I have been following Formula 1 pretty casually for a decade or so. I’m a fan, but not really a super dedicated one. I usually watch the highlights, check the championship standings, follow some of the driver drama. I don’t really have any specific team or driver that I cheer for. I just like to see some good racing. It’s rare that I watch a whole race, but this weekend I did.
I got everyone in my house to watch the Netflix show Drive to Survive, because I knew that these race car drivers and team management people were wonderful weirdos. As long as the documentary team was good and did their job well, they couldn’t help but create interesting drama. They did. My family got hooked.
It’s pretty common for me to find my kids watching the race highlights on a Sunday morning. We talk about the standings. We talk about how certain drivers will or won’t perform. We enjoy it.
I can probably count on two hands the amount of full races that I have watched live. It’s a sport that caravans all over the world so some of the race times are pretty early in the morning where I am. This one was only an hour time difference for us, so I watched the whole race live. It was great.
Even though Formula 1 is extremely technical where data driven strategy could mean the difference between scoring points or being completely out of the race no matter how skilled the driver is, the sport has a purity to it. Every driver on the grid is in control of a super powered speed machine and even though some cars are better than others, any one of them has the potential to score points. And every season there are enough changes to the cars that last year’s champions could struggle to even make the top 10. It all comes down to that combination of car and driver on that day.
Honestly though, I think I just like it because it’s something I enjoyed alone, but now I can also enjoy it with my kids.