[[File:Race car.jpg|thumbnail|300px|right|Formula One race car]]'''Formula One''', also known as '''Formula 1''' or '''F1''' and officially as the '''FIA Formula One World Championship''' is the highest class of [[single-seater]] [[auto racing]] sanctioned by the [[Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile]] (FIA). Formula One is often considered the pinnacle of [[automobile]] [[racing]]. It The cars are extremely fast with speeds topping 320 kph, although it is their cornering and braking performance that sets Formula 1 apart as the highest class of car racing with speeds topping 320 kph. The Formula One World Championship is held every year on racing tracks on every continent except [[Africa]] and [[Antarctica]]around the globe. The There are effectively two championships being contested - the World Drivers Championship is given not only to the winning driver after all 20 races , but the teams also to compete in the winner car manufacturerManufacturer's Championship. The current 2014 Driver's World Champion is [[German]] [[Christian]] British racer Sebastien VettelLewis Hamilton, while the Constructor's Champions are the [[AustrianGerman]] team Red Bull Racing, who are, like most of known as the F1 teams based close to the British circuit Silverstone. Due to the requirement of the drivers to be fit and focused, many of the drivers are devout [[Christians]]Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
=='''Constructors'''==
The teams for the 2013 season arewere;
*'''[[Red Bull]] Racing''', which bought the [[Jaguar]] team in 2005, who in turn bought out the [[Stewart]] team. The team's current drivers are Mark Webber ([[Australia]]) and Sebastien Vettel (Germany). The team uses Renault engines, and, like Toro Rosso, are sponsored by Red Bull.
*'''[[Vodafone]] [[McLaren]] [[Mercedes]]''' was founded in 1966. They are the third most successful team in the sport's history, having won the constructors' title 8 times. The team was formed by the [[New Zealand]]er Bruce Mclaren. The current drivers are [[Sergio Perez]] and [[Jenson Button]]. Lewis Hamilton left McLaren at the end of the 2012 Formula One season and signed on to the Mercedes team for three seasons.
*'''Scuderia [[Ferrari]] [[Marlboro]]''', who first competed in the second-ever Formula One race at [[Monaco]] in 1950, are the most famous and most successful team in the history of Formula One, and present constructors' champions. They have won the constructors' championship 16 times, maostly mostly because of the dominance of [[Michael Schumacher]], who holds the most championship wins in the sport's history. The team uses [[Ferrari]] engines and are sponsored by the [[Marlboro]] [[tobacco]] company. The current drivers are Fernando Alonso and Filipe Massa
*'''[[Mercedes]] F1 Team''', which replaced the [[Honda]] team in 2009 and then became the [[Petronas Mercedes AMG Racing]] in 2010. Their current drivers are [[Nico Rosberg]] and [[Lewis Hamilton]].
*'''[[Lotus]] F1''' Originally named [[Toleman]] and then became Benetton. Under the leadership of Flavio Briatore, Benetton bought out [[Renault]] and became Lucky 7 Renault F1. However, a tobacco sponsorship ban forced the team to change its name under new sponsorship from ING to ING Renault F1. Fernando Alonso won two championships with the team. Flavio Briatore, along with Pat Symmonds and Nelson Piquet Jr. were convicted of race fixing, which led to them being banned from the sport for for 5 years. The team was then bought out by GenII Capital and recieved received sponsorship from Lotus. It later was involved in a legal battle with Caterham (who previously held the rights to the Lotus brand) over who had right to use the name. The current drivers are [[Kimi Raikkonen]] and [[Romain Grosjean]]and they use Renault engines. The team is named after Group Lotus the British manufacturer of sports cars. Group Lotus had been active in Formula One racing between the years of 1958 to 1994.
*'''[[Force India]] F1 Team''', who replaced the [[Spyker]] team in 2008, scored their first points at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. The team's present drivers are Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta. The team uses Mercedes engines and are sponsored by Indian airline [[Kingfisher]] and Indian Finance giant Sahara.
*'''Scuderia [[Red Bull|Toro Rosso]]''', who replaced the [[Minardi]] team in 2006, are a "farm" team for Red Bull Racing, but managed to beat their parent team in 2008. The team's drivers are Jean-Eric Vergne ([[France]]) and Daniel Ricciardo ([[Australia]]) who was in the [[HRT]] for 10 races last year. The drivers replaced [[Sebastion Buemi]] and [[Jaime Alguesari]]. The team uses Ferrari engines and are sponsored by beverage company [[Red Bull]].
*'''[[Williams]]''', founded in 1977, are the second most successful team in F1's history, having won the constructors' title 9 times. However, they have not won the title since 1997. The team is heavily reliant on the money from PVDSA, the state oil company of socialist [[Venezuela]]. The team's present drivers are Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) and Valtteri Bottas (Finland) . The team uses [[Renualt]] Renault engines and are sponsored by various other Venezuelan state owned companies.
*'''Air Asia Caterham Team''' Originally Malaysia F1 team and owned by [[businessman]] Tony Fernandes, who also owns leading English football club [[QPR]]. The team's name was changed to LotusF1 before threir their first season in 2010, but Renault, who were sponsored by Lotus challenged this in cours court but lost. Meanwhile, Tony Fernandes bought out the [[car]] [[manufacturer]] [[Caterham]] and promptly renamed his team Caterham. The [[Malaysia]]n government, who owns [[Proton]], which in turn owns [[Lotus Cars]] were also rumoured rumored to have let [[Fernandes]] buy Air Malaysia in return for him dropping the legal action against [[Lotus]]. Their drivers are currently Giedo Van der Garde and Charles Pic.
*'''[[Marussia F1]]''' A Russian team owned by car manufacturer [[Marussia]], Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton currently race for them. WThey They were originally [[Manor F1]] and then became [[Virgin|Virgin F1]]. == Drivers == The drivers fight for the world drivers' championship, it is currently being led by Sebastian Vettel. == 2012 Season Schedule and Results == ===Grands Prix==={| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:80%"! Round! Grand Prix! Date! Pole position! Fastest lap! Winning driver! Winning constructor|-! 1| Australian Grand Prix| 18 March| Lewis Hamilton| Jenson Button| Jenson Button| McLaren-Mercedes|-! 2| Malaysian Grand Prix| 25 March| Lewis Hamilton| Kimi Räikkönen | Fernando Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari|-! 3| Chinese Grand Prix| 15 April| Nico Rosberg| Kamui Kobayashi| Nico Rosberg| Mercedes-Benz|-! 4| Bahrain Grand Prix| 22 April| Sebastian Vettel| Sebastian Vettel| Sebastian Vettel| Red Bull Racing|-! 5| Spanish Grand Prix| 13 May| Pastor Maldonado| Romain Grosjean| Pastor Maldonado| Williams F1|-! 6| Monaco Grand Prix| 27 May| Mark Webber| Sergio Pérez| Mark Webber| Red Bull Racing|-! 7| Canadian Grand Prix| 10 June| Sebastian Vettel| Sebastian Vettel| Lewis Hamilton| McLaren-Mercedes|-! 8| European Grand Prix| 24 June| Sebastian Vettel| Nico Rosberg| Fernando Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari|-! 9| British Grand Prix| 8 July| Fernando Alonso | Kimi Räikkönen| Mark Webber| Red Bull Racing|-! 10| German Grand Prix| 22 July| Fernando Alonso | Michael Schumacher| Fernando Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari|Ferrari|-! 11| Hungarian Grand Prix| 29 July| Lewis Hamilton| Sebastian Vettel| Lewis Hamilton| McLaren-Mercedes|-! 12| Belgian Grand Prix| 2 September| Jenson Button| Bruno Senna| Jenson Button| McLaren-Mercedes|-! 13| Italian Grand Prix| 9 September| Lewis Hamilton| Nico Rosberg| Lewis Hamilton| McLaren-Mercedes|-! 14| Singapore Grand Prix| 23 September| Lewis Hamilton| Nico Hülkenberg| Sebastian Vettel| Red Bull Racing|-! 15| Japanese Grand Prix| 7 October| Sebastian Vettel| Sebastian Vettel| Sebastian Vettel| Red Bull Racing|-! 16| Korean Grand Prix| 14 October| Mark Webber| Mark Webber| Sebastian Vettel| Red Bull Racing|-! 17| Indian Grand Prix| 28 October| Sebastian Vettel| Jenson Button| Sebastian Vettel| Red Bull Racing|-! 18| Abu Dhabi Grand Prix| 4 November| Lewis Hamilton| Lewis Hamilton| Kimi Räikkönen| Lotus Renault|-! 19| United States Grand Prix| 18 November| Lewis Hamilton| Lewis Hamilton| Lewis Hamilton| McLaren-Mercedes| |-! 20| Brazilian Grand Prix| 25 November| | | | |-|} ===WDC Standing===
== Controversies ==
Formula One racing has been involved in several controversies. [[Texas]] gave $300 million dollars to [[Bernie Eccelstone]] to host the [[US Grand Prix]] in [[Austin]], [[Texas]] at the [[Circuit of the Americas]] over the next 10 years.
The state of [[New Jersey]] also gave Ecclestone $300 million so it can host the [[New Jersey Grand Prix]] at [[West New York]] over the next 10 years, starting in 2013. There have been a number of reports that the 2013 [[American Grand Prix]] will not happen due to lack of payment of race fees to Bernie Eccelstone and lack of preparation. However New Jersey Governor [[Chris Christie]] has said that all is on track and that the required fees have been paid, however this conflicts with what is widely being reported in the [[European]] Press.
Another controversy was the incident involving the former head of the FIA, Max Mosley. The now defunct liberal gossip newspaper, ''News of the World'', published a story in which they accused Mosley of organizing and participating in a number of immoral and [[Nazi]]-themed events. These accusations caused a lot of concern within certain national sporting bodies and greatly damaged the road safety campaign that was being organised to save lives in developing countries as well as driving a number of key potential sponsors away from the sport. Mosley sued the newspaper for breach of confidentiality regarding private matters, and was awarded 60,000 pounds in the case. The judge stated, "I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust. ... There was bondage, beating and domination which seem to be typical of S&M behaviour."<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/24_07_08mosleyvnewsgroup.pdf ''Mosley vs News Group Newspapers Limited''] (PDF) ''BBC News'', retrieved December 14, 2012.</ref>
== Drivers' route to F1 ==
Almost all Formula One drivers start racing Karts in club and sub-national classes between the ages of 5 and their early teens. If they show some talent and have the funding they then progress to the national and international competitions. They then progress to either Formula Renault, Formula Ford or a National Formula 3 class if they have sufficient funding and talent. Drivers then progress to Formula 3 or GP3 which costs in the region of half a million euros per season. After this the drivers go into either [[World Series by Renault]] or [[GP2]], which can cost up to 3 million euros a season. Talented drivers also act as teams third and test drivers while they compete in these series; drivers who can bring large amounts of sponsorship money to the F1 teams are also given these roles even though they may be lacking in talent. Drivers can also get into F1 through routes such as Sports cars and touring cars (such as [[V8 Supercars]]) however this route is very uncommon now. There are other, less common routes to a F1 race seat.. The last driver to come to formula one via this route was Paul di Resta who won the [[DTM]] title for [[Mercedes]] and was then given a race seat in the [[Mercedes]]-powered [[Force India]]. Sebastian Bourdais came to Formula 1 through IndyCar, however he failed to compete and was sacked by Toro Rosso.
== Other Information ==While many people think that F1 is similar to [[Indycar]]There are other, Formula One takes place on [[less common routes to a F1 race circuits]] seat. The last driver to come to formula one via this route was Paul di Resta who won the DTM title for Mercedes and [[street circuits]]was then given a race seat in the Mercedes-powered Force India. Sebastian Bourdais came to Formula 1 through IndyCar, while Indycar races often take place on oval trackshowever he failed to compete and was sacked by Toro Rosso.
==External Linkslinks==*[http://www.fia.com The Sport's governing body]<br />*[http://www.formula1.com/ Official Website]<br />*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/default.stm BBC Sport F1 - Site of the UK broadcaster] <br />*[http://joesaward.wordpress.com/ Highly Respected Formula One Journalist]<br />*[http://www.autosport.com Worlds leading motorsport publication]<br />*[http://piranha.excom.us Vast amount of Material on F1 ]<br />
*[http://www.ten-tenths.com Leader in Motorsport News ]