As a little girl, instead of having endless dolls, I had Hot Wheel cars. To me, Hot Wheels had more than a superficial meaning; through them, I was able to have a closer connection to my dad and his brothers, who had accumulated a large collection as children. When I would visit my grandparents’ house, I could play with them. In addition, my family and I would watch “Top Gear.” Since then, my passion for cars has only grown. While it has admittedly ebbed and flowed at times, I have always been fascinated by cars and the development of their technology, as well as their aesthetics. My interest in cars has only spiraled into further attentiveness to car-related endeavors, such as Formula 1. 

     My overall favorite car brand is Porsche—their cars perform effortlessly, and in my opinion, are the most beautiful. The Porsche has been a staple in my car-related interests, and even more so lately. Social media has been a large component in my recent interest; I have seen lots of car influencers that are women, my favorite being @shelb.gt. Her page encapsulates everything I love about Porsches – their looks, their engineering, and their racing aspects. I especially enjoy their aesthetics. One of these aesthetics can be colors, specifically livery. Livery is essentially a collection of set colors on a car, and the Martini Racing livery is found on Porsches; it also happens to be my favorite. The Martini Racing livery is quite unique; even though the colors are simple–just red navy, and teal–there have been many stylistic variations utilizing different widths and creating wave-like patterns that flow along the car’s bodies. Additionally, Martini was found on virtually every racing car of the 60s and 70s; some of my love of this is because of its antiquity and history. Even now in modern racing, such as Formula 1, they have been involved.

     Formula 1 has been a relatively recent interest that has come from my dad and brother. During the season, races are broadcasted on Sunday mornings. My family and I wake up and have breakfast while watching the race; it’s a fun part of each week that we have implemented into our routine. Every race of the season is competed in a different location, ranging from Monaco to Azerbaijan to Texas. Formula 1 is organized into ten teams with two primary drivers each. These 20 drivers compete over the course of two days to determine starting positions for the final race of the weekend – the Grand Prix. This process is rigorous, and of course, very competitive. This competition carries over into my family as well – each of us have our favorite teams and drivers. Mine is the Ferrari team, but mainly because of the drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. We all root for our favorites—whoever individually wins the most races wins the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship, and whoever’s team wins the most races and has the best engineered car earns the Formula One World Constructors’ Championship. This past year, Max Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship, and Red Bull, his team, won the Constructors’ Championship.

     Though this is just a peek into the vast expanse of cars and their related endeavors, I wouldn’t have become interested in the complexities of them without Hot Wheel cars in my childhood.