The Grand Prix Formula One races began in 1950 and since then it has developed into one of the greatest racing events in the world, in which well-known car manufacturers such as Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes and famous drivers, such as Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso compete with each other.
This article gives you interesting facts and figures about Formula One racing.
- A Grand Prix racing event lasts three days; there is practice on Friday, qualification runs on Saturday and the Grand Prix race is on Sunday.
- An engine of a Formula One car needs to be heated to start. A cold engine will not start and that’s why F1-teams use an external starter.
- A F1 car sends approximately 1 MB of data per second to the computer systems in the pit. There are 200 channels used to transmit the data.
- There are around 80,000 components in a Formula One car. An normal car has approximately 2,000 components.
- A regular tire has a lifespan of 50,000 miles. The lifespan of a tire in F1 is 60 miles.
- Most pit stops in F1 take 3 seconds, which is the same time an average hug lasts.
- Running a Formula One team is not cheap: the salary of a driver varies from 5 to 20 million US dollars. The costs of fuel and other material are approximately $5,000,000 and travel and transport to the various Grand Prix around the world will be around 3 million dollars.
- The highest paid driver is Fernando Alonso, who receives an annual salary of 30 million Euros, which equals 40.4 million US dollars.
- It is also not cheap to become a sponsor of a Formula One team: the estimated costs of becoming a F1-sponsor are $20,000,000.
- Most Formula One champions come from Europe and the European F1 champions are predominantly British.
- Most drivers first raced in the Formula 3-series before joining the F1.
- It takes a champion on an average 4.6 years between racing his first Formula One race and becoming world champion.
- A F1 driver will lose during a Grand Prix 2 kilograms in weight and burns approximately 1,200 calories.
- Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is the most popular on Facebook, while Ferrari has the most followers on Twitter.
(Sources: Netcars, Digital Tomorrow Today, Dyneema360, HomeAway, Carbuzz)
