What Can You Learn From Formula 1 Racing?

“What Can You Learn From Formula 1 Racing?” by Adrienne Albregts first appeared on the Compass Learning Navigator blog.
You may not naturally associate Formula 1 racing with learning. But guess what? There are SO many learning opportunities at a race. For example, a Team Ferrari fan might be interested to know a little history about their favorite crew, like the fact that their first victory dates back all the way to 1951 at the British Grand Prix. Or how about this for a fun fact: Former Team Ferrari driver, John Surtess, was actually a champion motorcycle racer before getting in the driver’s seat of a 4-wheeled vehicle in 1964.
And since Formula 1 racing draws such an international crowd, there’s plenty of geography lessons that can be learned at an F1 race. Take Sebastian Vettel of Team Red Bull for example. He’s from Germany, specifically, the town of Heppenheim, which is known for its abundance of Riesling vineyards. I’ll cheers to that! Or Gary Paffett from Team McLaren Mercedes – he’s from Bromley, a suburb of southeast London known for its theatre. The Churchill Theatre is located in Bromley and their rendition of The Rocky Horror Picture Show was apparently so amazing, it was transferred to London’s version of Broadway, the West End.
But these history and geography mini-lessons are just the tip of the starting line, race fans. You can learn science, math, physics … and if you want to incorporate a language arts lesson, I’m sure you could write a haiku about racing.
The learning opportunities are vast; that’s why we are launching a contest for the next couple weeks called“What  Can You Learn From Racing?”  The prize is a Team Ferrari model helmet (see image above, 1:2 scale). All you have to do is tell us in 200 words or less what lessons you can learn from F1!
Also, we’ll be posting a series of blogs about the valuable things you can learn from racing. Our in-house science expert, Adam Percival, will kick off the posts with his series, “The Science of Formula One.” And our in-house history buffs, Nora O’Leary-Roseberry and George Rislov, will tell us more about the history behind racing.
Educators: Personalized learning opportunities, like the F1 race, are all around us. What’s your favorite example? Tell us in the comment section. Click here to enter the contest.

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1 Comment

Javier Quiroga
3/27/2015

I think what you can learn from F1 is to copy what the other teams are doing right and implement in your job or team. Copy what they do better and forget what they do worse. I think this is something common in F1 and we shall learn and use in our daily life.

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