Following Formula 1 with AI: how to get more from every race weekend
Formula 1 has a knack for pulling people in at different points in their lives. Some fans remember listening to grands prix on the radio, some fell for the sport during a famous championship battle years ago, and plenty have been drawn in recently by a partner, a grandchild or a television documentary. Wherever you came in, one thing is true for everyone. There is an enormous amount going on in this sport, and nobody understands all of it.
That is precisely why AI suits Formula 1 so well. It is like having a friendly engineer, a historian and a commentator sitting beside you on the sofa, all happy to answer any question at any level. No jargon, no impatience, no assuming you already know what an undercut is.
Here is a framework of five things you can ask about, with example prompts you can copy word for word or adapt to suit yourself.
New to this? How to use the examples below.
Throughout this post you will see lines written in italics inside quotation marks. Those are examples of what you might type, or say out loud, to an AI such as ChatGPT. They are starting points rather than magic words. There is no wrong way to phrase a question, so please do not worry about getting it exactly right.
Change them to suit yourself. Swap in your own team, your own garden, your own situation. Where you see something in [square brackets], that is simply a gap for you to fill in with your own details.
You decide how deep to go. If an answer is too complicated, say “explain that more simply”. If it is too basic, say “tell me more about that”. You can keep asking follow-up questions until it makes sense, and nothing is ever waiting on you.
The history
The world championship began in 1950, and the decades since have produced some of the best stories in sport. Great rivalries between drivers and between teams, eras defined by particular cars and designers, tragedy and triumph often only laps apart. There are the famous names on the trophies, and behind them a cast of engineers, designers and team bosses who quietly changed the sport forever.
AI will happily be your motorsport historian. Ask for the sweep of a whole era, the story of one season or a portrait of a team from its founding to today.
‘Tell me the story of one of the great Formula 1 rivalries from history. Explain who was involved, why it became so intense and how it was finally settled.’
‘I watched Formula 1 in the 1970s and 1980s but drifted away. Give me a potted history of what has happened in the sport since then, era by era, in plain English.’
Britain has a special place in this story. Most of the teams on the grid have long been based within a short drive of each other in England, in what people call motorsport valley, and British engineers and drivers have shaped the sport from the very beginning.
‘Why are so many Formula 1 teams based in England? Tell me the story of British motorsport engineering and some of the characters behind it.’
How a race weekend works today
Formula 1 has grown into a season-long travelling show with its own rhythm, and the format has more moving parts than it used to. Practice sessions, qualifying, sprint events at some rounds, two championships running at once (one for drivers, one for teams) and a calendar that hops between continents. It is a lot to hold in your head.
Rather than piecing it together from commentary, ask AI to explain the whole structure. Formats do change from season to season, so a good habit is to ask it to describe how things work in the current season, then double-check anything important on the official Formula 1 website.
‘Explain how a Formula 1 race weekend is structured this season, from practice through qualifying to the race, including how sprint weekends differ. Assume I am new to the modern format.’
‘Explain the difference between the drivers’ championship and the constructors’ championship, how points are scored for each and why a team might care more about one than the other.’
Some fans eventually want to see it all in the flesh, and a grand prix weekend is quite an experience. AI is a helpful planner here too, from choosing a race to knowing what to pack for a day beside a racetrack.
‘I would like to attend a Formula 1 race for the first time. Ask me some questions about my budget and how far I am willing to travel, then help me plan it.’
The people
For all the technology, Formula 1 is a human drama. Twenty drivers with very different temperaments, team principals playing politics in front of the cameras, race engineers whose radio messages become catchphrases and designers whose ideas win championships. AI can introduce you to any of them properly, past or present.
It is also good at explaining what everyone actually does. A modern team employs hundreds of people, and knowing the difference between a race engineer and a strategist makes the television coverage far more interesting.
‘Pick one of the great Formula 1 champions from history and tell me his story. What made him quick, what was he like as a person and how is he remembered now?’
‘Who does what in a Formula 1 team? Explain the roles I hear mentioned on television, such as team principal, race engineer and strategist, and what each one is responsible for during a race.’
The technicalities
This is where Formula 1 can feel like a foreign language. DRS, tyre compounds, the undercut, dirty air, parc fermé, blue flags, safety cars and virtual safety cars. Commentators use these terms constantly and rarely stop to explain them, because explaining them all would take the whole race.
AI is the patient explainer the sport has always needed. Ask about one term, or ask for a full plain-English glossary. You can also describe something that happened during a race and ask why the team chose to do it, which is a lovely way to learn strategy.
‘Explain Formula 1 tyre strategy in plain English. What are the different tyre compounds, why do teams have to think so hard about when to pit and what do the undercut and the overcut mean?’
‘Give me a plain-English glossary of twenty terms I will hear during a Formula 1 broadcast, from DRS to dirty air, with one sentence each. Make them easy to remember.’
Keep AI beside you during a race and it becomes your own personal pit wall. When a team does something baffling, describe it and ask why. Strategy is the hidden game within the game, and it opens up wonderfully once someone explains the thinking.
‘A driver has just pitted under the safety car and gained three places. Explain why a safety car changes pit stop strategy so much, in plain English.’
The future
Formula 1 reinvents itself every few years. Engine and chassis regulations are rewritten in cycles, which shuffles the competitive order and gives every team hope. There are ongoing pushes on sustainability, cost control and safety, and constant talk of new races, new teams and new technology. Following these debates is half the fun of the sport between seasons.
Ask AI what is coming, and ask it to be clear about what is confirmed and what is still rumour.
‘What major changes to Formula 1’s regulations are coming in the next few seasons, and what is still being discussed? Separate what is confirmed from what is speculation, and say if you are unsure about dates.’
The trick that makes every answer better
Here is the technique I recommend more than any other. Before AI answers, ask it to question you first.
‘I would like help following Formula 1 more closely. Before you suggest anything, please ask me whatever you need to know about how long I have watched, which drivers or teams I care about and how deep I want to go into the technical side.’
The difference is remarkable. Instead of a general answer for any viewer, you get explanations pitched at your level, focused on the team you follow and the parts of the sport you find most interesting. It takes a minute longer and it is almost always worth it.
One honest note about facts and figures
AI is a superb explainer, though it can get sporting facts, results and statistics wrong, and Formula 1 generates more statistics than most sports put together. Treat any specific result, lap record or regulation date as a starting point rather than a certainty, and check anything that matters on the official Formula 1 website or another trusted source. For understanding how the sport works and why, it is hard to beat.
The next race weekend is coming, as it always is. Pick the part of the sport that has always mystified you and ask your first question before lights out.
Want to try this with your own sport?
Sitting down with the sport you love, on your own device, and working through it properly is exactly what one-to-one sessions with Kevin are for. Bring your questions, however technical or simple they feel.
Kevin also runs free library presentations across Norfolk. Come along, see AI in action and ask about anything you have read in the blog, including this.
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