Sports Then and Now

The first Formula One season took place in 1950. In more than 65 years, the sport has changed a lot. It’s now faster, safer, and more popular than ever before. The sport is still changing, however, with the organization and drivers trying to find a balance between speed and safety. When Formula One began, not even helmets were compulsory. Today, there are many rules and regulations on safety and fair play within the sport. Vehicle design has changed dramatically too, with a focus on aerodynamics, as well as engines. Check out how Formula One has changed over the years and continues to move forward.

Rules and Regulations

One of the things that have seen change over decades of F1 is the rules and regulations. In the 1950s, little thought was given to the safety of the drivers or the sport’s spectators. Some of the first rules of the sport set out engine specs. The maximum sizes were 1500 cc for engines with a compressor or 4500 cc for normally aspirated engines. The compulsory use of helmets was another early rule. But the helmets wouldn’t have been any use today, or even then. As the sport grew, more regulations were put in place to make it safer. Rules had to evolve along with vehicle designs, and they are still catching up. Today, the F1 organization is doing its best to make the sport safer than ever. Read the rest of this entry →

The 2011 China Grand Prix will go down in history as one of the very best and one that will live long in the memory of the race winner, Lewis Hamilton, who once again proved why he is the sport’s biggest box office attraction.

If there was ever a Grand Prix that had everything then this was it in Shanghai, a battle of race strategies, incredible overtaking, particularly by Hamilton, a charge from the back from Mark Webber of Red Bull that defied belief, It also had a moment of serious embarrassment when McLaren’s Jenson Button parked his car in the Red Bull pit for a tyre change, a mistake which cost him the lead in the race at the time.

Hamilton, had qualified only in third place on the grid after deciding that he will only make one run in the final q3 practice in order to preserve the tyres that he would be starting with. This would mean that he would adopt a three stop strategy as opposed to the two to be made by Vettel in his Red Bull.

He had to endure a scare before the start of the race where a minor fuel leak was detected and which was only rectified within a half minute of the start time. Notwithstanding, Hamilton got off to a flyer off the grid, charging up the inside of Vettel which demoted the world champion to third place as Button had already steamed past him to lead. Read the rest of this entry →

Michael Schumacher

Or Deus…or Allah, Ishvara, Mother Mary, Yahweh, Vishnu and any another Godly entity that may have reached down and awoken the sleeping giant that is Michael Schumacher…yes, including even you Bernie…if you had fingers in this pie, God bless you, even if only for a moment.

This season would have gone down as the absolute worst in the storied history of Formula 1 if not for this devine intervention breaking the suffocating bonds of the FIA vs FOTA media frenzy and the sad resignation that Brawn GP is running away with the points title.

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