8 May 4 - May 10, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | News | letters | coNteNts | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Y ou’ve seen the billboards all over town. You’ve witnessed your friends in rapt discussion over the latest season of Drive to Survive. You may even have driven past the track on the Turnpike. The Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix is back. After a successful opening run last year, the star-studded race will return to Hard Rock Stadium May 5-7. One problem: You don’t know the first thing about F1, and that’s where New Times comes in. Below, find all the answers to your burning questions about the world’s most popular motorsport. Remember, there’s no such thing as a stupid question — just stupid people. So what is Formula 1? The Formula 1 World Championship is the world’s most prestigious auto-racing competition. The highest class of in- ternational racing overseen by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which also governs other motor sports such as rally racing and land-speed records, it boasts the best drivers, the wealthiest sponsors, the most exotic and glamor- ous racing locales, and most importantly, the fastest road-rac- ing cars in the world. And it is truly a world championship, with races being held in far-off locations such as Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and São Paulo, and its flagship event, the world- famous Monaco Grand Prix on the French Riviera. Okay, but what’s so special about it? Isn’t it just a bunch of cars going around in a circle? Well, broadly, yes. But you’re probably thinking of NASCAR, which takes place on an oval track. F1 cars, first of all, are open-wheeled, which means they’re more aerodynamic and faster than NASCAR stock cars, which are based on con- sumer vehicles. They’re also custom-made and specially en- gineered to go as fast as possible, with special hybrid engines and advanced tech. F1 race tracks, including the Miami Inter- national Autodrome, are designed to test the speed and agil- ity of these cars and their drivers with daring twists and turns modeled after winding European roads. It’s true that racers are on a fixed circuit loop and do laps around it, but rarely is it shaped like an actual circle. So is it fun to watch? If you like watching fast cars race past again and again, you will enjoy yourself. Otherwise, F1 can get pretty monotonous — that is, until something happens. It might be the scramble for a position at the start of a race, a dogfight between cars trying to overtake one another, an engine failure, and some- times, it might be a crash. Is the sport dangerous? Don’t people die a lot in racing sports? All sports carry some risk, especially contact sports like foot- ball and basketball, where injuries are commonplace at the professional level, and athletes, even in F1, tend to accept that risk if it means being able to compete. But motor racing is dis- tinct because the risk of death — like dying in a horrifying crash — is much more of a reality. The sport’s early days were replete with drivers dying in crashes, and many of the sport’s legends have met their ends this way. The last fatality during an F1 event was Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, who was killed in a crash while qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994. The tragedy spurred an increased emphasis on safety. As a result of technologies like the Halo device and the alteration of certain track elements, the sport is now much safer. There have certainly been exceptions: Romain Grosjean’s fiery crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix certainly comes to mind. But considering all the strides the sport has made in the name of safety, such incidents are the exception rather than the rule. And for regular viewers, a crash is never fun. The race is stopped, the driver might be injured or worse, and everyone holds their hearts in their throats until the all-clear is given. What if I don’t care about cars at all? Why should I follow the sport? For many fans, the real entertainment of F1 happens off the track. F1 is full of big personalities with even bigger egos: drivers willing to do anything to win, yes, but also absurdly wealthy team owners pouring their millions into fast cars for little more than bragging rights, as well as harried team prin- cipals under lots of pressure to make sure the cars run and the drivers don’t wreck them. A fun, if somewhat inaccurate, way to see this in action is by watching Netflix’s hit docu-series Formula 1: Drive to Sur- vive, where all the drivers, principals, and owners appear. The show enhances and skews the rivalries, gossip, and cut- throat competition, giving the sport a reality-TV treatment that’s one part Game of Thrones, another part Real House- wives. Give it a look. Prep for the Miami Grand Prix with this handy primer! BY DOUGLAS MARKOWITZ Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images The crowds at the 2022 Miami Grand Prix A BEGINNER’S GUID FORMU
