My First Time: Formula One Race

This Saturday night/ Sunday Morning i watched my first Formula One race. It was the Grand Prix of Australia. I want to open up by saying it was different than any other kind of racing I've seen before. Besides the obvious difference, being the type of cars and the accents, there was some very shocking differences than any other kind of American racing.

The first thing that caught my eye was the fact that nobody holds a line. Well, I guess they do, but it's the same line. Which makes passing very difficult and very fun to watch

Also, the cars have less restrictions. Unlike any circuit in America the teams are free to screw around with the aerodynamics as much as they want. The BMW's took great advantage of them. You outta look how messed up there front wing looked compared to the Indy car. However the Ferrari's didn't take advantage of this rule and they kept there wing pretty plain looking. They didn't have a single car finish the race. Also, there is not a set wheel base or axis location, giving teams freedom to pick where they want there wheels to be. But, from the pre race it seems like everyone is forced to used the same set-up through the whole 18 race circuit.

Another thing that surprised me is the diversity of manufactures. Cars from 3 continents, none from the US.

Also, there are no drivers from the US. I was wandering if that means we're bad drivers or something than I thought about it than I came to a conclusion. F1 is the worlds grandest racing circuit, but to Americans it's considered a b-league. I mean, we specialise in oval racing. Road racing is somewhat a novelty. Both forms are equally great and require the same amount of talent.

The terminology in F1 is different as well. They called there drivers pilots, I was kinda thrown off by that one. They have a safety car instead of a pace car. This difference in name makes since. They only have the car come out when a tow-truck is required. They don't use it to pace, rather they follow it to avoid workers and other stuff. Heck, they don't pace at all. They start from a standing start.