce is equal to the weight of the car and the often repeated
   claim that Formula One cars are capable of 'driving on the ceiling'
   remains true in principle, if not in practice. At full speed downforce
   of 2.5 times the cars weight can be achieved. The downforce means that
   the cars can achieve a lateral force of around four and a half times
   the force of gravity (4.5 g) in cornering - a road car might achieve
   around 1 g. Consequently in corners the driver's head is pulled
   sideways with a force equivalent to 25 kilograms. Such high lateral
   forces are enough to make breathing difficult and the drivers need
   supreme concentration to maintain their focus for the 1 to 2 hours that
   it takes to cover 305 kilometres.

Future of Formula One

   Formula One went through a difficult period in the early 2000s. Viewing
   figures dropped, and fans expressed their loss of interest due to the
   dominance of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari.

   The FIA has also been tasked with the responsibility of making rules to
   combat the spiralling costs which affect the smaller teams and to
   ensure that the sport remains as safe as possible.

   To this end, the FIA has in recent years instituted a number of rule
   changes, including new tyre restrictions, multi-race engines, and
   reductions on downforce. Safety and cost are paramount in all
   rule-change discussions, and the FIA has made public its intention to
   continue to modify the rules with these goals in mind.

   Over the coming years, more radical changes will be made to the rules.
   In October 2005, the FIA proposal of enhancing overtaking won the
   support of the teams by agreeing about the new rear wing concept that
   would eliminate the current single rear wing and replace it with two
   box-like wings, one behind each rear wheel. These changes are due in
   2007. In the long run, the FIA intends to introduce greater
   restrictions on testing and the introduction of standardised electronic
   units and tyres.

   In the interest of making the sport truer to its designation as a World
   Championship, FOM president Bernie Ecclestone has initiated and
   organized a number of Grands Prix in new countries and continues to
   discuss new future races. The sport's rapid expansion into new areas of
   the globe also leaves some question as to which races will be cut.

   Viewing figures are seeing some signs of recovery due to the varied
   2005 season. Ferrari's dominance ended in 2005 as Renault and
   McLaren-Mercedes became the top two teams in Formula 1, with Fernando
   Alonso becoming the new World Champion. There has since been a
   resurgence of interest in the sport and 22 teams applied for the final
   12th team spots available for the 2008 season (eventually awarded to
   Prodrive).

Formula One and Television

   Formula 1 is generally one of the biggest global TV draws behind the
   Football World Cup and the Olympics. The 2005 Canadian Grand Prix
   attracted the second largest global TV audience of any sporting event
   that year with 53 million viewers, behind only the UEFA Champions
   League final. Formula 1 can be seen around the world on RTL, the
   longest serving F1 broadcaster, ITV in the United Kingdom (and Canada,
   via TSN), SPEED Channel (as well as a few races being broadcast on CBS
   with the GP's in San Marino, European Grand Prix, Spain, and Monaco) in
   America and many other stations relaying the action live. In Australia,
   the sport is broadcast by Channel Ten. Recent deals include Al-Jazeera
   in the Middle East - a market which is steadily growing.

   During the early 2000s, Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Administration
   created a number of trademarks, an official logo, and an official
   website for the sport in an attempt to give it a corporate identity.
   Ecclestone experimented with a digital television package (known
   colloquially as Bernievision), which was launched at the 1996 German
   Grand Prix in cooperation with German digital television service "DF1",
   thirty years after the first GP colour TV broadcast, the 1967 German
   Grand Prix. This service offered the viewer several simultaneous feeds
   (such as super signal, on-board, top of field, backfield, highlights,
   pit lane, timing), which were produced with cameras, technical
   equipment and staff different from those used for the conventional
   coverage. It was introduced in many countries over the years, but was
   shut down after the 2002 season for financial reasons.

   TV stations all take what is known as the 'World Feed', either produced
   by the FOM (Formula One Management) or the 'host broadcaster'. This is
   made up of one of the home nations stations such as ITV for the British
   Grand Prix. The only station that has any difference is 'Premiere' - a
   German channel that offers All Sessions live and interactive, with
   features such as the Onboard channel. This service was more widely
   available around Europe until the end of 2002, when the cost of a whole
   different feed for the digital interactive services was thought too
   much. This was a large part because of the failure of the ' F1 Digital
   +' Channel; launched through Sky Digital in the UK. Prices were too
   high for viewers to pay when they could watch the Qualifying and Races
   for Free on ITV1.

International broadcasts

      Country            TV Network                      Language
   Albania        Top Channel              Albanian
   Argentina      Fox Sports               Spanish
   Australia      Network Ten              English
   Austria        ORF                      German
   Belgium        Canvas                   Dutch
   Belgium        Sporza                   Dutch
   Belgium        RTBF La Deux             French
   Bolivia        Fox Sports               Spanish
   Brazil         Rede Globo               Portuguese
   Bulgaria       BTV                      Bulgarian
   Canada         RDS/ TSN                 French / English
   Chile          Fox Sports               Spanish
   China          CCTV-5/ SH-G             Chinese
   Croatia        HTV                      Croatian
   Czech Republic TV Nova                  Czech
   Denmark        TV2                      Danish
   Estonia        TV3                      Estonian
   Finland        MTV3 and MTV3+           Finnish
   France         TF1                      French
   France         Eurosport                French
   Germany        N-tv                     German
   Germany        RTL Television           German
   Germany        Premiere                 German
   Greece         Alpha TV                 Greek
   Hong Kong      Now TV - Star Sports     Cantonese or English
   Hungary        RTL Klub                 Hungarian
   Iceland        Sjónvarpið               Icelandic
   India          Star Sports              English
   Indonesia      Global TV                English/Indonesian
   Ireland        Setanta Sports           English
   Israel         Chanel 5                 Hebrew
   Italy          Rai Uno                  Italian
   Japan          Fuji Television          Japanese
   Latvia         LNT                      Latvian
   Lithuania      TV3, Tango TV            Lithuanian
   Malaysia       8TV and ESPN Star Sports English (8TV and ESPN Star Sports) /
                                           Chinese (ESPN Star Sports only)
   Mexico         TV Azteca                Spanish
   Netherlands    RTL                      Dutch
   New Zealand    TVNZ Digital             English
   Norway         TV3                      Norwegian
   Philippines    Star Sports              English
   Poland         TV 4                     Polish
   Portugal       Sport TV                 Portuguese
   Qatar          Al Jazeera               Arabic
   Romania        TVR                      Romanian
   Russia         Ren-TV                   Russian
   Serbia         B92                      Serbian
   Singapore      ESPN Star Sports         English
   Slovakia       TV Markíza               Slovak
   Slovenia       POP TV                   Slovenian
   South Africa   DStv                     English
   Spain          Telecinco                Spanish
   Spain          TV3                      Catalan
   Sweden         TV3                      Swedish
   Switzerland    SF 2                     German
   Switzerland    TSR 2                    French
   Switzerland    TSI 2                    Italian
   Thailand       Star Sports              English/ Thai
   Turkey         CNN-Türk                 Turkish
   Ukraine        Megasport                Ukrainian/Russian
   UK             ITV                      English
   United States  Speed Channel and CBS    English
   Venezuela      Televen                  Spanish
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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