Evolving Formula: The Magic Of F1

We remember racing from a decades ago as good times with good smells, good sounds, charismatic drivers... a simpler formula at the time we lived a simpler life. The past will always feel satisfying, enticing, magical. The past will never leave us alone, it is a yard stick we use to measure the now.

You will never forget the first time, sitting track side at your favourite corner, hearing the engines starting up far away in the pit lane, the excitement building up. The blare is getting louder as the cars approach from the other side of the track. Just a few corners to go, they are coming into vision in the distance, getting louder and louder.

You can so clearly feel the vibrations in your gut as they roar pass. In an instant the world is reduced to the screaming engines of these incredible machines and you. Everything else has been dissolved to non existence by these all-consuming formula one racing cars.

You can see the cars sliding under breaking on the edge of tyre’s operating parameters. You can see the drivers working hard, doing things you know you cannot do, never in a million years. Physics are being challenged right in front of your eyes.

Big, simple tyres which are constantly on the circumscription of grip, leaving black, parabolic lines on the tarmac, etching their presence on the asphalt and your memories. One moment the car pivots around the front right asking everything from the tyre and the suspension. A blink later the driver is hard on the power with the rear of the car not complying with the direction of travel.

This is what you fell in love with all those years ago, this is why you spend countless Sundays watching the best drivers competing in the most advanced machinery. You will always remember the first time, the smells of tyres, the burned high octane fuel in the air, the vibrations in the stomach when the cars go by.

You cannot stop admiring these inconceivable machines, these incredible drivers which are taking physics beyond the limits right in front of your eyes. There is nothing that can make you a bigger fan of this sport than physical proximity to these cars on the very limit.

But don’t get lost in the past, it is gone, it has been transformed into sweet memories. The purpose of the past can only be to guide the appreciation of the present, to put it into context. Experiences have become reference points to understand of the current.

The magic of formula one is no different now, it has lost nothing. Your entry point is simply at a different time in the evolution. Gone is the area when all things were mechanical, in racing and in life.

We will look back at the current cars with the same appreciation we have for these loud, violent, smelly and simple machines. The game has moved on, but formula one will always be competed at the cutting edge.

Images captured during the 2014 Silverstone Classic.

See the non-narrative version by clicking here.