October 25 was an exciting day for car racing. Lewis Hamilton, a 30-year-old from the United Kingdom, won the 2015 Formula One (F1) World Drivers’ Championship (WDC). He is with the Mercedes AMG Petronas racing team. Hamilton has won two previous F1 Championships as well in 2014 and 2008. He won the Formula One WDC after winning the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Wait a minute, we were talking about “Formula One”, so what’s a “Grand Prix”? F1 consists of a series of races called Grand Prix. The number of Grand Prix races held in a year can change. The results of all the Grand Prix races are combined to determine the overall winner of the F1 Championship. The length of each race is around 300 km or 200 miles. F1 started in Europe in 1950. Its roots are from Grand Prix motor racing which started in the early 1900s in France.
This year, 19 Grands Prix races are being held in various cities around the world. The first was held in Melbourne, Australia in March, and the last will be held in Abu Dhabi, UAE in November. The United States Grand Prix was the 16th race this year. So how can the winner of 19 races be decided after only 16 races? Hamilton has such a big lead that no one can catch up to him in the 3 remaining races.