History, rivalries, and the events every fan should see live — before you plan a single flight.
18 of 115 articles
History
F1's First Race Behind the Iron Curtain
The 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix was built in eight months and drew roughly 200,000 fans from across the Eastern Bloc — a Formula One attendance record that stood for almost a decade. Soviet tank crews reportedly watched from the surrounding hillside.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
The Circuit Built in 18 Months, and the Lap Record That Still Hasn't Fallen
Shanghai International Circuit was marshland in April 2003 and a finished F1 venue by September 2004. Michael Schumacher's fastest lap from that first race, set from the pit lane, still hasn't been beaten.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
The Circuit Shaped Like a Chinese Character
Shanghai International Circuit's layout is deliberately drawn around the Chinese character for 'Shang.' It produces two mirror-image spiral corners and, as a reward, F1's longest straight.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
The Race Track Honda Built Before It Ever Saw a Grand Prix
Suzuka opened in 1962 as a Honda proving ground for motorcycles and road cars, 25 years before Formula 1 arrived. Honda still owns it today.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
The Track That Crosses Itself
Suzuka's figure-eight layout, with its own overpass, wasn't designed as a gimmick — it came from a 1962 land constraint. It's also the only F1 track that runs both directions in a single lap.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
The Grand Prix That Got Cancelled at the Gates
Fans were already queuing at Albert Park when a megaphone announcement told them the 2020 Australian Grand Prix wasn't happening. It was F1's first real collision with COVID-19, and it happened two hours before practice was due to start.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
Albert Park Tried to Host a Grand Prix Twice Before It Actually Worked
Melbourne's lakeside street circuit failed twice before it ever turned a wheel in anger. The race that finally arrived in 1996 only got there because two men flew to London under fake names.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
Lusail Was Built for MotoGP, Not F1 — How It Became a Grand Prix Track
Formula 1 didn't arrive at Lusail until 2021 — 17 years after the circuit's first race, and 13 years after it became the first venue in motorcycle racing history to host a Grand Prix at night.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
The 2023 Qatar Grand Prix Heat Crisis — the Race That Made F1 Rethink Driver Safety
Max Verstappen won his third title at Lusail in October 2023, but the race is remembered for something else entirely — drivers vomiting in their helmets and cockpit temperatures past 50°C, in a crisis that eventually rewrote F1's safety rules.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
The Brazilian Grand Prix Winner Nobody Could Name for Five Days
Giancarlo Fisichella won the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix — but the podium, the champagne, and the post-race interviews all went to someone else first.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
The Circuit Named After Two Brothers Who Died Racing There
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez carries the names of Ricardo and Pedro Rodríguez, two Mexican racing drivers who both lost their lives at the same track it's named for.
Formula 1·1 min read
History
Why F1 Had to Build a Track From Scratch to Fix Its American Problem
F1 has raced at six different circuits in the United States since 1959. Circuit of the Americas was built in 2012 specifically to end that pattern — and so far, it has.
Formula 1·1 min read
History
Crashgate: The Race Singapore Would Rather Forget
Fernando Alonso won the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 — and a year later, it emerged the win came from a deliberately staged crash by his own teammate.
Formula 1·1 min read
History
How Singapore Convinced F1 to Race at Night
In 2008, Marina Bay hosted the first night race in Formula 1 history — a decision that reshaped how the sport thinks about weather, television, and heat, and one that's never gone away since.
Formula 1·1 min read
History
Why Malaysia Built Sepang — and Why It Still Matters
Built in under two years as part of a national push to put Malaysia on the map, Sepang became the template every modern F1 circuit copied afterward.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
Yas Marina's Twilight Start Time Isn't an Accident — the TV-Rights Story Behind It
The sunset-to-floodlights spectacle at Yas Marina is real showmanship — but the 5pm start time exists because it lands at 1pm across F1's most valuable broadcast market: Europe.
Formula 1·1 min read
History
The Vegas Strip Circuit — Racing Through a City That Was Never Built for It
F1's first Vegas attempt was a widely hated parking-lot circuit in 1981-82. The 2023 return cost $500 million and tore up the real Strip instead — a genuine second-attempt turnaround.
Formula 1·2 min read
History
Why Eau Rouge Still Terrifies Drivers, Decades Later
A five-second corner that's been reshaped, re-barriered, and mourned over — and still gets treated as the defining test of a Spa weekend.
Formula 1·2 min read