Michael and the Sport
Schumacher, available and released on Netflix in 2021, is the story of Michael Schumacher, who many consider the greatest Formula One driver of all time. This documentary follows and uses old footage of his life from when he first entered the sport, all the way to his retirement, and ultimately, the skiing injury that has rendered him unconscious since 2014. Directed by Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns, Vanessa Nöcker, and Michael Wech, the documentary utilizes members of his family, and highly-respected members of the sport to talk about his life, and highlight who he was as a person, not just what was seen of him driving around the track.
Due to the recent rise in Formula One viewership across the world, it seems appropriate that this documentary highlights an important person in the history of Formula One, as he was the first person to ever win seven World Championships in the sport. 
Formula One is the premier level in racing across the world. Traveling to 23 different cities each year, it’s viewed as the fastest and most expensive circus, mostly due to the nature of the calendar, and how the teams travel around the world. The race weekend starts on a Thursday, and ends on Sundays with the race. Formula One (F1) races have been occurring since 1950, and are still occurring every year, with new drivers coming into the sport every year, and pushing other drivers out.
One of the reasons that F1 stands out amongst other racing competitions is the limited amounts of seats available. There are ten teams competing every year, with two drivers per team. This makes it one of, if not the hardest sports to compete in. Some drivers only last for a season or two, and others become greats, lasting in the sport for over twenty years. Due to the longevity of some drivers, many young drivers are never given the chance at the highest level, and become stuck in other forms of racing, waiting for the chance that never comes.
Personal Observations
This group is very appealing and interesting to learn about. For the most part, the drivers are in their early twenties, and since they’re traveling with each other almost every weekend for a few months in a row, they form friendships and rivalries. More so, just because drivers are on the same team, does not mean they have a good relationship with each other. There have been many cases of teammates purposefully ruining their teammate’s race, crashing into each other on track, and fights breaking out between the two once they’re out of the car. The drama that surrounds the sport is not interesting to learn about, but entertaining.
The car, which I’ve come to realize is the place, defies everything that we are taught about physics,
and how driving works. It’s a “single seater”, which means there’s one seat in the middle of the car, located just in front of the engine. The steering wheel has buttons and functions on it, which can change the way that the car drives, alter the amount of fuel and its concentration, how much gravity is being flushed on top of the car, and so much more. Therefore, these cars aren’t only fast, but have the ability to change the way that they function throughout a race.
There are many aspects of the sport that draws me to watch every weekend. Every race is a different scenario, and there are opportunities for change and danger around every turn on the tracks. The cars are traveling at over 200 miles per hour, and often collide when they do so. Not only is this dangerous, but it also creates drama that isn’t found in every sport. There is a chance for death in everything that we do, especially sports, but due to the high speeds that the drivers are constantly moving in, the sense of danger is increased exponentially.
There’s a sense of familiarity to the sport, since we all drive, and are all accustomed to being in cars. Personally, I’m always yearning to drive faster, and get around the car in front of me. However, to a destination isn’t a race, and standard street cars are designed for transportation and safety, not speed. So, the aspect of driving is something very familiar for many of us. However, the speed is not. It’s not a common occurrence for “normal” people to get a chance to drive 200 mph on an open road, constantly pushing to go faster and attempting to get everything out of the car. Due to the high speeds that the cars reach, the tires are constantly tearing apart, with the potential to pop once they become too worn. This is also not a common occurrence for a standard car, unless an outside variable is added to the equation.
These occurrences became very problematic, especially in the past when Schumacher was driving. The sport averaged close to one death per season within the car, as the technology was not where it is today. Also, certain safety features were not added to the sport until recently, which has dropped the death rate immensely.
This is also what’s a bit “weird” about F1. Do the drivers have a death wish? Do the drivers not care what happens to them? It can become very confusing for an outsider, and I don’t think myself, as a viewer, will ever be able to fully comprehend why someone would get into that car willingly to drive against other drivers.
A Moment of Insight
There aren’t many places that can serve multiple purposes. A Formula One car has infinite purposes. It can immortalize you. It can kill you. It can save your life. It can take you away from a rough childhood, and give you fame and fortune. It can bring your family and friends fear, and can make your stomach drop. And yet, ultimately, it’s a car. It takes you from one place to another. However, due to the possibilities that it has, it’s so much more.
A Moment that Matters
One moment that stood out the most to me, is the moment where Michael Schumacher gets in the Ferrari car for the first time. This moment would change his life forever, and yet, he was just a kid. He didn’t know what would be ahead of him. All the records, all the wins, all the moments that would make him one of the greatest, if not the greatest drivers of all time. Ferrari is known across the world for winning, and has a standard of doing so. This is all because of Michael, and the effect he had on the team, sport, culture, and car. Michael changed how effective one can be in this specific space, and the space changed who Michael was.
Enacting Rights
The way Carr speaks about public spaces, and the different rights that accompany them can be directly applied to the sport of Formula One. In terms of Ownership and Disposition, there is a sense of freedom and the ability to walk around the race track for some, but not for all. Each of the ten teams have their own garage within the paddock, as well as rooms for the drivers, and offices for the hundreds
that travel with each team for the race weekend. These teams have the ability to invite special guests into the space. So, even though these areas can be seen from the outside very easily, you need to be invited in. This also relates to access, as well as claim. In terms of claim, the teams are mostly publicly owned, as an extension of car manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz, Aston Martin, and Alpine. Yet, just like with the Ownership and Disposition, just because these teams are publicly owned, does not give any share-holder the right to the spaces that these teams have claimed within the paddock.
There is a lack of claim to the public for these spaces. As stated in the reading, “claim to a space goes beyond access and freedom of action”. So, the claim to these spaces that the drivers, and the teams have are naturally more private. Since it’s part of a world wide sport, and every major aspect of it is shown on national television, there needs to be places of privacy, and times where teams can function without the public eye peering in. There is, however, Freedom of Action, for some. Specifically focusing on the drivers in this instance, there are immense amounts of freedom. The drivers tend to be able to go where they want whenever they want to, within certain parameters. Oftentimes you will see drivers going into different garages, as long as there is not active production on the cars. The drivers also are free to walk around the paddock, the track, and visit all facilities during the weekends. Lastly, these spaces are always changing. As the sport has evolved, the areas of the pits specifically have changed immensely. With the advances in technology that are being made every year, the sport is forever evolving, which naturally forces a change in these spaces.
Relationship Matrices
A Tip of the Iceberg
This is a curb that is seen on most edges, and on every turn on an F1 track. Not only do these curbs set the boundaries for the tracks, but they also hold multiple purposes within each turn. As seen in the image above, the red and white stripes have bumps to them, giving the curbs texture, and giving them a bumping effect when the cars go over them. The curbs also slow down the cars, and add more tire wear. So, the more often the drivers dip their tires onto the curbs, the quicker they’ll need to pit and change them. However, there is skill and strategy to the curbs, and drivers are known to use them to their advantage. Sometimes it’s quicker to let the car go onto the curb after coming out of a turn faster. The rule of the sport is that as long as both tires aren’t on the other side of the curb, the lap is clean, and the driver isn’t in any danger of a time penalty. If they do pass over, they have two warnings, and then are given a five second time penalty. This doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but when the sport is decided by milliseconds, it’s a lot to make-up for. So, there’s always intention behind riding on the curb, and a lot of skill involved in finding the perfect line through a turn, and slightly onto the curb without going over.
The curbs, as stated above, can both positively or negatively affect the user group, which in this case, are the drivers. At the soul of the sport, it’s all about going fast, and getting to the finish line first, but the way to get there is separated into each lap, and within each lap, each turn. So, when experiencing different turns and these curbs on each turn, there is an opportunity to make up for lost time, but there’s also the ability to lose time. These curbs also hold the ability to completely disrupt the car, and how it functions. If a driver hits the throttle too hard on a curb, the back wheels could spin out, causing the car to spin in an unpredictable direction. This doesn’t happen very often, as most drivers on the grid are experienced enough to know what the car can handle. Yet, the possibility of spinning is always there. So, skill is heavily involved with curbs, as it is with every aspect of the sport.
Every driver has a different style of driving. Every car has a different way to drive it. So, the combination of driver and car can change the way that everything functions, and how a driver approaches the track, and the turns. So, there are different reasons for coming in tight on a turn, and riding on the curb a little bit, compared to going wide, and taking a cleaner, but possibly slower line. Tire conservation can come into it. Each pitstop averages twenty added seconds to your race, so if you can extend the life on your tires by going a fraction of a second slower per lap, one could effectively skip a pit stop, and stay on the same set of tires. So, there are many reasons in which drivers can interact with the curb in different ways. It can be a race strategy call, or a driver preference. No matter what way, the curb is an essential part of the sport, and the way that the race pans out.
The Spatial Dynamics of a Turn
