The 25th of May 2021 was F1ntastic’s First Blogiversary (Blog Anniversary)!! And since this is such a special occasion, a series of special feature posts are coming out on F1ntastic.com. And this is one of them! In this post, we’ll be looking back over the past year and checking out the Top 7 Posts from the 1st year of F1ntastic. The first post published on F1ntastic was published on the 5th of June 2020. It was about the reveal of the Hanoi Street Circuit on the then-upcoming F1 2020 game. The latest post on the blog was the main Blogiversary post. Be sure to check that out if you haven’t already!
I’ve taken a look at the approximately 65 posts that I’ve posted in the last year. I’ve read your comments on the posts and gone over the readers’ responses and opinions on the posts that I’ve published. I have also shortlisted my favourite posts from the past year. I then narrowed down my most favourite and your most favourite posts to the 7 blog posts written below. The order of the posts is from the 7th best at the top to the very best at the bottom. Let’s get into it!
7) WATCH: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Burnout Compilation – F1ntastic
This one HAS to make the Top 7 list because this post was simply GREAT. As the title tells you, this was an Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Burnout Compilation. 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 saw Abu Dhabi as the last race of the season, and also 2020. Since it’s the end of the season, the drivers often celebrate. Every season finisher has seen some spectacular celebrations; there are fireworks in the sky, cheers from the adoring fans, and burnouts from the drivers, to commemorate the season. The championship winner and runner up often celebrate the most, while drivers who are retiring from F1 do so as well.
This video which I published on the blog has videos of the burnouts and celebrations from the Abu Dhabi GP’s from the year 2019 all the way back to the celebrations in 2013. I think that the burnouts and the donuts that the drivers do on track at the Abu Dhabi GP at the end of every season is very special. And seeing so many of these celebrations compiled into one video is something that we all loved!
6) All About James Allison And His Journey Through F1 – F1ntastic
This was a nice feature about James Allison, the Chief Technical Officer of Mercedes. It looked at how much it takes to get to the top in F1. Allison is now the Chief Technical Officer of Mercedes. However, he stepped down to that role. Allison was actually the Techincal Director of Mercedes before he handed over the baton to Mike Elliott. After finishing the post with the news about Allison stepping down, I really wanted to do a feature on James Allison. I’d realised how he played such a huge role in F1, and how long it took him to become the Technical Director. It also looked at how Allison was a key part of Mercedes’ recent success in F1.
As I mentioned in that post, the Technical Director is responsible for overseeing the technical development and the performance of an F1 car. James Allison joined Mercedes as their Technical Director in 2017. Sure, Mercedes were fast in 2014, 2015 and 2016 too. But Mercedes’ dominance rose to a whole new level in 2019 and 2020 especially Mercedes dominated the championship like CRAZY. It was just insane how much grip and speed their car had. And that’s all because there are so many engineers working to give the team this success, including James Allison.
James Allison is a name that perhaps most F1 fans don’t really know. They don’t know how crucial his role was and still is in F1. And I feel like this post was an important one because it looked at a new side of F1. It looked at how there are so many people that work behind the scenes to give you guys this great F1 racing and to make F1 the sport that it is.
5) 5 Reasons Why It Is A Pity That The 2020 Dutch Grand Prix Was Cancelled – F1ntastic
Ok, let’s forget about that cover image because this was one of my earlier posts. It’s actually the only post on this list that came from as early as August 2020! This was just over 2 months since I actually created F1ntastic. And I didn’t quite know how to make a cover image yet. But I’m certainly proud of the writing and the actual content of this post, and the readers of this post liked the content too! When I published this post had just posted a video on YouTube where I raced at the Dutch Grand Prix on the newly released F1 2020 Game.
I was really happy after I recorded that video. The Circuit Zandvoort and the Dutch GP was really, really cool. It was amazing in the game, and it would certainly have rocked in real life. That’s why I wrote a blog post about it. I thought it would be a good idea to write about a race that would’ve returned for the first time in 35 years. Thankfully, for the first time in 36 years, we will be getting a Dutch Grand Prix in 2021. So while it was a shame this race was cancelled in 2020, this post gives you all the reasons why this race will be fantastic in 2021!
I think that this post makes the Top 7 because it was about the Dutch GP. I don’t think I, my readers, or any F1 fan from the current generation knew anything much about the Dutch Grand Prix. Nobody really knew why some people found this race so legendary and so important. Nobody really knew what was so legendary about the Circuit Zandvoort. And now they did!
4) – 2021 F1 Regulation Changes: The Lowdown
This blog post is pretty recent, and I’m quite proud of this one. It was about the 2021 F1 Regulation Changes. 2021 saw multiple regulation changes coming to F1. The FIA made these regulation changes to make racing closer in 2021, and to make F1 less costly. Also, the regulation changes made the F1 cars slower than they were in 2020. In 2020, Formula 1 saw the fastest race cars in history out on track, which is a good thing, right? Well, it was actually turning into a problem. The cars were outgrowing some of the circuits on the calendar.
The cars were DEFINITELY outgrowing the tires, as proved in the 2020 British Grand Prix. The aerodynamics of the cars being so powerful and the cars being so costly made the field spread in F1 huge. F1 fans and the F1 community wanted closer and more fun races, and a real fight for the World Championships. That’s why the FIA introduces multiple new regulations to make F1 a better sport. And it’s safe to say the regulation changes have worked!
There are multiple reasons this post is all the way up in 4th in this Top 7 list. First of all, in pre-season testing, the cars were different to how they were last year. They were slower, the competition was heating up. Mercedes, the 7-time World Champions, were struggling. And it’s because of these rule changes, and that’s what this post explained. And also, personally, I learned immensely in this post about the technical side of F1, which is why I’m proud of it. This was only the 2nd post on F1ntastic that was so technical and so elaborate, which is why it did well.
3) – GROSJEAN CRASHED 😱 – F1ntastic 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Review
It was incredibly close for the last podium place in this Top 7 list, but this post was REALLY great. Surprisingly, this is the only F1ntastic Race Review on this list, but it’s clearly the best. This post was the 2020 Bahrain GP Race Review, the review of the race in 2020 with that horrific, fiery crash. That crash was more than just scary. It was terrifying, it was jaw-dropping and incredibly traumatic. The news of this crash spread throughout the world, reaching lengths far beyond the world of Formula 1. It had been several years since a crash this massive had plagued F1. Nobody could comprehend how the car suddenly burst into flames. And nobody could understand how a miracle happened that day, and how Romain Grosjean survived the accident.
To give you some context, in the first lap of the 2020 Bahrain GP, there was a lot of chaos. Some cars were making contact with others, there were overtakes all over the place. It was a little more hectic of a start than usual. And then came the massive crash. Romain Grosjean in the Haas F1 car was going from the left to the right side of the track at the exit of Turn 3 at the Bahrain International Circuit. Grosjean was going to the right side of the track because there was a space there and because there was a pack of 5 cars ahead of him that was going slow. However, when he tried to move across the track, he hit the front tires of the AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat, who was racing in the blind spot of Grosjean’s car.
When Grosjean hit Kyvat’s car, he was racing at around 220-250 kph. Subsequently, Grosjean goes hurtling into the barrier on the side of the straight. To make matters worse, the barrier was at an angle of 30°. And Grosjean’s car hit the barrier at an angle too. As soon as the car hit the barrier, the car erupted in flames. People could not believe that this had happened, and nobody really understood exactly why the car caught fire until after deep analysis took place.
And that’s why this post was so special. It explained this complicated and terrifying incident, and how Grosjean’s car caught fire, and then how Grosjean survived this massive crash. So many things went wrong, and then somehow, things when right and Grosjean’s life was saved. And explaining how that worked is something that I will never forget, and this post, and what this race review was about, will always be special. There was this complexity of the crash and, the way we dug into how an F1 driver’s life was miraculously saved was just great. The deep meaning of this post made this the best F1ntastic Race Review of 2020 (as voted by you guys).
2) Top 10 Moments of Formula 1 in 2020
Ah, this post was just wholesome. How can a post full of the best moments and the best racing from an entire year of Formula 1 not make the Top 7 list? This post was VERY long, but it was just really fun and full of excitement and drama. It just had to be, because we reviewed the best moments of the 2021 F1 season. This post was all about crashes, close finishes, and emotional moments. It was a post reviewing this insane year we’d just had, and how the great racing still continued as the pandemic turned the world upside down.
In this post, we analyzed the crazy moments of 2020, like the crash that Romain Grosjean had, and how Lewis Hamilton limped to the British GP race win. We looked at the massive multi-car crash at the 2020 Tuscan GP, and the close finishes at Turkey and Styria. It’s always great to look back and reflect at the last year, especially if the year was as crazy as it was.
Going back over the year 2020 was fantastic for both the readers and for me as a writer. This post was just so special and memorable, which is why it is Number 2 on this Top 7 list. And 2020 was such a crazy year that we had two moments tied for Number 10 on the Top 10 Moments list! I think the way this was so special and how unique 2020 was made this post a really good one.
1) – All The Formula 1 Engine Eras – An F1ntastic Original Infographic
This post is ALMIGHTY, it is BY FAR the best post on F1ntastic. So many readers have read and reviewed this post, and given such positive comments and reviews. The information in this post is so unique, and it’s such a huge collection all in one interactive and easy-on-the-eyes infographic. The infographic has a mass amount of info about each of the engine eras in Formula 1, from the very beginning of F1 in 1950 to the F1 era in 2022 and beyond. While this post was mainly about the engine eras, it put detailed focus into what other factors made each era different, like the aerodynamics and the chassis of the F1 cars.
And quite frankly, an infographic was the best way to present such information in large quantities. To make matters even better, it turns out not many people have written about the F1 eras like this. When you search up anything about the F1 eras or the F1 engine eras, the only link that beats F1ntastic to the top of the search results is Wikipedia. That’s insane!! It’s strange how I didn’t plan this post at all. The infographic in this post was just a history project. I had to make a timeline infographic about something in history, so I made a timeline of the F1 engine eras.
A few months later, I saw that this infographic had great potential to do well. So I made some changes and updates to it, and published it on F1ntastic. The comments BLEW UP, and this quickly became the most popular and most well-reviewed post on this blog. It’s a clear number one, and I really want to thank you readers for motivating me so much. If it wasn’t for your comments and reviews, I wouldn’t have been motivated to continue F1ntastic to this extent. I wouldn’t have had the motivation to constantly search for even greater content ideas.
I hope that the next time I make a “Top Posts on F1ntastic” post, most of this Top 7 won’t feature there. Don’t worry, I mean this in a good way, because I hope to make even better content and even better blog posts for you guys in the future! Stay safe, stay on the lookout for new posts, and enjoy F1ntastic!
