Formula 1 and me.

Before you read this, a quick side note: I originally wrote this in September 2011, so any references to 'this season' are referring to 2011. Regardless, I thought it was a worthwhile piece worth reposting on here.


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I'm a sucker for motorsport. I always have been, and I think I always will be. If it has an engine and wheels, I'm interested, and it seems to be a case that every weekend, there's a race somewhere in the world that I can find. On the rare occasions that I can't find anything, there are endless hours of races on Youtube and streaming websites where I can watch F1 from years gone by. My first race was the 1995 Canadian GP (won by Jean Alesi), and it completely captivated me. My first full season was in 1996, and I've watched every single season since then...so I'm now in my 16th year of watching Formula 1. In 16 years, I've missed maybe four races live. There's only one race that I've never seen in full during that time: the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. 

There's something magical about the piercing sound of a screaming engine, whether it's an old V10 engine of the 90s or early 2000s or one of the modern V8s. It's sent shivers down my spine since I was a little boy. I've only attended one race, this year's British GP but even on a cold Friday morning as first practice started, hearing the engines firing up got me excited. Watching the cars fly through Becketts as rain began to fall, the rooster tails of spray flying off the rear of the car as the cars dance through the corner is something to behold. Watching them on race day as they race to be quicker, better than everyone else out there is something I won't forget.

I'm interested in everything about the sport. I love reading about how a team has brought a new part to a race and what they hope it will do. Every year, I go through the sporting and technical regulations and make sure I keep up to date on rules. I'd like to think I'm pretty up to date with my knowledge and could answer most questions about the sport, but give me something from within the last 10 years or so, and I could definitely answer. 

Perhaps what catches my interest the most is the delicate combination of driver and machine. A truly great driver can take a car to the edge of its limits and balance it to be the fastest man out there, and a car can do the same to a driver. Watching a driver on the edge, flirting with danger and death is captivating to me, and to me, nothing can beat it for exhilaration. Take someone like Ayrton Senna for example. He was a man who could keep a car on the limit of grip, his hands and feet permanently dancing around the cockpit to keep the car on the track. I wrote a blog entry about Senna after I watched the documentary about his life a bit earlier in the year.

One of my favourite clips of Senna is one of his qualifying laps of Monaco where he's absolutely on the limit. Monaco isn't a place where you can make mistakes, because you'll end up in the barriers. Somehow, Senna managed to get a car around the streets far quicker than anyone else. Amazing.

The man I've followed closest in F1 is Michael Schumacher. He's the most successful driver in the sport and he has to be considered as one of the greats. He may have been ruthless and done whatever it took to win, but I was drawn to this over the years. There would be races where he could do a 20 lap stint at a pace that no one could cope with, he raised the standard of F1 drivers to a new level, particularly in the area of fitness. For me, he revolutionised the sport and built one of the most successful teams in the sport to create an era of dominance.

Even aside from Formula 1, I love watching motorsport. This year, I've found myself branching out and watching different categories to explore different racing. I finally started watching Indycar and NASCAR from Stateside (and I definitely prefer Indycar), GP2 and GP3 from the F1 support races, British F3, British Touring Cars, Le Mans (both the 24 hour race and the Intercontinental Series) and then bits of Formula Renault (including the World Series events). All in all, I think that's more than enough motorsport to keep me occupied.

Formula One, and motorsport in general, isn't something that everyone 'gets'. But on the face of it, F1 is one of the most watched sports in the world, and I think I'm right in saying that it's the most watched annual sporting event (527 million people watched last season). Only the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup gets more viewers. That's pretty impressive.

This year has been one of the more exciting seasons. Admittedly, this is because the FIA introduced new rules to help overtaking, and there is a degree of artificialness to them, but it has helped raise the profile of the sport, and more people are watching than ever before. The racing is still there, the drama is still there and there's still a great fighting spirit. 

That...that is what I love about it. That's what makes me tick.

A new idea

I said I was looking into doing this, and the only way to be certain about that is to take a leap and do it. So I have, here's the first post on my second blog, An Armchair View of the Pits.

This blog will consist mainly of my own views and opinions about motorsport, and that'll most usually be related to Formula 1. I might occasionally write something about other categories, perhaps the odd piece on GP2, some touring cars, endurance racing and if I really fancy making a fool out of myself, I can write something about NASCAR.

It'll mainly be opinion based entries though. There's no point in writing up race reviews. You've watched the races and if you want to read a recap of events, you can go to many other websites who can go into far more detail and tell you things I barely heard about (despite my best intentions).

So...a little about me for anyone new out there.

I'm Thomas, a German student at the University of Leeds. I've followed Formula 1 full time since 1996, with my first race that I can remember being in 1995. I've always been fascinated by the sport; the bright colours, the sound of the engines, the thousands of fans lining the tracks around the world. It's a wonderful sport to follow.

I've written a few pieces about F1 on my other blog which I'll repost on here over the coming days, just to give a bit more about myself. Then, over the coming weeks and months, I'll continue to post bits and pieces. There's no real goal from this aside from sharing some thoughts about something that matters a lot to me. Hopefully someone reads this stuff and like it, and maybe I can get some discussion going from certain topics.


Thanks for reading this, and I hope you enjoy future posts.