Formula One

Formula One (F1), the most prestigious international open-wheel, single-seat automobile racing competition in the world. At the heart of F1’s allure is speed. Cars travel in excess of 200 miles (almost 322 km) per hour.

F1 2026 season

The 2026 Formula One World Championship runs from March to December and comprises 24 Grand Prix races. The first race of the season was the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, March 6–8. In November 2026 Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli clinched the drivers’ title and became the youngest F1 world champion in the sport’s history. He broke the record previously held by Sebastian Vettel.

The full race schedule can be found in the table below.

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F1 origins

In 1906 the term grand prix, meaning “big prize” in French, was first used to describe a race—the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. The French were instrumental in developing racing culture in the early 1900s, and this first Grand Prix (GP) featured the open cockpits, long distances, and duration-based driving that the sport has become known for. The “formula” in the name Formula One refers to the set of regulations governing participation and the cars that have come to define Formula One against other kinds of racing. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), founded in 1904, sanctions F1 races.

The initial plans for a Formula One championship were discussed in the late 1930s, but they were shelved because of World War II (1939–45). The idea was revived in 1946, and the first world championship took place in 1950 at the Silverstone Circuit in England. At this time, car manufacturers Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati, and Mercedes-Benz dominated the race makeup.

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Feeder Formula series

Lower tiers of Formula racing are referred to as junior, or feeder, Formula, constituting a pyramid designed to gradually build up young drivers’ skills, experience, and familiarity with open-wheel racing in progressively competitive and technical categories. Participating in these series also allows drivers to accrue points toward their FIA Super Licence, a mandatory qualification for drivers to compete in F1. The core feeder series are Formula 4 (F4), Formula Regional (FR), and the international Formula 3 (F3) and Formula 2 (F2). The FIA introduced this career ladder system in 2014, with the launch of F4 racing as part of the federation’s Global Pathway from Karting to Formula One initiative.

The team behind the driver

F1 is a team sport. In its current iteration, 11 teams, each with two drivers, compete during the racing season, which consists of a series of weekend contests in locations around the world between March and December every year. (For the 2026 season Cadillac became the first new F1 team since Haas joined the sport in 2016.) Each driver is supported by a crew, replete with mechanics, engineers, and strategists.

One aspect of F1 that makes it different from IndyCar and the lower Formula series (F2, F3, FR, and F4) is that it is as much an engineering competition as it is a racing one. The car a driver climbs into at the start of the season will almost certainly be significantly different from the car the driver climbs out of at the end, because of the extensive modifications that teams make during the season to improve performance. Such changes can mean a difference of millions of dollars in prize money at the end of the year.

Race weekends

F1 race weekends begin with several practice sessions to calibrate the cars before they enter a three-round knockout qualifying competition to determine the order in which cars will start the Grand Prix race. The fastest qualifier takes the first place (called pole position, the inside position in the first row) at the start of the race, followed by the second qualifier, and so on.

An F1 Grand Prix race has a minimum distance of about 190 miles (305 km). The lone exception to this standard is the classic Monaco Grand Prix, which winds for about 160 miles (260 km) through the narrow streets of the tiny principality.

Over the course of roughly two hours, drivers use speed, endurance, and strategy to try to overcome their opponents. One such strategy is to slipstream, or draft, by following the car in front very closely, taking advantage of lower wind resistance. In addition, throughout the race, all drivers must make a pit stop to change tires. The most efficient teams can change all four tires in less than two seconds. So race strategy also involves which tires the teams choose to use, weighing the benefits of longer-lasting but slower tires against those of faster but less durable ones.

The first driver to cross the finish line (taking the checkered flag) wins, and the top three drivers are awarded trophies on a podium in front of the crowds that have gathered to watch the race. Although individual drivers are not awarded prize money, their teams are rewarded on the basis of their final championship score. Competition among teams for the best drivers—and therefore the faces of the sport—can be intense.

Under the current system, 25 points go to the winner of a GP race, and the number of points awarded decreases, on a sliding scale based on each driver’s final position, until the 10th-place finisher, who receives one point. Drivers in 11th place and below, and those who cannot complete at least 90 percent of the race distance, earn no points. Sometimes a sprint race—which is one-third the length of the full race—is held before the main Grand Prix. Points are also awarded to the top eight finishers of a sprint. At the end of the season the driver with the most points wins the drivers’ championship, and the team that has the most points, determined by the combined points of a team’s two drivers, wins the constructors’ championship.

The business of F1

Because of the international participation and proliferation of endorsements, prize money, and other means of financial success, F1 receives widespread media coverage. Internal politics often plays out on the track, influencing driving strategies and drivers’ individual temperaments. Technological developments have helped improve the safety of the sport. These include a crash protection system known as the “halo,” a curved titanium bar placed over the cockpit of the racer. Mandatory in F1 races since 2018, the system faced criticism for changing the nature of the sport, but it has been credited with saving lives. After a 2021 crash, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said that the system saved his life.

As car developers, manufacturers, and race promoters have become increasingly aware of the climatic effects of F1 racing, they have attempted to make the sport more eco-friendly, focusing on reducing emission rates and waste created during races.

Formula One in popular culture

The combination of speed, danger, and exotic locations has made F1 racing literally the stuff of movies. Although the 1966 picture Grand Prix, starring James Garner and Eva Marie Saint, is a fictionalized account of a racing season, many of Hollywood’s later films have used the stories of real drivers, including the films listed below:

• Senna: This 2010 documentary tells the story of Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, a three-time world drivers’ champion. It focuses on his rivalry with French driver Alain Prost as well as an infamous 1994 crash at the San Marino Grand Prix race that led to Senna’s death.
• Rush: Starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl and directed by Ron Howard, this 2013 biopic recreates the rivalry between racing legends James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the F1 season of 1976.
• Ferrari: This 2023 film stars Adam Driver, not as a driver but as Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the fabled racing team named after him.

But perhaps no movie or TV production has done more to boost the popularity of F1 than the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive. From its debut in 2019, it has followed drivers, managers, and teams through the breakneck twists and turns of each F1 season. The series is credited with having made many current F1 drivers household names. F1 sought to build on that burgeoning popularity with the release of the feature film F1 (2025), which stars Brad Pitt as a retired driver recruited by a team owner (Javier Bardem) to mentor a younger teammate. The filmmakers worked in close cooperation with F1 and even filmed scenes at the real-life British Grand Prix races in 2023 and 2024. Hamilton was a producer and adviser on the movie. In March 2026 the movie won an Academy Award for best sound.

The drivers of F1

Read more about some of the men (only five women have competed in an F1 race) who have driven to glory in F1.

• Stirling Moss: This Brit is widely considered to be the best driver never to have won a world championship.
• Phil Hill: The first American-born racer to win the drivers’ championship.
• Graham Hill: This British driver won the F1 world championship twice and also won the Indianapolis 500.
• Michael Schumacher: The legendary German driver won 91 F1 races and 7 drivers’ championships.
• Sebastian Vettel: In 2010, Vettel won his first drivers’ championship at 23 years old, becoming the youngest person ever to do so. He went on to win again in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
• Lewis Hamilton: In 2008 Hamilton became the first Black driver to win a drivers’ championship. He then won six more championships in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, tying him with Schumacher for the record. Hamilton continues to be F1’s only Black driver.
• Ayrton Senna: The Brazilian gained fame for being a fierce competitor, known especially for his ruthless and risky maneuvers.
• Daniel Ricciardo: The Australian has won multiple F1 races and was a fixture on the TV documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive.
• Max Verstappen: In 2016, at the age of 18, the Belgian-born racer became the youngest driver ever to win an F1 race. He went on to win four consecutive world championships in 2021–24.

Discover more

List of Formula One Champions (Drivers’ and Constructors’)

Automobile racing

Indianapolis 500

Grand Prix racing