In the entire world of sport, motor racing has always been unique because no other requires a combination of human athletes and technological hardware to achieve the end result. In football or basketball, they all use the same ball. In cricket or tennis, you have personal preferences in terms of the weight or grips, but fundamentally the equipment is the same.
You could argue that in sailing, boats used for the America’s Cup are all quite different, but not to the same degree as a Formula 1 car when compared to another team and the bespoke designs that are driven by the F1 regulations.
However, the common thread across all sports is that momentum is a key factor in the athletes’ performance. Think about a Wimbledon final where the two gladiators are battling it out. A point lost at a crucial moment on break point suddenly rewards a player with a game and before you know it, they’ve won the set 7-5. That bolsters their confidence and can have a massive effect on their opponent, sending them into a spin, even if they were playing equally as well and matching each other game for game until that one bad shot. Weirdly, this is what the 2025 Formula 1 season has felt like.
