I have an addiction; it is simply impossible for me to kick the habit, not that I’m trying. Cocaine? Nah, it’s worse than that. Let me explain…

BMW recently updated their M3. It’s an amazing car, that’s now powered by a monstrously powerful 4 liter V8 engine that revs up to 8,300 RPM and can get to 60 MPH in 4.2 seconds. That’s fast…

…for a road car. Imagine a car that has a much smaller 2.4 liter V8 that revs up to the race-regulated 19,000 RPM, summons up gear changes in just milliseconds, and can accelerate to 60 MPH in just 2.4 seconds. And acceleration isn’t even the amazing part of a Formula 1 car: its brakes can tear your head off. In just seven seconds an F1 car will start from a dead stop, blow past 125 MPH, and come to rest again with a screeching 5-6 g’s of deceleration.

It’s not that the BMW M3 is a bad car; It’s utterly outclassed on an inconceivable scale. The M3 has a power-to-weight ratio of 230 horsepower-per-ton. The F1 car has more than 1,100. It’s crazy. Just watch:

"…190 mph at the bottom of the hill, 5 g in compression, 4 g in lateral forces, you pop out over the top in Les Combes and you’re still accelerating, climbing gently uphill too, 210 mph…"

"…bring it down to 90"

"…another 100 mph corner"

Is it just me or is this infuckingsane? 5g compression? At 5 times the force of gravity I’d weigh 875 pounds. Holy shit, how do the drivers cope with that lap after gut-wrenching lap?

How did I get sucked into this? Let me explain…I was never into cars until a certain chain of events. It started with my friends telling me to just visit my school’s solar car team meeting. When I showed up they immediately put me in charge of building the telemetry system for the upcoming car. Solar cars are pretty crazy and share lots of engineering such as carbon fiber chassis with F1 cars.

After a few months of solar car I found my first Top Gear video on YouTube. Quickly I caught up with the last few seasons of Top Gear. One of the episodes had a segment where they brought a F1 car out to show just how different they are from even the fastest supercar, the fastest of which was the Ferrari Enzo with a lap record of 1:19. They talked about all the crazy stats behind the car and then put the car in the hands of The Stig. The F1 car destroyed that time with a 0:59 in the wet. This is when I started watching F1—the start of the 2007 season.

Being a nerd, I have an unchangeable need to consume information. I want to grasp all aspects of a problem until I understand it. Then I can move on to the next problem. The only catch with F1 is that the whole system is changing year-to-year and race-to-race. New drivers, new regulations, improved technologies, and unpredictable weather. I’m never going to be satiated and that’s OK with me.

I think there’s a second reason I’m addicted to F1. When I was on solar car I would constantly think, sketch, imagine, and discuss ways to improve the aerodynamics, decrease the weight, create better systems for race strategy. It’s the same thing with F1. I imagine ways to use machine learning to determine race strategy, predict failures, or design a better car. F1’s official website has great technical analysis, detailing each of the changes made by the teams with pretty diagrams, and explaining how it will affect the performance of the car, and giving me even more gritty details to waste my precious neurons pondering.

Image by Tinou Bao

Pitstops in F1 are serious business. Guess how many people are involved on average. If you guessed less than 25 you’re wrong. Let’s break it down:

• 3 guys per wheel: 1 to operate the airgun, 1 to take away the old tire, and 1 carrying the new tire
• Lollipop man who signals the driver which pit lane to enter, shows the driver where to stop, tells him when to put the car in gear, then, pending traffic, tells the driver to go by lifting the lollipop
• 2 guys to clear debris caught in the radiators
• 2 guys, one front and one back to lift the car up so the tires can be changed
• 3 guys to operate the fuel rig, which dumps more than 12 liters (3+ gallons) of fuel per second
• 2 guys to adjust front aerodynamics (sometimes another 2 on the back)
• 2 guys with fire extinguishers just in case
• 1 driver

Generally pitstops take 6-8 seconds, but if there’s damage to anything you can add a few people and seconds. It’s “totally fucking busy” as Rands would say.

The engine in an F1 car gets unbelievably hot, reaching 1,800 to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooling is provided by 23 cubic feet of air per second during the race—as much air as a human breathes while running a mile. You can imagine why F1 cars can’t drive right behind another car for more than a few laps because the cooler air they would normally be breathing in is replaced with the hot exhaust from the leading car.

Sure they barely get over 3 MPG, but I’m guessing they’re more efficient at converting fuel into energy than almost anything. When was the last time you took a corner at 140 MPH? Oh, that’s right, that’s faster than your car’s top speed. Trust me if a team could figure how a way to increase their MPG they would do it. Less fuel means less weight which means a few tenths of a second advantage. F1 cars are essentially maximization functions manifested in physical form.

After all the crazy stats, there’s even more to love about this sport. And yes, it’s a sport. Just try wearing four layers of fire-retardant clothing in temperatures that exceed 120 degree Fahrenheit, while you’re subjected to dozens of high g-force accelerations, decelerations, and turns, every lap. These forces punish the driver’s body, especially their neck, which must support 3-5 g’s on their head in every direction. Over the course of a single race, the extreme heat and exercise causes drivers to lose about 6.6 pounds.

Lewis Hamilton was in his rookie season as I started watching and I quickly become a fan. The 23-year old’s enthusiasm and love for F1 really shows in his driving. He nearly took the world championship in his first season, which has never been done, but sadly a couple late-season rookie mistakes (of course) prevented him from sealing victory.

I have yet to leave the U.S. and I plan on it as soon as I can. Let me tell you, it’s going to be to see an F1 race. Not sure which one (suggestions?), but I cannot wait to feel the thunderous roar of 22 cars shaking the ground.

Pretty decent self-justification for an obsession, don’t you think?