On Going Wheel to Wheel

One of my favorite things to write about on Will’s Dumb Brain are things that have recently captured my attention and passion. From Dota 2, to gunpla, to golf, nothing is more energizing than finding something new that really excites you. Well, this time (kind of like every time before) I’m a little late to the party but I’m coming in with all the enthusiasm in the world: Formula 1 racing.

In the last few years, across social media, I’d started to see more and more people posting about F1. Yes, of course, this is one of the most popular sports in the world, but until recently it had never cracked into my American sports bubble. The strangest thing was the people I knew that were posting about F1, weren’t your traditional sports fans. They weren’t the die-hard NFL fans, the crazy hockey fans, or even the English Premier League maniacs who wake up at 4am to watch their team play a 120-minute 0-0 tie!

No, these were people more interested in movies, television, skincare, or YouTube. It didn’t make sense to me where this sudden fandom came from. Until it did. In addition to random tweets about people named Latifi, Danny Ricciardo, and Verstappen, there had been mentions of “Drive to Survive”. What could this possibly be?

Well, dear reader, let me tell you: it’s just about the most exciting, most delightful, most entertaining Netflix series I’ve seen in ages. It’s a documentary style show that follows F1 teams and their drivers through the ups and downs of a given season, starting with the 2018 season. Never have I seen a better on-boarding experience. You get to know the drivers, the teams, the team principles (kinda like head coaches?) and some of the CEOs. From the daredevils to the jokesters to the unbelievably entitled sons of billionaires, every character gets their moment to show you who they are. Anyone who has seen it will rave about it and anyone who hasn’t only has to watch the first episode of the 2018 season to get hooked (that’s all it took to get my parents fully addicted).

Now, I’ve always liked cars but I never got into racing of any kind. Drag racing is dumb, it’s just a straight line. NASCAR is dumb, it’s just tanks going in a circle for five hours. Rally racing seems cool but it’s also as mysterious and inaccessible as the Illuminati. F1 though? This Netflix show has blasted F1 into the American consciousness in such a profound way that you can’t turn on ESPN without hearing about the most recent race, you can’t listen to a podcast without finding an F1 show, and you definitely can’t read Will’s Dumb Brain without being subjected to its praises.

Now the sport isn’t without its warts. Obviously, racing is a male dominated, rich person, sport (F1 in particular). Some of the sponsors are pretty shady. Many of the races take place in countries where human rights abuses flow like oil. But, on the other side, you have drivers like Lewis Hamilton, 8-time world champion, who is a fierce proponent of Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ rights, environmental causes, and uses his stature to advocate for good in many other areas. Like anything in today’s world, you gotta take the good with the bad.

So, if you want to watch go-carts with jet engines go 200mph mere inches from each other…check it out!

Do you have any experience watching car racing? Favorite drivers or teams? Let me know in the comments!