Understanding Formula 1: The Art, Politics, and Poetry of Speed
- Mills Wang
- Nov 9
- 3 min read
Design Perspective
Earlier this year, in a fabulous guesthouse in Kenting, I opened Netflix and stumbled upon a Formula 1 documentary. Only then did I begin to understand why F1 stands among the world’s largest sports.
On television it always looked like toy slot cars endlessly looping around a track — what could possibly be interesting about that?
For someone who doesn’t care much for nationalism (or its extension, home-field fanaticism), and who rarely commits to watching entire seasons of any sport, Formula 1 turned out to be surprisingly captivating.
The Primitive Desire to Go Faster
The human pursuit of speed is primal — whoever goes fastest wins.But unlike most professional sports, F1 crowns two champions each season: the Driver’s Champion and the Constructor’s Champion.
Personally, I care more about the latter — the team.
The World’s Most Public Technology Contest
Formula 1 is, at its core, an open global technology competition. Every race, every season, the teams are redesigning, refining, rethinking. But as I always say — every act of design begins with constraint. Every change must obey strict, fairness-driven regulations.
Teams hire the best minds in aerodynamics, physics, materials science —and sometimes, yes, car-tuning street geniuses. They pour in staggering budgets to gain an advantage measured in hundredths of a second. How is that even achieved? That’s what makes it irresistible.
The FIA — Formula 1’s governing body — defines, maintains, interprets, and arbitrates the rules. Those four verbs alone create enough drama each season to rival a Shakespearean court.
The rulebook spans more than 140 pages. It must preserve competitiveness, enhance safety, and maintain fairness — a balance so delicate it breeds constant tension.
Old-Fashioned Romance, Modern Precision
The regulations cover everything: annual budgets, race formats, car dimensions, tire compounds.Each driver must use at least two different tires in a race — soft ones that burn fast but fly, hard ones that last but lag, and rain tires for chaos.
Pit-stop strategy becomes an art form. Three seconds of precision can decide everything —as subtle and nerve-wracking as a free throw, less glamorous than a slam dunk but just as fatal when missed.
Even car height is measured by the most tactile, almost vintage device:a wooden plank (now fiberglass) fixed beneath each multimillion-dollar car. If it’s too worn after the race, disqualified. A primitive check in a hyper-engineered world —and somehow, that’s romantic.
A Business of Burning Money and Minds
F1 is also a business drama. It’s rightly called “the pinnacle of motorsport.” Each of the ten teams runs on about $135 million USD, roughly forty billion New Taiwan dollars — a fortune spent chasing fractions of a second.
They must recruit the right engineers, secure the right sponsors, and gamble on — then persuade — the right driver to join. Every screw, literal or metaphorical, must turn perfectly. Will it ever make financial sense? That’s part of the spectacle.
The Chosen Twenty
Like Hollywood, Formula 1 thrives on its stars. Only twenty humans on Earth drive these machines. Apart from the charismatic veteran Alonso, most are between 23 and 27 —youthful, ruthless, almost unreal.
Driving might not look physical, but it’s brutal. Each race lasts up to two hours; drivers endure 4–5 G of lateral force —as if sixty kilograms were pulling sideways on your neck the entire time. Add cockpit heat, and losing three to four kilos of body water is ordinary.
Their backstories read like mythology: a prodigy from a racing dynasty who joins Ferrari after his father’s death, a wealthy heir whose family literally buys him a team, a seventeen-year-old gamer who conquers both the real and virtual SIM tracks.
The rivalries between drivers — and the politics between teams —feed a drama that’s equal parts engineering and emotion.
The Moment That Matters
Formula 1’s allure isn’t merely about speed. It’s about what speed contains:engineering, strategy, power, ego, and instinct.
And yet, it all converges into one instant — when a driver finds the narrowest gap, commits, and slips past at impossible velocity.
That flicker of courage and calculation, when reason collapses and adrenaline reigns —that’s the soul of Formula 1.
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