Maybe you watched F1: The Movie. Maybe your TikTok feed mysteriously became filled with Charles Leclerc edits. Maybe one of your friends has been trying to convince you to watch a race for months. However you got here, welcome to Formula 1!
At first, the sport can seem slightly impossible to understand — it’s full of weird words, complicated strategies, and people getting genuinely emotional over tyres. Luckily, you don’t need to understand all of that… yet.
f1 in 60 seconds
There are currently 22 drivers across 11 teams in F1 racing, with two drivers representing each team. Throughout the season, drivers race at Grand Prix weekends around the world. Qualifying determines where they start the race, while their finishing positions may earn them points toward the Drivers’ Championship. The points scored by both drivers also count toward their team’s standing in the Teams’ Championship. In simpler terms, get to the finish line faster than everyone else.
There are pit stops, tyre strategies, overtakes, penalties, and approximately a million other things you’ll
learn simply by watching the sport. But for now, that’s enough, because arguably one of the most important parts of becoming an F1 fan is choosing who you’re going to emotionally attach yourself to. That decision may reveal more about you than you think.
Charles leclerc
If Charles Leclerc is your favorite driver, you’re a hopeless romantic. Once you become attached to something, there’s no getting rid of you. You believe in second chances, and third chances… and potentially a 14th chance if circumstances call for it.
You probably have a Pinterest board for the life you want to live, a playlist that can make you emotional
with three songs, and at least one person your friends have repeatedly begged you to stop defending. You see potential in everything (sometimes a little too much potential). You may also have a concerning ability to remain optimistic even when things repeatedly don’t go according to plan. But maybe this time will be different.
Potential major: psychology, international relations, or communications. Personality type: romantic, loyal, emotional, and optimistic.
lando norris
If Lando Norris is your favorite driver, then you’re probably the chronically online social butterfly. You communicate primarily through TikTok references, half of your friendships consist of sending each other videos with absolutely no context, and you can somehow turn almost any serious situation into a joke.
You’re probably outgoing enough that you know people everywhere you go, yet you’ll still occasionally announce that you “literally have no friends.” You definitely have a private story. You’re fun, easy to talk to, and probably the person responsible for convincing everyone to actually leave the dorm on a Friday night. But underneath all that, you’re probably a much bigger overthinker than people realize.
Potential major: communications, marketing, or business. Personality type: extroverted, funny, social, and secretly an over-thinker.
oscar piastri
If Oscar Piastri is your favorite driver, you’re the person everyone initially assumes is quiet and innocent. But they’re wrong. You might not talk the most in a group, but when you do, it’s somehow always the funniest thing anyone
has said in the past 20 minutes. Your humor is dry enough that people occasionally can’t tell whether or not you’re joking.
You notice everything happening around you, rarely panic publicly, and usually think before you speak. That also means your friends probably come to you when they need an honest answer rather than someone blindly agreeing with them. You’re calm, rational, and slightly terrifying when you decide you’re competitive about something.
Potential major: engineering, computer science, or economics. Personality type: analytical, independent, observant, and dryly funny.
lewis hamilton
If Lewis Hamilton is your favorite, you have main-character energy. You know what you want your life to look like. Your future apartment may already exist on Pinterest. Your outfits are planned. You probably have an extremely specific vision of the person you want to become.
You’re ambitious but also care about expressing yourself. If everyone arrives wearing jeans and you show up overdressed, you’re not embarrassed — they were underdressed.
You admire people who are successful without blending into everyone around them, and you’re probably constantly trying to become a slightly better version of yourself.
Potential major: fashion, business, political science, or public relations. Personality type: ambitious, confident, expressive, and stylish.
max verstappen
If Max Verstappen is your favorite driver, you’re competitive. There doesn’t need to be a prize, or technically even need a competition. You’ll create one. Bowling becomes serious. Mario Kart becomes personal. Walking somewhere becomes a race because somebody made the mistake of saying, “I think I can get there before you.”
You know what you like and rarely pretend otherwise. You can also be very direct, which means your friends probably come to you when they want the truth and avoid you when they want someone to validate a bad decision.
Potential major: engineering, economics, or finance. Personality type: competitive, independent, straightforward, and determined.
carlos sainz
If Carlos Sainz is your favorite, you’re the dependable friend. You booked the reservation. You checked how long it takes to get there. You brought the portable charger. You somehow remembered that one person said three weeks ago that they can’t eat something on the menu.
Nobody fully realizes how much you do until one day you decide to stop and everything falls apart. You’re composed, practical, and usually the person people turn to the second something goes wrong. And unfortunately for you, you usually know how to fix it.
Potential major: business, communications, or economics. Personality type: reliable, practical, composed, and quietly competitive.
What If I Still Don’t Have A Favorite?
You’re probably the exact person this article was written for. You don’t need to choose someone before your first race. Try watching a few! Maybe you end up loving someone’s driving style, or maybe an interview makes you like them. Maybe you start supporting a team because your friend does. Or maybe TikTok will make the decision for you.
Eventually, something will happen during qualifying, and you’ll realize that you suddenly care significantly more than you intended to. That’s usually how it starts. F1 might look complicated from the outside, but choosing a driver makes the sport much easier to get invested in. Before long, you may find yourself waking up early on a Sunday and insisting to others that they’re not just driving around in circles.
And just like that, you’re hooked.
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