60 Fun Facts About Formula 1

The first Formula One World Championship race was held on 13 May 1950 at which circuit?

Silverstone was built on the site of RAF Silverstone, a wartime bomber station.

Who won the first Formula One Drivers' World Championship in 1950, driving for Alfa Romeo?

He narrowly beat his teammate Fangio, who would go on to win five titles.

Fangio won world titles with four different teams. Which of these was NOT one of them?

He won with Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari; his 24 wins from 52 starts is still the best winning percentage ever.

In February 1958, Fangio was kidnapped from a Havana hotel by gunmen loyal to which Cuban revolutionary?

He was released after about 29 hours and later called it 'one more adventure'.

Which two drivers had each won seven F1 World Drivers' Championships by the end of 2025?

Schumacher's came in 1994-95 and 2000-04; Hamilton's in 2008 and 2014-20.

Michael Schumacher's record five consecutive titles came with which team?

His first two titles, in 1994 and 1995, were with Benetton.

In December 2013, Schumacher suffered a traumatic brain injury while doing what?

He was placed in an induced coma for six months; his brother Ralf also raced in F1.

Whom did Lewis Hamilton pass for fifth at the last corners of the 2008 Brazilian GP to clinch his first title?

Felipe Massa had crossed the line thinking he was champion; the pass swung the title by one point.

After 12 seasons with the Silver Arrows, Lewis Hamilton joined which team for 2025?

He was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours and remains the only Black driver to have raced in F1.

How old was Max Verstappen when he became F1's youngest ever starter at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix?

He was 17 years and 166 days old; a year later he became the youngest race winner at 18.

Verstappen won four consecutive world titles from 2021 to 2024 with which team?

His father Jos was also an F1 driver; Max holds Dutch and Belgian nationality but races under the Dutch flag.

Who was the race director at the centre of the dispute over the 2021 Abu Dhabi safety-car restart?

He let only the five lapped cars between the title rivals unlap themselves, which had never happened before, and was removed from the role in February 2022.

Which driver won the 2025 World Drivers' Championship?

It was McLaren's first drivers' title since Hamilton in 2008.

Sebastian Vettel became the youngest ever world champion in 2010. How old was he?

He was 23 years and 134 days; Fangio, the oldest champion, was 46 when he won in 1957.

Vettel took his first Grand Prix win at a wet Monza in 2008 for which team?

He was 21 years and 74 days old, a record Verstappen later beat by more than two years.

Which driver is the only Formula One world champion to have been crowned posthumously?

He was killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix in 1970 but had built an unassailable points lead.

Niki Lauda returned to racing just six weeks after his fiery 1976 crash at which circuit?

He missed only two races and finished fourth at Monza on his return; the season was dramatised in the film Rush.

Which four-time champion was nicknamed 'The Professor' for his calculating approach to racing?

His 51 wins stood as the record for 14 years until Schumacher passed it in 2001.

The 1989 and 1990 world titles were both decided by collisions between the same McLaren rivals at which circuit?

Senna won all three of his titles with McLaren, in 1988, 1990 and 1991.

At which Imola corner did Senna's Williams leave the track on 1 May 1994?

Roland Ratzenberger had died in qualifying the day before; Senna was the last F1 driver to die in a race accident until Jules Bianchi.

Which driver holds the record of six wins at the Grand Prix run through the streets of Monte Carlo?

Five of them came consecutively between 1989 and 1993.

The Monaco Grand Prix is one of motorsport's Triple Crown races. What are the other two?

Graham Hill is the only driver to have won all three.

The Grand Prix through the streets of Monte Carlo is the only one exempt from which FIA rule?

The race has been run in the streets of the principality since 1929.

Which circuit, home of the Italian Grand Prix, is nicknamed 'the Temple of Speed'?

Built in 1922 in a royal park north of Milan, it has been the fastest track on the calendar since 1991.

The Raidillon de l'Eau Rouge is the most famous corner sequence at which circuit?

Spa, in the Belgian Ardennes, is 7.004 km long and was first used for Grand Prix racing in 1925.

Which Grand Prix circuit is the only FIA Grade 1 track with a figure-of-eight layout?

It was designed as a Honda test track in 1962 by the Dutchman John Hugenholtz.

Maggotts, Becketts and Copse are famous corners at which circuit?

Cars pull more than 5g through the Maggotts-Becketts sequence.

Under the points system used since 2010, how many points does a race winner receive?

Points go to the top ten, and a driver must complete at least 90% of the distance to be classified.

To be classified and score points, a driver must complete at least what percentage of the race distance?

That is why a driver who retires late can still score, and why a lapped car finishing 10th usually gets a point.

DRS let a driver open a rear-wing flap when within how much time of the car ahead at a detection point?

Used from 2011 to 2025, it was replaced by 'active aerodynamics' under the 2026 rules.

Who was the first driver to use DRS in a Formula One race, in 2011?

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was the last, in 2025, before the system was scrapped.

Which company has been Formula One's sole tyre supplier since 2011?

Its dry compounds are colour-coded red (soft), yellow (medium) and white (hard).

What colour sidewall marks a full wet-weather tyre?

Green marks the intermediate; in a dry race drivers must use at least two different slick compounds.

The halo cockpit-protection device, mandatory since 2018, is made from which metal?

It is credited with saving Romain Grosjean's life when his car split a barrier at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Which car maker has supplied the official Formula One safety car since 1996?

Since 2000 the main safety car driver has been the German ex-racer Bernd Mayländer.

The virtual safety car was first used at which 2015 Grand Prix, held on a street circuit?

It was introduced after Jules Bianchi's crash at Suzuka the previous autumn.

Since 2014, Formula One engines have been turbocharged hybrid units of what capacity?

They replaced the 2.4-litre V8s used from 2006, which in turn replaced 3.0-litre V10s making close to 1,000 hp.

In the early 2020s, roughly how much did a Formula One steering wheel cost?

It weighs about 1.3 kg and carries dozens of buttons, dials and a display.

In 2005, a modified BAR Honda set an unofficial F1 speed record of 413 km/h (257 mph) at which location?

The run was made on the Utah salt flats, well away from any race track.

Which is the oldest surviving F1 team, having raced every World Championship season since 1950?

Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929 and based in Maranello, it holds a record 16 constructors' titles.

Which Italian WWI ace's fighter plane originally bore the Maranello team's prancing horse?

Baracca's parents, friends of Enzo Ferrari, suggested he adopt the symbol.

McLaren was founded in 1963 by a racing driver from which country?

Bruce McLaren was killed in June 1970 testing his own Can-Am car at Goodwood.

McLaren's 2024 Constructors' Championship was its first since which year?

They followed it up in 2025, when Lando Norris also took the drivers' crown.

Red Bull entered Formula One in 2005 after buying which existing team?

The deal closed on 15 November 2004; Christian Horner ran the Milton Keynes team from 2005 until 2025.

In which English town is Red Bull Racing based?

Designer Adrian Newey joined in November 2005 and shaped every one of its title-winning cars.

Fernando Alonso became Spain's first world champion in 2005 with which team?

He was 24, then the youngest champion ever, and beat Schumacher again in 2006; he also holds the record for most race starts.

Which US company took over Formula One in 2016, leading to Bernie Ecclestone's removal?

Ecclestone had run the sport for around four decades and earlier owned the Brabham team.

In which year did Netflix's F1 docuseries Drive to Survive premiere?

It was originally meant to focus only on Red Bull before expanding to the whole grid.

Under the 2026 Concorde Agreement, how much must a new F1 team pay up front to enter?

The anti-dilution fee is meant to compensate the existing ten teams for sharing prize money.

How many of his 52 F1 starts did Fangio win, the highest winning percentage in F1 history?

That is roughly 46 per cent, a rate no modern driver has approached over a career.

A standard Grand Prix weekend begins with how many free practice sessions on the Friday?

A third practice follows on Saturday morning before knockout qualifying.

Which Colin Chapman team fitted front wings and a rear spoiler at the 1968 Monaco GP, an early F1 aero step?

Within a season, tall strut-mounted wings had appeared and been banned after several collapsed.

In which season was the Constructors' Championship added alongside the drivers' title?

Stirling Moss finished second in the drivers' standings four times between 1955 and 1961 yet never won the title.

Which works team was first to race in tobacco livery, in Gold Leaf colours in May 1968?

Privateer Team Gunston had beaten them to it five months earlier at the South African Grand Prix, on Brabham cars.

Which manufacturer pioneered turbocharged engines in Formula One in 1977?

By 1986 a BMW turbo unit was recording 5.5 bar of boost, and turbos had become essential to be competitive.

Which Grand Prix hosted Formula One's first ever night race, in 2008?

Abu Dhabi followed with a day-night race in 2009, and Bahrain was converted to a night race in 2014.

Who set the fastest straight-line speed ever recorded in a Grand Prix, 372.6 km/h at Monza in 2005?

Valtteri Bottas went faster still in qualifying for the 2016 European Grand Prix, hitting 378 km/h in Baku.

Who was the first woman to compete in a Formula One Grand Prix, at Monaco in 1958?

She raced under the Italian flag in five Grands Prix; only five women have ever started an F1 race.

Lella Lombardi, the only woman to score in an F1 race, finished sixth in which country in 1975?

She entered seventeen races over three seasons and started twelve of them.

How many races did the inaugural 1950 World Championship season comprise?

Six were in Europe; the only non-European round was the Indianapolis 500, run to different regulations. The 2024 calendar had 24 races.