F1 racing

F1 racing is a monthly magazine focused on Formula One racing which launched in March, 1996.

The previous Editor, Matt Bishop, also writes a fortnightly column for the website of the weekly magazine Autosport (sister publication of F1 Racing). Matt Bishop left in 2007 to join McLaren and was replaced by the new executive editor Tim Scott, later by Hans Seeberg.

In July 2005, F1 Racing celebrated its one hundredth issue; it continues to publish in over twenty countries, and claims the title "The World's Best-Selling Grand Prix Magazine." In the one hundred issues, Michael Schumacher had been cover feature over forty times — more than any other driver — including the first issue in March, 1996. In February 2001, a "Michael Schumacher Special Edition" was published.

Many well respected journalists and photographers contribute to the magazine. Such regulars include journalists Peter Windsor and Alan Henry, and renowned photographers Darren Heath, Steven Tee and Lorenzo Bellanca. Damon Hill was 'Guest Editor' in January, 2000, which featured an interview between him and Michael Schumacher. From the March 2006 issue of F1 Racing Max Mosley, president of the FIA, has a monthly column in the magazine.

At the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix, Darren Heath, an F1 Racing photographer, noticed that the rear brakes of the McLarens were glowing red in an acceleration zone of the track. The magazine discovered through investigation that McLaren had installed a second brake pedal, selectable by the driver to act on one of the rear wheels. This allowed the driver to eliminate understeer and reduce wheelspin when exiting slow corners. This system was entirely legal, but was an innovation, and hence gave McLaren an advantage. While F1 Racing suspected what McLaren were doing, they required proof to publish the story. At the 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix the two McLarens retired from the race. This allowed Heath to take a picture of the footwell of Häkkinen's car and the second brake pedal. The story was run in the November issue of F1 Racing and lead to the system being dubbed "brake steer". Ferrari's protestations to the FIA led to the system being banned at the 1998 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Formula1 in Television

Formula One can be seen live or tape delayed in almost every country and territory around the world and attracts one of the largest global television audiences. The 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix attracted an average live global TV audience of eighty-three million viewers, with a total of 154 million viewers tuning in to watch at least some part of the event.Official figures from FOM for 2006 that state Formula One television broadcasts were witnessed by 580 million unique viewers during the 2005 season and average viewing figures for 1995–1999 were 50 billion.It is a massive television event; the cumulative television audience was calculated to be 54 billion for 2001 season, broadcast to two hundred countries.

In 2005, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal was the most watched of the races, and the third most watched sporting event in the world.

During the early 2000s, Formula One Administration created a number of trademarks, an official logo, and an official website for the sport in an attempt to give it a corporate identity. Ecclestone experimented with a digital television package (known colloquially as Bernievision), which was launched at the 1996 German Grand Prix in cooperation with German digital television service "DF1", thirty years after the first GP colour TV broadcast, the 1967 German Grand Prix. This service offered the viewer several simultaneous feeds (such as super signal, onboard, top of field, backfield, highlights, pit lane, timing), which were produced with cameras, technical equipment and staff different from those used for the conventional coverage. It was introduced in many countries over the years, but was shut down after the 2002 season for financial reasons.

TV stations all take what is known as the 'World Feed', either produced by the FOM (Formula One Management) or the 'host broadcaster'. The only station that has any difference is 'Premiere'—a German channel that offers all sessions live and interactive, with features such as the onboard channel. This service was more widely available around Europe until the end of 2002, when the cost of a whole different feed for the digital interactive services was thought too much. This was in large part because of the failure of the 'F1 Digital +' Channel launched through Sky Digital in the United Kingdom. Prices were too high for viewers, considering they could watch both the qualifying and the races themselves free on ITV.

Bernie Ecclestone had announced that F1 will adopt the HD format near the end of the 2007 season. However, details of the races to be covered and the means of showing the content have yet to be announced. Also it was announced early in 2008 that the BBC would be broadcasting F1 for five years, starting in 2009, regaining the rights from ITV who had been broadcasting it since they got the rights in 1997.However, on 31 December 2008, Roger Mosey, Director of BBC Sport announced that F1 would not be broadcast on BBC HD because "no HD world feed is available".

Grands Prix

The number of Grands Prix held in a season has varied over the years. Only seven races comprised the inaugural 1950 world championship season; over the years the calendar has almost tripled in size. Though the number of races had stayed at sixteen or seventeen since the 1980s, it reached nineteen in 2005.

Six of the original seven races took place in Europe; the only non-European race that counted towards the World Championship in 1950 was the Indianapolis 500, which, due to lack of participation by F1 teams, since it required cars with different specifications from the other races, was later replaced by the United States Grand Prix. The F1 championship gradually expanded to other non-European countries as well. Argentina hosted the first South American grand prix in 1953, and Morocco hosted the first African World Championship race in 1958. Asia (Japan in 1976) and Oceania (Australia in 1985) followed. The current eighteen races are spread over the continents of Europe, Asia, Oceania, North America and South America.

Traditionally each nation has hosted a single Grand Prix, which carries the name of the country. If a single country hosts multiple Grands Prix in a year they receive different names. For instance, a European country (such as Britain, Germany or Spain) which has hosted two Grands Prix has the second one known as the European Grand Prix, while Italy's second grand prix was named after nearby republic of San Marino. Similarly, as two races were scheduled in Japan in 1994/1995, the second event was known as the Pacific Grand Prix. In 1982, the United States hosted three Grands Prix.

The Grands Prix, some of which have a history that pre-dates the Formula One World Championship, are not always held on the same circuit every year. The British Grand Prix, for example, though held every year since 1950, alternated between Brands Hatch and Silverstone from 1963 to 1986. The only other race to have been included in every season is the Italian Grand Prix. The World Championship event has taken place exclusively at Monza with just one exception: in 1980, it was held at Imola, host to the San Marino Grand Prix until 2006.

One of the newest races on the Grand Prix calendar, held in Bahrain, represents Formula One's first foray into the Middle East with a high-tech purpose-built desert track. The Bahrain Grand Prix, and other new races in China and Turkey, present new opportunities for the growth and evolution of the Formula One Grand Prix franchise while new facilities also raise the bar for other Formula One racing venues around the world. In order to make room on the schedule for the newer races, older or less successful events in Europe and the Americas have been dropped from the calendar, such as these in Argentina, Austria, Mexico, San Marino, and the United States.

In 2007 it was confirmed that new Grands Prix would be added to the calendar. The first was the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2008, which had the honour of the first night race ever held in Formula One.The second was the Indian Grand Prix which will be held in Delhi, India.Other changes included the removal of the United States Grand Prix from the calendar,and the move of the European Grand Prix to Valencia, Spain.

Beyond F1

Most F1 drivers retire before their mid-30s; however, many keep racing in disciplines which are less physically demanding. The German touring car championship, the DTM, is a popular category involving ex-drivers such as two-times F1 champion Mika Häkkinen and Jean Alesi, and some F1 drivers have left to race in America–Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fittipaldi duelled for the 1993 IndyCar title, and Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Speed and Jacques Villeneuve have moved to NASCAR. Some drivers have gone to A1GP (Narain Karthikeyan), and some, such as Gerhard Berger and Alain Prost, returned to F1 as team owners. A series for former Formula One drivers, called Grand Prix Masters, ran briefly in 2005 and 2006.Others have become pundits for TV coverage such as Martin Brundle for ITV and Jean Alesi for Italian national network RAI and David Coulthard for the BBC. Others, such as Damon Hill and Jackie Stewart take active roles in motorsport in their own countries.

Modified cars Common upgrades

Common upgrades include replacing the standard factory issue wheels with after market alloy wheels, usually of a larger diameter to improve the aesthetics; lowering the suspension of the car to give it a "quick" look by replacing the springs (and sometimes shock absorbers too) or torsion bars; replacing the existing exhaust system with one with less restriction allowing better exhaust flow, louder and deeper sound and possible improvements in performance (due to easier flow rate).

Going further with a modified car could involve adding a fiberglass body kit to improve the aesthetics, changing the paint to a more novel color or increasing the engine performance with a high-flow air filter, port and polish or even forced induction, such as a turbocharger kit. Aside from the use of body kits, traditional customizing methods like roof chops, two door stretches, suicide doors, channeling and lights, trim and sheet metal from another car and sectioning are sometimes also used.

Simple accessories or audio upgrades, although technically still a modification, are so common place with car owners in general they aren’t classed as such. Replacing a radio cassette player with a CD player or adding fabric seat covers fall into this category.