Race Recs for non-F1 watchers
The impetus for making this list came from my searches for best races and noticing that a lot of them are what I'd call connoisseur's races. Races for people who have already watched a lot of races and can pick up on the nuances. The subtle undertones of leather and peach as it were.
So here's my top races for people who don't watch that much racing and would like to have a good time for about 2 hours.
There's a few things that have gone into my decision making:
does stuff happen consistently in this race that is intelliglble to a person not following the engineering
the Narratives. That said these are all races that are fun to watch with your eyeballs and not just your heart
Recency bias! Races are definitely more compelling when each little car has a familiar personality, so the assumption here is that anyone using this is coming from this community and is therefore more familiar with the current grid (plus daniel and seb)
With that context, know that these are wacky races. These are not typical of the sport, they're here because stuff went down.
Baku 2017
The background:
The season is close, Ferrari and Mercedes battling it out within a few points. Multi-world champions Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton fighting for the next title on a street track that has the most narrow point of any circuit in F1, only in its second year of existence.
What to watch for:
Everything happens so much! Multiple safety cars! In fact, so much was happening that it took multiple minutes past the incident for the TV direction team to realise that Sebastian Vettel, in a fit of pique, pulled up beside Lewis Hamilton under the safety car and gave his car a little bonk. F1 is not a contact sport!! This was extremely frowned upon at the time. Seb gets a penalty, but then Lewis' headrest gets loose and he has to go in. So then we have two front-runners trying to fight through the pack on a difficult circuit while a bunch of middle teams realise this could be their moment.
They bring Claire Williams onto the commentary midway through the race and you can hear her having absolute transports, it's very fun.
Seb's little affronted arms kill me.
The narrative:
The dominating narrative out of this race is around the Seb-Lewis behind the safety car bonk. In the press pen, Seb, still convinced that Lewis brake-checked him, said that he didn't think that Lewis was acting like a man. Lewis, righteous in his not-brake checking stance, said that if Seb felt that way he could meet him in the carpark (paraphrased). Ultimately, Seb would go under investigation for this right at his 30th birthday, which Toto attended. The incident brought more press attention to the season.
Eventually, Seb recognised that Lewis did not brake check him and apologised and they said their friendship was better afterwards.
This is Williams last true podium before 2025 (dont at me about spa 21 let's be honest abt what that race was).
Daniel Ricciardo STUNS in an opportunistic and persistent drive, which is one of his trademarks. If his car can't win on its own, he will wriggle his way in if an opportunity presents itself.
2. Hungary 2021
This race has it all.
The background: Even before the race, drama. Sebastian Vettel wore a pride shirt during the anthem and getting fined. The Mercedes in 21 was variably the fastest, with the Red Bull faster at most circuits and the battle was tight. Hungary was the last race before the summer break, which meant everyone was exhausted on the teams and Lewis Hamilton was struggling with long covid.
What to watch for: First lap car bowling. Safety car restart where Lewis was the only one who didn't pit, creating one of the funniest visuals in f1 history.
as the commentary said: it will be lights out and away we go for Lewis Hamilton only.
I think I've had nightmares like that. Anyway.
Everyone else had faster tires so he lost positions, couldn't get clear air, did an unplanned quick pit stop to just try and change his position on the track to clear that air. Got stuck behind Alonso theee most annoying defensive driver on earth. Why is Alonso doing all that? When he knows it'll kill his tires? Well. His junior teammate, Esteban Ocon, is pushing his creaky Alpine for all it's got trying to get into the lead. Heroic evil knight serving his prince here.
At the end, Vettel ran out of fuel and had to run to parc ferme.
Esteban Ocon was so excited he parked in the wrong place and ALSO had to run.
On the podium Lewis almost faints and Esteban has to catch him. Tender.
and btw after all that vettel was disqualified later for no fuel.
Also there was an unsafe release that took out a Haas. I'm telling you this race has it all. Unexpected leader changes, insane lap 1 crashes, weird restart, unsafe release, insufficient fuel. All in one go!
The narrative:
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have one of the most insane backstories of two drivers in F1. Lewis was Fernando's teammate when Lewis was a rookie and Fernando was a 2x reigning world champ and Lewis was brought in mostly to support Fernando's bid for a third title. But then he started winning. Fernando lost his everloving mind and attempted to blackmail McLaren (their team) to get them to underfuel Lewis in a race so Fernando would be guaranteed the win, among other things. Literal blackmail. This eventually led to McLaren being giving the largest fine in sporting history, 300 million dollars, and being disqualified from the constructor's. Their rivalry is the stuff of legends. By 2021, Fernando had been relegated to cars that weren't in contention, so this race was a rare treat to see the beauty and majesty and sheer unwillingness to give an inch for each other.
This is also one of Seb's last podiums, after his and Lewis' decade long rivalry going back to GP2.
And an extremely beautiful day for Esteban Ocon on the occasion of his first win! Esteban had been dropped from the grid in 2019 after Daniel went to Renault but he came back and clawed his way up and got a win. What a comeback story.
3. Brazil 2024
The background: Qualifying had 5 red flags, which ruined many chances and also ended Alex's race before it started :(( This put quite a few drivers far further down the order than expected. BOTH of the not-red bulls qualified above red bull prime.
What to watch for: This is Max Verstappen's best performance, going from 12 to 17 to 1, but the position numbers are the most boring part of a race's story. Especially during DRS era, if a car qualified out of position it could most times work its way back to +/- two places. It's the quality of the overtaking that is lovely to watch here.
The other main thing to watch for is the alpine party.
The narrative:
Now, in formula 1 there was a pair of teammates who were childhood best friends, spent vacations together, pursued their dreams together, and then had a massive falling out that bled onto the track and led to multiple collisions. I'm talking, of course, about Pierre and Esteban. Paired as teammates in Alpine even after everyone knew they did not get on. This led to many crashes and eventually Esteban was forced out and was not even given the dignity of completing the season with the team. But before that they had this magical joint podium, alpine's best ever result and for a moment they forgot not to be in love.
China 2026
The background: Kimi Antonelli skipped Formula 3 so Toto Wolff could bring him into Mercedes, facing criticisms that Kimi might be a little underbaked at 19 in a sport where being able to anticipate and make good positioning decisions is as important as going fast. Meanwhile, the 2025 Ferrari was a garbage car but this year it has an advantage off the start line from the Mercedes. The Mercedes can go faster but the Ferrari can pull a gap quicker.
What to watch for: The last couple of generations of cars primarily conducted what we can call 'rubber-band racing'. Cars would get close on the straights and then separate at the corners and then get close again. Stretch-snap-stretch. 2026 introduced a style of racing more similar to what's in MotoGP where drivers pass and re-pass while trying to find the optimum positioning to make an overtake stick. Additionally, car design was updated to make it easier to get side by side. This leads to some absolutely insanely close and frequent overtaking. You could barely slide a credit card between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc for large chunks of that race. The level of skill on display is absolutely bonkers. Whenever they chill out, someone in the midfield is also going at it.
The narrative: ok sure there's things we could say about the teams - double dns for mclaren, baby goat arvid lindblad, why are the cadillacs beefing, counting down the laps until the aston martin torture vibrator had to retire - but this race belongs to the podium.
Peter "Bono" Bonnington was Lewis Hamilton's race engineer for 12 years and 6 WDC. Now he's Kimi's. This is Kimi's first win and Bono got to go up there and celebrate it with his current and past driver. It's so heartwarming I could die.
George stepped to the side so they could get a picture together π₯Ή
Turkey 2020
The Background: Qualifying put championship frontrunner Lewis Hamilton in 6th and if he kept that position he wouldn't win the championship this race, which was to be his 7th.
What to watch for:
The race already started crazy. Giovinazzi and Russell spun out before even getting to the grid and the track was very wet, but it was no longer raining. That meant it was going to be tricky to figure out when to pit. Tires are the biggest source of performance on track and having the right/fresh/managing tires is the difference between winning and losing. No one knew what the right strategy would be.
Opening lap had enough overtakes, position losses, and teammate collisions to fill a normal race.
Wet conditions meant no DRS and everyone was fighting hard and struggling on track, watch for people leaving and rejoining.
Teams were waiting to switch tires, but the combination of temperature and wetness meant there was never a good time and eventually the approach was to keep the inters on long enough the rubber wore down and turned them slick. This is just a hilarious strategy. Everyone's tires were doing weird things, it makes every lap a little different and unpredictable.
The narrative: well it's Lewis' 7th. They didn't know when he'd get it and this was the race. Fun fact, Lando Norris kept the helmet he wore in this race, unwashed, as a memento.
