Formula One

I love all kinds of sports and fortunately the University of Southampton offers a wide variety of facilities and societies for students to get involved with. I have tried my hand at many, including making frequent use of the Jubilee Sport Centre’s swimming pool, joining several teams including Handball and Badminton, and stepping into the unknown worlds of Dodgeball and Tchoukball.

However, outside of the realm of university sports, the one I am most passionate about is Formula One. I think the reason that I love Formula One so much is because it manages to combine my interest in physics with my love for sports (and it also makes me quite a handy asset for any pub quiz team!).

Last Sunday was the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and I was fortunate enough to receive two tickets for the race for my twenty-first birthday. I decided to give the other ticket to one of my friends, on the premise that he would then drive us to the circuit. We arranged to leave very early, expecting a mass of traffic on the motorways, but somehow we managed to beat it and arrived there much earlier than we had anticipated.

Even though we had arrived several hours before the start of the race, there was still plenty to see and do. Upon arrival at the circuit we caught the tail-end of a GP2 race, which is a racing series below F1 and is used a talent pool for young drivers. I had never been to a live racing event before, and even though I knew how loud the cars were going to be, I was still surprised at the noise, especially when they shifted gears with a ferocious bang.

After the podium ceremonies for the GP2 race had finished, another support race began, but this time it was for the Porsche Supercup, a category where all competitors drive in identical Porsche 911s. Next on the programme was a parade of classic Formula One cars, driven for the most part by the drivers who actually drove them in the world championship. I didn’t know this event was happening, so naturally I was bursting with excitement as Maseratis, Lotuses and Ferraris from a bygone era came speeding onto the track.

A parade of the finest automotive machinery ever built

Before the actual race got underway there was time for one last warm-up act: a fantastic performance by The Red Arrows. They gave the 120,000-strong crowd a high octane routine, consisting of formation flying, crash-defying acrobatics and plenty of patriotic red, white and blue smoke.

An amazing up-side-down formation by The Red Arrows

Finally the time came for the Formula One cars to line up on the grid and get the race underway. The speed of these cars compared to the previous races was incredible and despite there being an hour long pause to proceedings due to a first lap incident, the two hour race flew by. I was also lucky enough to be sitting at a portion of the track which saw a lot of the most exciting moments, including a brilliant wheel-to-wheel overtake, which straightaway was deemed to be one of the best overtaking moves of the season.

The heat of the battle

The whole day was a fantastic experience and it was made even better when I spotted myself in the crowd when I watched the race back on television!

James