This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Rutgers chapter.
The 2025 Formula 1 (F1) season begins today, so what better time to learn a bit about the sport than now? Whether you’re here for the engineering, drivers, competition or drama, F1 has something for everyone. Keep reading for an introduction and breakdown of F1, including its history, the teams and the drivers.
The History
Before learning anything new, we must know a little bit of the old. F1 has been around for many decades, with the first race taking place in 1946. The sport has changed a lot since then, so knowing about this history isn’t very important, especially for a casual watcher.
However, some of its recent history serves as a necessary context for the rivalries and goals of present-day F1. First, Ferrari is the oldest and most successful F1 team. They have competed in every race since 1950 and have won the most races and championships of any team. They have a huge, passionate fanbase, and the team is one of the most respected in F1 history. Despite its prestige, Ferrari hasn’t won a championship since 2008.
Since then, two teams have dominated the championship: Mercedes (2014-21) and Red Bull (2010-13; 2022-23). Two current drivers raced for these teams and were responsible for many of their respective championship wins: Lewis Hamilton raced for Mercedes between 2023-2024 and is now part of Ferrari, while Max Verstappen has raced for Red Bull since 2016.
Formula 1 Basics
F1 is often regarded as the highest level of motorsport racing due to its complexity and sophistication. To break it down to its simplest form, F1 currently consists of 10 teams with two drivers each (20 drivers total), two championships, and a lot of speed.
The upcoming 2025 season will have 24 races across 21 countries. The races, which are called Grand Prix, are held on weekends in standard or Sprint weekend format. Standard race weekends go in the following order:
- Friday: Free Practice 1 (or FP1) and FP2
- Saturday: FP3 and Qualifying
- Sunday: Grand Prix
Qualifying is a 3-stage race that determines the starting place for each driver on Sunday’s race, which lasts 1.5 to 2 hours. Sprint weekends are different because they have a special 30-minute Sprint race instead of three free practice sessions. During Sprint weekends, the schedule changes to:
- Friday: FP1 and Sprint Qualifying
- Saturday: Sprint Race and Race Qualifying
- Sunday: Grand Prix
The races work on a points system. The top 10 drivers get points, awarded as follows: 25 (1st place or P1), 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, and finally, 1 for the driver in 10th place (P10). Everyone below P10 gets zero points. These points count for the Drivers’ Championship and the Constructors’ Championship.
The Drivers’ Championship title is given to the driver with the most points at the end of the season. The Constructors’ Championship title is given to the team with the most combined points earned by its two drivers at the end of the season. The championships are very important because the higher up you are in the standings, the more funding you get.
The last basic thing to know about F1 is that it’s governed by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). The FIA is the board responsible for setting regulations for F1, including financial, sporting and safety regulations. If a driver or team violates any rules set forth by the FIA, they face punishments like serving penalties and paying fines. These penalties can make or break a race and cause rivalries to intensify, so watch out for those during the race.
The Cars
Regarding the cars themselves, each team is responsible for building their two cars from top to bottom, hence the name Constructors’ championship. The drivers only get one car the whole season, and the teams have strict rules to abide by about changing parts and making repairs and upgrades throughout the season.
The cars also have three tire options: slicks, intermediates, and wets. These tires are used for different weather conditions and vary in speed and durability. The car construction, tire types, budget allocation and scheduling for upgrades are all important factors for race strategy.
The Teams
Like any other competitive sport, F1 has several teams, 10 to be exact. They can be owned by car companies, such as Ferrari, or companies in other industries, like Red Bull (yes, the energy drink company). The teams go by different names or change names each year due to changing sponsors, but fans just use their simple name. For example, the team Oracle Red Bull Racing is also known as Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT (Honda is the engine manufacturer), but everyone knows them as just Red Bull. If you’re curious, the 2025 team names can be found here. In this article, I will only refer to the teams by their simple name.
Another important part of the teams in F1 is team hierarchies. The best teams with the most money and success, such as Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, are the top-tier/frontrunner teams. The ones with slightly less money and success but with podium potential are midfield teams. McLaren was a midfielder team for the past few seasons, but that might change after winning the Constructors’ Championship last year. Last are the backmarker teams, such as Kick Sauber, with the least funding and success. This unofficial hierarchy helps viewers manage expectations and makes it more exciting when a backmarker team makes it to the top.
The current teams for the upcoming 2025 season are Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Haas, Kick Sauber, McLaren, Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Red Bull and Williams.
The Drivers
As mentioned previously, there are 20 F1 drivers. The current driver lineup can be found on the official F1 website.
As a new viewer, there’s not much you need to know about the drivers, but it might be useful to get a recap of last season to know what to anticipate. After a 2023 season full of Max Verstappen wins, the 2024 season seemed to start the same way, but instead, we got a very competitive season between Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc and plenty of broken records. I think the 2025 season will be similarly competitive, but there are many fresh faces this season, so it will be a very interesting and unpredictable year.
Also, F1, as sophisticated of a sport as it is, is also very full of drama. Things can get very tense on track and the drivers sometimes insult each other’s driving on the radio. The Netflix F1 docuseries “Drive to Survive” also dramatizes the sport and twists narratives. Despite all of this, the drivers are generally friendly to each other outside the car and have a lot of mutual respect. F1 fans are very passionate about the sport and often indulge in the rumors, but it’s important to not get too caught up in the gossip and remember that the drivers are people, too.
Closing Thoughts
When I first got into watching F1, I didn’t even know where to begin learning about the sport. F1 has many technical terms and concepts, and it can be hard to figure out what information is necessary for you to know and what is reserved for die-hard fans and analysts. I hope I introduced you to the sport of F1 without over-simplifying or making it overwhelming to learn. As a woman, it’s difficult to branch out into male-dominated hobbies without feeling unwelcome or belittled for not knowing enough, so I hope that this guide helps open the door for more women to get into the sport and realize that it’s not so hard to become an F1 fan after all.
If you’d like to learn more about F1 beyond the basics of this article, consider checking out the official Formula 1 beginner guides that go more in-depth about specific topics, such as the F1 flags, the mechanics of an F1 car, and more. Lastly, I highly recommend bookmarking this article on F1 vocabulary to get a quick definition for things like DRS, oversteer/understeer, overcut/undercut, etc. F1 has a steep learning curve, but after going over the basics in this article, learning more will become second nature!
