Welcome to class, Oles. I know you Minnesotans in the crowd are probably busy with your local sports heroes, but frankly, the Vikings aren’t doing much and neither are the Wild, so give me your attention for a moment while I set the scene.
Imagine driving down I-35 at 185 miles per hour. For two hours. Imagine you have the whole highway to yourself — imagine the speed. Imagine how fast you would need to react to a deer crossing the road. How fast you would need to break and turn and not spin out of control — that is the premise of Formula One (F1). Except, instead of a straight road, it’s a three-mile loop with an average of 16 to 20 corners. And instead of being alone, you’re surrounded by 19 other cars. Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport.
But, if that’s not quite interesting enough for you, it’s also the greatest reality TV you could possibly watch right now. You thought the tantrums on Love Island were dramatic? Wait until you hear 27-year-old George Russell scream about having a “McLaren up [his] ass” while driving a rocket ship through Mexico City. Unfortunately for you, there are only four races left, but buckle up, because it’s going to be a fire-fight to the finish.
There are two championships that happen during a regular F1 season: the constructor’s and the driver’s championship. But blah blah blah, no one cares about the constructors anyway. Long story short: every year, there’s only one winner. The world champion. And in the running this year are three solid racers: Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Max Verstappen.
Lando Norris is awesome. People don’t like him, but those people are wrong. He’s fast, he’s hot, he suffers a lot when his risks turn into mistakes, but wins huge when his risks turn into a knife that slices him to the top of the podium. He’s raced in F1 for six seasons and drives for the McLaren team. This year could be his first championship win after six years of consistent fighting.
Oscar Piastri is equally awesome. He also races for McLaren, and this is only his third season in F1. He’s fast, he’s lethal, and he’s been at the top of the championship standings for most of the season. McLaren, for one reason or another, hates to see either of these drivers do anything to threaten one another’s race. No hard racing, no jabs on the track. Obviously, there are caveats to that, but Piastri and Norris have started infighting purely because they aren’t allowed to be infighting.
And then there’s Max Verstappen. Four-time world champion. Arguably the best driver in F1’s history. Definitely the most competitive wheel-to-wheel racer on the grid. His car—every driver drives a different car, we aren’t getting into that—was slow. Now it’s not, and he’s coming for the McLaren brothers. Expect chaos.
