Tag: NASCAR

By: Lottie Bynum

Many Americans don’t know what Formula 1 is, they usually refer to it as European NASCAR. While this statement is true, European racing, F1, is vastly different from NASCAR in terms of rules and the obvious car and race track shape.

Although racing of this type had been around for quite awhile before then, Formula 1 Racing was first named in 1946. The name Formula 1 came from the sport’s many rules and now continues in usage in the lower levels of the sport Formula 2(F2), Formula 3(F3), and the F1 Academy which is a junior level for girls. 

Additionally F1 has vastly different standards than NASCAR in terms of cars. Most every car in NASCAR is exactly the same aside from the driver, however F1 is different. While F1 has regulations and spending caps for their cars to be uniform, the best teams have the most money to spend on their cars leading there to be continuous dominance of certain teams who can afford the best car and the best drivers. Teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren fall under this category while others such as Williams, Alpine, and Haas have less capital to afford the best car and drivers and therefore usually settle lower on points and scores in races. This is not to say F1 drivers don’t have to be skilled to drive because again the best teams usually get the best drivers too due to the amount they are willing and able to pay them to come to their team.

The physicality of drivers in both sports have different qualifications as well. Both F1 and NASCAR drivers have to maintain some level of fitness, reaction time, and spatial awareness, however each sport emphasizes different things. Since F1 is an open style car with the drivers being exposed to the air and lots of gravity they have to train to strengthen their necks and how to withstand G forces as pilots do. NASCAR drivers train for G force as well, although not as much as F1 drivers since they aren’t as exposed. NASCAR drivers do however need to be better at spatial awareness since they deal with more cars around them making it challenging to drive. Due to the difference in tracks where NASCAR drives in loops and F1 in different tracks every time, F1 drivers can memorize the tracks so they won’t crash on tracks where it isn’t quite clear or they have difficult turns such as Silverstone in the British GP or Monaco.