Alternative format Google Doc (5.4k word count) is available here in plain text with image descriptions!
Here's an intro to Formula 1 lore. Get to know some famous rivalries, resident curses, and basic history!
I am once again infodumping about F1, but this time it is about some of the lore in as unbiased of a fashion as I can.
If you notice anything wrong with this presentation (whether it be ALT text, a fact, something formatted oddly, etc.), please feel free to tell me, I will gladly fix any errors!
And, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
Click here to view my intro to F1 as a sport.
Click here to view my intro to the 2026 grid.
Click here to view the original slideshow.
lando: "that’s also where i went to my first ever racetrack was in yeovil, a track called clay pigeon. it was after school. my dad took both my brother oli, and myself to the- and it was a british championship, so it was a busy event. but it was my first time ever going to any event or anything.
i can remember watching on the pit straight and walking around the whole paddock area and i was like ‘oh my god, who's this guy?’ he had number 46. he also had on the front ‘the doctor’ and as soon as i saw that, i was like ‘oh my god, he knows valentino rossi.’
mr. alex albon, on my first ever day at a racetrack. and yeah, now i'm racing against that guy. we're both in formula 1, which is pretty cool."
People on f1twt saying they don’t care if the drivers enjoy driving the cars, they just want to be entertained… I just don’t get that, a big part of what I like about sports is the passion. Passion for the the sport and an obsession with winning make for interesting athletes. For me sports is art, and what is art without passion?
In honour of Lewis mentioning him on Grill the Grid (and in case you were wondering who the man is and why people on twitter and tumblr were shocked to hear his name mentioned in the year of our Lord 2025); a short run down on Adrian Sutil, his relationship with Lewis and the cause of their fallout.
CN: Mention of blood, stabbing, and stitches.
Adrian Sutil — after Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel — is the third German (or in his chase German-Uruguayan) Formula One driver with interesting links to Lewis Hamilton.
Sutil is a Japanese F3 champion and was in F1 from 2007-2011 & 2013-2014. In F1, he is most well-known for being the guy with the second most race entries without a podium at 128 race (or maybe first, now that Hülkenberg got his podium.)
There have been rumours (old Boulevard Press articles and forum entries) about him being gay, and while that is no one's business, it will become important later on. The rumour mainly stemmed from the fact that during his F1 days — at least before the scandal — he never had a girlfriend.
Sutil met Lewis during his Euro F3 days, and they quickly became friends, to a point where “Hamilton's friend” referred more to Sutil than Nico Rosberg, if you can believe it.
The two of them were travelling together and at one point were even talking about getting an apartment together in Paris, even though that one never worked out.
There is a pic were it almost appeared as if they were holding hands (and this was during the Old Testament Lewis days mind you.)
Now for the scandal:
After the 2011 Chinese GP — which Lewis one — him, Adrian Sutil and Lewis‘ bodyguards made their way to the M1NT Club in Shanghai were later on Sutil would get into it with Luxembourgish businessman Eric Lux (evil coded name if you asked me) who at the time was a co-owner of Lotus Racing, after getting rich from selling Skype.
That night, after some verbal arguments, Sutil glassed him (broke a glass & stabbed him) in the neck with a champagne flute, but later said he only wanted to throw the liquid at him. And now guess who — according to Sutil — saw everything? One Lewis Hamilton.
Back in the day, there were some whispers that the fight had broken out because Lux had made some homophobic remarks about Sutil (and in an extent potentially Lewis.)
Apparently Lux started the — at first purely verbal — fight, of which security footage exists even though it is black & wight and incredibly low resolution. One German Boulevard Paper (incredibly unreliable, think German The Sun) said that it started with Lewis‘ bodyguards trying to make room for Lewis, because he felt mobbed by some fans. They say it’s possible that Lux would not step away. They also allege that a woman spilled her drink over Sutil's pants and Lux somehow got involved (tough it is unclear how those things might be related)
What is clear, however is, that Sutil and Lux got into a verbal disagreement that ended with Sutil stabbing a glass flute into the neck of Lux, resulting in a cut that missed his carotid artery by a centimetre and needed 24 stitches to get it fixed.
In the aftermath, Sutil said that the incident had occurred is his off-time as a private person and he wanted to keep it private, but that he had been in an unlucky incident where he accidentally hurt another person and that he regrets it & has apologized. The media and FIA equally accepted that it was a private matter, which is why there isn’t much actual information about it to be found.
Multiple people in F1 came to his defence and said he was not the type of guy to get in a fight and that they know him to be really calm & gentle. His lawyer only said that they “got verbally entangled” and that “it was just two alpha men clashing” (whatever that’s supposed to mean.)
They tried settling the matter outside of court. Sutil claimed that Lux demanded a large amount of money — two years of his salary to be precise, which in Sutil's case would have been around 4 million Euros — and for him to voluntarily step back from racing for multiple races. Interestingly enough, there were voices calling this an extortion attempt on Lux’s part. With Sutil claiming, "[Lux] was threatening to destroy" him.
There were rumours Lux asked for the break from racing to either replace Sutil with one of his own drivers (as he was the owner of a driver management) or that he was trying to gain an advantage for his own team with Subtil sitting out a few races.
After the failed settlement attempt, the case went in front of a court in Munich, Germany in January 2012, where Adrian Sutil was sentenced to 18 months of suspended sentences as well as a 200 000€ fine, which went to charity. He also lost his seat at Force India due to the controversy at the time.
Back to Lewis Hamilton's involvement in the story:
Sutil claimed he saw the whole fight and would be able to testify in his favour by supporting the claim that the stabbing had been an accident.
Hamilton however stated that he’d be unable to attend the court hearing as a witness due to it interfering with the McLaren car launch that year (or maybe the team made him say that for PR reasons,) but he did write a letter that was read out in court stating that he hadn't seen the fight and therefore could not exonerate Sutil.
Between the absence from court and the letter he sent, Sutil stated that he no longer wanted to be friends with Lewis Hamilton and going as far as calling him a coward and saying that he “wasn‘t a man.” He did however mention that Anthony Hamilton send him a supportive text, wishing him luck for his court case.
Lewis Hamilton later stated that they’d talk at some point, but that he never went up to him to talk (and he changed his phone number). Sutil said he “needs to grow up,“ among some other bitter sounding things (making him sound like a scorned ex-lover.)
In an interview from 2022 Sutil revealed that he was still waiting for Lewis Hamilton to reach out to him.
I'm sorry the who slept with whom rumours??? 😀 Because I'm very much a Måneskin and F1 fan but I don't usually use social media, so this post just slapped me in the face
Ah anon, let me introduce you to the wonderful world in which Charles Leclerc the Formula 1 Driver and Damiano David from Måneskin may know each other carnally, or at least, Charles has Damiano wrapped right around his pinky finger.
So it all begins at Monza 2023, where Damiano turns up in potentially one of the sluttiest outfits to ever see a grand prix, blushing and making eyes at Charles like any good Italian man would.
Fast forward about a week. Charles is hosting an event at the Monaco Yacht Club, and Måneskin come out and do a surprise set. After this, they all go back to the Sedici for an afters, and Damiano posts iconic footage of him shirtless on Charles' yacht wearing Charles' helmet with the caption "Thanks @charles_leclerc best gift ever. Lately I see u more that my mum😂".
Two months after all this Måneskin release a song called "The Driver", and uh, yeah. These are the lyrics:
Final nail in the coffin is about a month after that song comes out, Damiano gets a tattoo of a prancing horse on his v-line. Which would be explainable by Italian Stallion being a term for a handsome Italian dude, if not for the tattoo artist literally tagging Ferrari.....
Anyway, I'm just here to present the facts, you come to your own conclusions.
I was talking with someone about the “family tree” of F1 and how everyone seems to be connected with everyone. And I needed to put it into a visual.
But I have the feeling I am missing a lot of connections (let alone all of the connections with retired drivers!)
Please let me know about all the connections between drivers that I am missing - and I really mean all … I want the complete lore in one crazy “family tree” 🤣
i read 616 pages of f1 race summaries (1950–2012) so you don’t have to, here are some of the interesting/odd facts i found:
ferrari did not contest the first ever f1 race, so contrary to popular belief, they weren’t quite there from the very beginning.
excluding the indianapolis 500, alberto ascari only failed to win one race in 1952. the reason? he didn't enter it.
jack brabham did not achieve the first win for the brabham team. that honour was given to dan gurney, who would later become one of only three people to achieve a grand prix victory in a self-made car.
after the controversial end to the 1964 world championship, graham hill reportedly sent lorenzo bandini a book on driving lessons for christmas.
only one person finished the first two races of the 1966 season—lorenzo bandini.
jim clark was hit by a bird during free practice at the 1966 french grand prix.
peter gethin won the 1971 italian grand prix by SEVENTY CENTIMETRES.
the very first safety car picked up the wrong leader.
1975 austrian gp winner vittorio brambilla won his only race... then proceeded to crash on his cooldown lap.
from formula one: all the races by roger smith (second edition, published 2013)
Hey Ann! I hope you don't mind another question from this new Fetus Lance fan: How was Esteban and Lance's relationship prior to their F1 career?
I found them to be very fascinating since it seems like they never really share feeder series year and I just found out recently about how lance is kind of responsible to esteban not having a seat in 2019, but he seems to be very close to lance even after that meaning that their friendship is stronger than esteban career.
Hello! First of all I never mind, especially this type of question because I have done extensive research on this topic + I fucking love these two.
Before I dive in I will say that: I don't think it's necessarily that "their friendship is stronger than Esteban's career" it's more that they keep their personal relationship and professional career separated very well (I will get into this).
Karting Days
Lance and Este had one year where they karted together (2011). This was Lance's first year of karting in Europe and Este's last year before he went onto single seaters. They had a few overlapping races and even shared a podium together.
WSK MURO LECCESE - Category KF 3 | June 26th 2011 (link)
Not pictured but gif-ed here -> ERDF Masters Kart, 10-11 December 2011
This is when they first met and from this interview, Este recounts racing against Lance at that time.
“He was so small, he could barely keep his head upright,” the Frenchman remembers. “He still beat me in some races. He was very quick, but also very dainty, which is why he always had his problems in duels.” (source)
Prema Days
After that, they weren't in the same racing sphere until Lance joined Prema in 2014 for F4 while Esteban was there currently doing his F3 campaign.
(Fun fact Este won the championship that year and when Lance won 2 years later, it was Este who presented him with his trophy)
They had this Ferrari / Merc thing going on and it was cute aha (1) (2)
You can also watch them in a Prema video here (2:30 mark)! They also had a running joke with the engineers, where the engineers would call them monkeys. This is why in 2017 for secret santa (2:40 mark), Este gifted Lance a monkey plushy.
I would say that this is where they really became friends. On a broadcast, (I think it was from an FP session from Bahrain'23), one of the commentators mentioned their relationship and how they were both outcasts in their own right. Lance because he came from a lot of money, and Este because he didn't, so naturally they had each other.
Martin Kodrić, who used to kart with Lance stated on a Croatian podcast in 2021, that Lance wasn't liked during that time. He also said that
"nobody [on the grid] likes lance." well i like him, and este likes him, and checo and seb too. so fuck everyone else they're irrelevant." (source)
(personally I think this statement is somewhat exaggerated but it's what he said)
F1 Era
Like you mentioned, there was a lot of public scrutiny when Este was out of a seat in 2019. However he's never once blamed Lance or badmouthed him. You've probably seen this first pic that Este posted after. (I added the second pic for formatting lol)
He was also asked why he came to Lance's defence and said that
“I did that because Lance is my best mate in the paddock and we have a great relationship since a long time”. (source)
In a 2018 interview Lance was asked about their friendship situation to which he said
"I have my management team, he has his management team, we're both trying to do what's best for our careers, and there's our friendship.
"We competed together in karts, we fought wheel-to-wheel in karts, he was in Prema Formula Three, he won the championship, I came in.
"We've always had a good friendship and it's good to see that bridge hasn't burned." (source)
This is also a very sweet interview where he says that their friendship is above and beyond racing.
Like I said, they are VERY good at keeping their personal and business relationships separate. They often hang out on and off track, and I think it's very admirable, and not the easiest thing to do- to want to preserve friendship in such a cut throat environment.
It's funny though, because there are times where you can see it blend together.
Such as during the 2020 British GP where Este didn't complain that Lance was moving under breaking a little bit because, "we’ve known each other a long time. He knows he can do that a little bit to me, but at some point I’m going to go for it so he knows that as well".
Or prior to Hungary 2021 (when Este got his first win) Lance gave him advice for the start of the race.
The Frenchman later said he spoke to his friend Stroll about how to make the most of the start in wet conditions.
“Yes, we had a chat with Lance before the race because Lance is an awesome starter in races and he loves those conditions as much as I do,” said Ocon. “Normally we always end up closer to the front in those [conditions] and he said when it’s the moment to go..." (source)
Normally I feel like these are things that teammates more often do, so it's really cute haha.
Extra
That's basically the end, but have some culturally relevant photos!!
If you want to see more feel free to go through my Lesteban tag because there's a whole lotta stuff I didn't include!
