Every year, millions of people worldwide tune in to watch the highspeed action of Formula One (F1). With this, the anticipated start to a new season of F1 rolled to a start on Saturday, March 7.
The start to a new season is always one of the most interesting times in this sport because teams arrive with new cars, updated designs and sometimes new drivers. These early races help reveal which teams prepared well during the offseason and which ones may struggle to keep up.
The start of a new season is also the time when rivalries begin to develop. Fans begin to pay close attention to early races to see which teams appear strongest and which drivers might compete for the most wins. With so many competitive teams on the board, countless fans believe this season will be unpredictable.
Sophomore Annemarie Boland has been following F1 for several years.
“I’ve been following F1 for probably …five or six years now,” said Boland. She explained that she first became interested in the sport because her dad used to race cars. “Since my dad is actually like an ex-race car driver, he has been super into F1 and got our whole family into it as well,” she added.
Boland’s favorite team is the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, and one of her favorite drivers is Kimi Antonelli. She also mentioned that she is looking forward to seeing the teams and rivalries develop throughout the season.
“I think that just seeing the rivalry between Mercedes and McLaren F1 Team will be very exciting to watch,” she said, adding that McLaren performed strongly last year, but may not be as dominant this year.
In addition, she mentioned that people who do not watch F1 might not realize how complicated parts of the sport can be.
“I think the timing is pretty confusing. It took me a while to figure out how the time laps,” explained Boland.
Overall, in her years of watching F1, Boland explained that her favorite parts of the sport is watching the technology change over time.
Additionally, sophomore Piper Ventura has been following F1 for the past year. She shared that her favorite racer has been Charles Leclerc and her favorite team is Ferrari.
With all of the teams coming together for a new season, there is no way of knowing what lies ahead. Whether it be a surprise domination from a certain team or racer, or a weakness from a team or racer, fans can expect an exciting and unpredictable F1 season ahead.
