My Formula One Story So Far...

The ultimate motorsport series, Formula One, has been in my life for a very long time. To be specific since the Montreal Grand Prix in Canada 2011. I want to take you on a journey throughout time, to show you how my love for this incredible sport, continues to grow. I will share the ups and the downs and give my own opinion on certain moments that have taken place.

To be clear, everything in this piece is of my own personal beliefs and thoughts and is not to be taken out of context.

I respect everything and everyone who dedicates their life to this magnificent sport and generally only speak from the love and passion that I have for it all!

There are so many specific races that stick out, it could be because of how a driver won the race, maybe the venue itself, or it could just be the company that I had to watch the race with. That's what I want to talk about first.

My Dad is not like me when it comes to sports. We are on complete opposite ends of the scale. He doesn't really like the things I like, which growing up, could be quite tough, but I like to look at it as though I've taken what could've been his love for sport and doubled up myself, if that makes sense... However, F1 was something we could share a bond over. Every Sunday race, he would get the snacks in and we would prepare to watch the race. These to me are treasurable memories because everyone wants to be able to spend time with a loved one and share a passion for something, so this was something I'd look forward to all week long. Don't get it twisted, I was still the one with all the knowledge, but he would fully get behind it all and we'd be on the edge of our seats.

Jenson Button was my favourite driver growing up in the earlier days, mainly due to the fact he had won the first-ever race I tuned in to and was a very nice guy off the track. Whenever I see him on Sky Sports these days, I know it will be good because he brings that balance of great insight, as well as a funny, comedic side. One of the best parts about Formula One is the people who work in the media covering the sport. It used to be BBC with Jake Humphrey's presenting and Eddie Jordan plus David Coulthard alongside him, but then in 2012 when Sky Sports bought the rights, my parents actually bought Sky specifically so I could continue watching it. That's how big it had become to me in just one year. It also shows how much my Dad really liked the sport. He grew up watching the likes of Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost but his favourite was Nigel Mansell.

An average F1 race week looks like this to me. Monday-Wednesday, I just gather the latest information on social media from content creators like Matt Gallagher from WTF1 and also a freelancer called Chris Medland. Then on Thursday, I will listen to a BBC Sounds podcast, hosted by Jennie Gow, about the race preview before then heading over to Sky to watch the driver's press conferences. I will also find time this listen to F1 Nation on Spotify, hosted by the brilliant Natalie Pinkham. On Friday, I of course watch Practise 1 and 2 before then tuning into the F1 Show, once again on Sky. Saturday is then Qualifying, before the main event on Sunday. If it's on, I'll also watch F2, F3 and the W Series.

The Sky F1 team is the best in the business. The two notable best bits are Martin Brundle's grid walk and Ted Kravitz's notebook. But the whole team on a race weekend deliver top-quality analysis and updates and really gets down to the point about the matters at hand. That's why I watch the hour and a half build-up and post-race programming, rather than just the race itself. To me, a race weekend isn't just what's on the track, it's everything surrounding the Grand Prix as a whole. Then on Monday, I will head over to F1's official YouTube page to watch the driver's race reactions from a different broadcaster as well as their team radios when crossing the finishing line. Anything else that I can find, regarding the race, will be the next thing on my agenda, but if there's nothing much to shout about so to speak, then I will simply wait to do it all over again for the next race.

Races:

So, as I mentioned in the intro, it all started back in 2011. Now I'm from Surrey, more specifically, from Woking, so there's no bigger incentive than to get behind the McLaren team. Back then, Jenson Button and a young Lewis Hamilton were the two drivers. Both of them had a World Drivers Championship to their name and were fighting the dominant force of the Red Bull Racing team. I was just seven years old and as you can probably guess, I don't exactly remember every little detail, but I do still remember my first time tuning in to a race.

I do have a newfound love with Mercedes AMG due to following Sir Lewis now, in the past seven odd years or so which I'll get into a bit later.

On the 12th June 2011, I was sitting upstairs watching some TV, when all of a sudden I turned over to BBC. Now back in these days, I wasn't really allowed to watch much telly, especially not allowed to touch the remote, but fortunately, I found myself in a position where I was able to do both. For those who don't know, this Grand Prix is in the history books as the longest Formula One race of all time and it's a record that is likely to never be broken, due to the rule change. This race lasted four hours and four minutes, with two hours being standstill due to a red flag because of the awful weather conditions. It also holds another record for the most amount of times the safety car was called to the track in a race. It happened six, yes six times. You don't even need to understand anything about the sport at this rate, because I was watching history unfold in front of my young eyes.

The race began behind the safety car and despite the slow speed, drivers struggled for grip on the wet surface. The safety car came into the pits after five laps and the cars were allowed to overtake. Sebastian Vettel retained first place from Fernando Alonso's attempts to pass, while behind, Hamilton and Mark Webber collided at the first corner. This dropped the drivers to seventh and fourteenth respectively. Button was in fifth and Hamilton was behind. He attempted an overtake on the pit straight, but the two drivers collided and Hamilton hit the pit wall. The accident caused Hamilton's retirement, which prompted a safety car deployment at the end of lap eight.

The race was resumed on lap 13 and Button, who had changed to intermediate tyres before the safety car period, was given a drive-through penalty for speeding behind the safety car, emerging in 15th place. On lap 19, a rainstorm arrived at the circuit, forcing the drivers on intermediate tyres to switch back to full wets. The safety car was brought out on lap 20 due to the intensity of the rain. After six laps under the safety car, the conditions were getting worse and the race was suspended.

Torrential rain prevented the resumption of the Grand Prix until the rain eased two hours later. The race was restarted behind the safety car and Button was in tenth. The safety car remained out for seven laps, during which the circuit began drying enough to be suitable for intermediate tyres. Button pitted again and came upon tenth-placed Alonso as he exited the pitlane. As he attempted to pass at turn three, the two cars touched, and Alonso's Ferrari spun and beached upon a curb, bringing out the safety car again. Button had a punctured tyre after the collision and was in twenty-first and last place, but immediately began to make up positions and was 14th by lap 44.

DRS was enabled on lap 46 and Button had caught Pastor Maldonado and Jamie Alguersuari. He had risen from ninth after his pit-stop to fourth and was catching the leading trio of Vettel, Michael Schumacher and Webber. On lap 56, Nick Heidfeld collided with Kamui Kobayashi which damaged his front wing. The debris on the track from the accident called the sixth safety car period of the race.

Button passed Webber on lap 64 after he again cut the chicane, and Schumacher on the same lap and gained second place. The fastest lap of the race was set by Button on lap 69, setting a time of 1:16.956 as he was closing to Vettel for the race lead.

Vettel led by 0.9 seconds on the final lap, before he ran wide at turn six. Button passed him to take the lead and held it to win the race.

I was in absolute awe about what I had just watched! My local team's driver just won a race on the final lap after being last and pitting six times... Yeah, I knew this was a sport that I would be interested in long term.

Highlights

Silverstone is my favourite track for many reasons. Firstly, the attendance is absolutely huge and the noise is so loud! The camera angles around the track are also brilliant and it makes it feel as though it's a main-main event, not just another race on the calendar. Plus, the track itself, I mean come on, it's just fantastic. Abbey, Brooklands, Luffield, Copse, Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel, Hanger Straight, Stowe and the Hamilton Straight all off the top of my head are just elite.

I went to the 2016 British Grand Prix and had a brilliant time. I was sitting in Club Corner, the grandstand that looks out to what is now called the Hamilton Straight and loved every minute of it.

Due to rain shortly before the start of the race, it commenced behind the safety car, with every car equipped with full wet tyres. The safety car came back into the pitlane at the end of lap five and racing began properly. Meanwhile, at the front, Hamilton had established a five-second advantage over his then teammate, Nico Rosberg, who soon came under attack by a 19-year-old Max Verstappen, who was running well on the intermediate tyres.

Lap 18 saw drivers making the change to slick tyres, Hamilton retained the lead, but not without problems, as he also had a short excursion off the track, which was mirrored by Verstappen behind him. As a result, the top three moved closer together.

Rosberg started to close on Verstappen for second place, starting overtaking attempts on lap 33 and finally succeeding on lap 38. While Rosberg initially closed in on Hamilton, the latter started to improve his lap times towards the end of the race. Rosberg reported problems with his gearbox on the team radio. His team told him to avoid using seventh gear, following which Rosberg was able to consolidate his slim lead over Verstappen, which had initially come down due to his problem. Hamilton was unaffected by this and crossed the line to take victory, 6.9 seconds ahead of Rosberg. He was the first driver to win the British Grand Prix three times in a row and also became the record winner at the Silverstone circuit, with four victories. It was the 47th victory of his career.

After the race, Rosberg received a ten-second time penalty for what the stewards felt were instructions over team radio that are not compliant with the sporting regulations, demoting Rosberg to third place.

I got my hat signed by David Coulthard on the track when we all swarmed on after the race to watch the podium unfold and had bought both a Jenson Button, McLaren t-shirt and a Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes polo shirt. This was once again another important moment in my journey of truly getting to learn Formula One on a deeper level, because at this point, I'm still really young. I had just turned 12 (as you can see in the cover photo).

Highlights

Now, as you would expect, there or loads and loads more races that stick out in general, but I want to turn the attention over to the 2021 season. I could talk about this in a debating competition I tell you.

Going back to the time I went to Silverstone, my JB alliance had slowly changed to Lewis. Now, don't get me wrong, I've always loved LH44, but seeing his dominance in the flesh was another thing. I think it's also safe to say that he, like all human beings, developed over time and matured into an unbelievable human being. This now moves me onto my next section.

Lewis Hamilton to me, is the GOAT. The greatest of all time in the history of the sport. The statistics don't lie. Of course, those before my time like Fangio, Senna, Prost and Schumacher are all elite and circumstances were different back then, but Lewis is just a different breed. All the adversity this guy has had to face, not just from fans of the sport but actual people in the paddock is disgusting but he just fuels it into his race craft and his current 103 wins and 103 poles speak for themselves. The guy has more wins than certain constructors for Pete's sake. His positivity and drive is whole handedly the reason why he has the biggest fan base around certain parts of the globe and has even since become an honorary citizen of Brazil. But when it comes to inside the car, he is by far the best. FACT!

Everyone has an idol in sports, mine for example are people like Steven Gerrard, Ben Stokes and Tiger Woods but Lewis comes out on top. The day he walks away from the sport with be a terribly tough time. People talk about having the best car but you've got to, first of all, be able to drive it and then secondly beat those around you, including your teammate. It's no easy feat.

During that 2021 season, the range of emotions I experienced was quite frankly brilliant on reflection, but it was unfortunate in which the manner it finished. We all know that he was cheated out of a record-breaking eighth title, even Red Bull fans deep down know it was a robbery, plus it was even revealed by the FIA as a human error. It took a very long time for me to accept it and I will tell you in person where my alliances stand and where they don't just to be clear. The FIA and race stewards have made some horrific mistakes in the last few seasons, which can affect your love with the sport but it's like all sporting officials I guess...

But that season (up until the last few laps of Abu Dhabi) was sensational. The Netflix series 'Drive to Survive' is well documented in that it has helped the sport grow over the past few years and this really helped people continue their newfound interest. I do think that the series made people pick a side, so to speak, instead of enjoying all 20 cars every other Sunday but after the events during the season, you would be mad if you decided to stay on the fence. For the championship to go down the last race is pretty cool, especially when it's also level on points.

I won't go through all the races as it's still all fresh on the brain of those who watch the sport, but races like Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Britain, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia were the races with the most talking points, let's say.

To be fair, every race weekend actually had drama for the first time ever really. Even the Belgium GP, which was not completed, had its fair share of drama on the Saturday. You just couldn't afford to blink at any point during this campaign because moments were happening left, right and centre. Throughout the year, I declined family events and even missed out on parties just to make sure that Sunday race day was spent in the 'man cave' down at the end of my garden. Brilliant setup for all sports.

Summary:

Formula One just gives you that adrenalin rush from lights out, into turn one wherever it be. One thing though that does annoy me is the formation lap because it's like you're being teased to wait even longer to get properly going.

I want to be a journalist when I'm older and I do worry sometimes because despite football being my main focus, with F1 I just become a completely un-neutral person. I can't stay in the middle and I'll only talk from one side. Don't get it twisted, I still see a race unfold and appreciate what takes place during it all, but my mind stays fixated on only a select few when it comes to talking about it online. Oh well, I'm still young and just have the biggest passion for it so why not enjoy it whilst I can, hey...

As the 2022 season came to an end, there was once again a whole load of drama from Red Bull's cost cap to Fernando Alonso's comments and don't forget Zhou Guanyu's massive crash at Silverstone. Oh yeah by the way, Silverstone 2022 is just as good as 2021 due to that iconic piece of commentary from Crofty "THROUGH GOES HAMILTON!" Goosebumps.

This was the first year with the new car regulations and on reflection, it did bring the midfield closer together but not to the top just yet. The Mercedes team and Brackley and Brixworth are magnificent and let's not forget Toto Wolf (and Susie Wolf) at the helm. Quick shoutout as well to Peter Bonington 'Bono'. Best race engineer in F1. When he says 'Hammer Time' you just get instant chills. So yeah, my Mercedes, McLaren partnership is definitely now at its full strength along with my knowledge of the sport and the cars.

Like with anything, you learn over time and so like I mentioned, my understanding of F1 now is through the roof. I'm constantly going on about it to all my friends, some of whom don't even claim it's a sport which REALLY ANNOYS ME! But they know F1 is my weak point and so they do it to wind me up.

I probably should have done a podcast describing my love with F1 but then it would just be more non-strop talking to no one and wouldn't have a limit. So writing was probably best. I will leave it there and hopefully once we return in March 2023 for the new highly anticipated season, I can use this website to do previews and reports throughout the year.

Finally, like I said at the top of all of this, it's more a reflective story/journal rather than a report and of course it's very bias but this is my biggest passion to date. To be fair, these days I even debate whether I hold F1 in a higher regard than football and it's the one question I simply can't answer. So, I'll leave you with this piece for you to make your mind up.

Thank you for reading and if you have an F1 podcast or are just a huge fan like me then please get in contact as I'm always swapping stories about this beautiful sport. I can name you world champions and race winners for days. Now we just sit back and wait for the magic and drama to unfold all over again…