BUYING INTO FORMULA 1

By Russell Streur

 

Topps 2021 Formula 1, Card 1, Lewis Hamilton, 2021 Champion Driver.

 

I’ve always been a fan of Formula 1 racing.  Not always the biggest fan or the most committed fan, but ever since the early 1970s watching Jackie Stewart on the European courses on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, I’ve always paid at least some attention to it.

 

Even just the names conjure the speed and the art of the open cockpit sport.  The great Ferrari, McLaren and Williams teams of the 80s and 90s all the way to today’s Red Bull and Mercedes juggernauts.  And the drivers—some version of a more modern Top Ten, in no particular order except by chronology—Emerson Fittipaldi, Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, Nigel Mansell, the awful death of Aryton Senna, Damon Hill, the tragedy of Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen.

 

Over last summer, I became a serious fan again, and in the autumn happily exchanged the punts, penalty flags and the point-after attempts of NFL afternoons for the hairpin turns, chicanes and grandstand straights of the international motordromes and street courses in the earlier Sunday time slot.

 

Formula 1 races are set to a length of about 190 miles.  Depending on the circuit, between 50 and 80 laps are run in about 90 minutes.  Races are capped by a two-hour limit.  Maximum speed is regulated at 360 km/hr (223.6 mph). Each course is unique and infinitely more exciting than the usual ovals of the Indy circuit or the endless laps of NASCAR, and so are the races themselves.  One last bonus—no commercials during the broadcast.  The season runs from March to November, and the winter lull is a fine time a look at the sport’s new trading cards.

 

Topps won rights to Formula 1 cards in 2020 and began full production in 2021.  There are five product lines:

 

·         Topps Now

·         Dynasty

·         Sapphire

·         Chrome

·         Flagship

 

Topps Now cards are issued under an order-as-you-go process, $9.99 per card, each available for a limited time, with the press run limited to the number of orders received.  The 2022 set wound up with 81 cards.  Though bundling discounts are available (three cards for $24.99 for example), a collector is still looking at a $700 minimum outlay for a season.

 

Topps Now 2022.

Card 079, Max Verstappen of Red Bull wins his 15^th race of the season.

 

Dynasty is a boxed pack of a single autographed relic card with a going price of around $2,000.  This is the luxury level and not collecting.  It’s speculation.

 

Dynasty, Lewis Hamilton

Image Source:  The Cardboard Connection

 

Sapphire is the high-end of three consumer product lines.  Count on spending a minimum of $350 for a hobby box that contains a total of 32 cards distributed in eight packs of four cards each. Scans don’t do any justice to Sapphires.  Printed on thick, full glossy stock, the cards are simply elegant. 

 

Sapphire Card 110, Kimi Raikkonen

Image Source:  LottiCards

 

Chrome is the mid-range set but it’s a pricy mid-range.  A hobby box containing a total of 64 costs around $200. Scans don’t do much justice to Chrome cards, either.  A high-quality product, just a notch below Sapphire.

 

  Chrome Card 102, the Aston-Martin AMR21 driven by Sebastian Vettel.

 

The Formula 1 Flagship line is the set-builder product. It sounds reasonable enough, 175 cards to the base checklist:

 

Cards 1 thru 57:                 F1 Drivers

Cards 58 thru 79:              F2 Drivers

Cards 80 thru 95:              Crew

Cards 96 thru 115:            F1 Cars

Cards 116 thru 137:         F2 Cars

Cards 138 thru 154:         Grand Prix Winners

Cards 155 thru 170:         Drivers of the Day

Cards 171 and 172:          F1 Award Winners

Cards 173 thru 175:         Rookies

 

A motivated collector might sensibly compute that a collection of this set size could be built from foil packs at a patient pace and a tolerable price.  But there are ten deliberate variations, and 138 inserts—Predators, Debriefs, Relics, Flags, Variations, and the Sports Cars of 1961 subset—and the production ratios to consider:

 

Variations 10 cards. 1 to 165 hobby packs.

Predators 15 cards. 1:6 hobby packs.

Debriefs 20 cards. 1:4.5 hobby packs.

Relics 38 cards, 1:36 hobby packs

Flags 30 cards. 1:9 hobby packs.

Sports Cars of 1961 25 cards. 1:4.5 hobby packs.



And the math becomes daunting and the cost prohibitive for the full collection. Completing the base set from buying hobby boxes of foil packs though, is certainly doable, if the collector will be content with whatever inserts come along the way and still be happy with the results. I’m that collector, and here’s what a set looks like.

 

Formula 1 Drivers.  To no surprise, the Formula 1 drivers are the star cards of the collection.  Ten teams compete in Formula 1, and each team fields two cars, so there are spots for 20 drivers.  Injuries or replacements will add two or three drivers to the roster standings each year.  Drivers are shown in formal, candid or helmeted poses.

Left to right:  Card 13, Pierre Gasly; Card 4, Sergio Perez.

 

Gasly won his first Formula 1 race in 2020 at the Italian Grand Prix.  Perez won his first Formula 1 race in 2020 at the Sakhir Grand Prix.

 

Top:  Card 43, Max Verstappen; bottom, Card 21, Valtteri Bottas.

 

Verstappen placed third in the 2020 driver standings and then finished first in 2021 and again in 2022.  Bottas finished second in driver rankings in 2020 and third in 2021 for Mercedes.  He currently drives for Alfa Romeo.

 

Left, Card 28, Daniel Ricciardo; right, Card 54, Carlos Sainz.

 

Ricciardo is a veteran driver and has served stints with Renault, McLaren and Red Bull teams.  Sainz has followed a similar path, with Red Bull, Renault, McLaren and Ferrari.

 

Formula 2 Drivers.  Eleven Formula 2 teams provide training and experience to prepare drivers for Formula 1.  Brazilian-born Felipe Drugovich won the 2022 Formula 2 championship.  Theo Pourchaire of France finished second in the standings. 

 

 

Left to right:  Card 60, Felipe Drugovich; Card 78, Theo Pourchaire.

 

Other drivers came from countries less closely associated with Formula 1 racing.  Guanyu Zhou of China finished in third-place in the 2021 F2 standings and currently drives with the Alfa Romeo team.  Jehan Daruvala of Mumbai, India, fell out of the Formula 2 circuit at the end of the 2022 season after failing to advance during a three-year window of opportunity.

 

Left to right: Card 61 Guanyu Zhou; Card 67, Jehan Daruvla.

 

 

Crew.   Crew cards will never be as popular as the drivers or the cars, but without the crews, there’d be no racing in the first place. 

 

The Mercedes brain trust:  left, Card 81, Toto Wolff, Team Principal; right, Card 80, James Allison, Technical Director.

 

Formula 1 Teams 2021.  In many ways, the Formula 1 Constructor’s Championship carries as much prestige as the driver’s championship.  Ferrari holds the most titles with 16, followed by Williams (9), McLaren (8), Mercedes (8), Lotus (7) and Red Bull (5).

The top three F1 teams of 2021.

Top to bottom:  Card 96, Mercedes Petronas, Lewis Hamilton, Driver; Card 98, Red Bull Honda, Max Verstappen, Driver; Card 107, Scuderia Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, Driver.

 

Formula 2 Teams 2021.  The Italian sports car manufacturer Dallara builds all of the Formula 2 machines.  For driver development, each is built to the same specifications.   The 2021 version features a V6, 3.4-liter, turbo-charged six-speed Mecachrome engine capable of reaching 620 horsepower and speeds up to 335 km/hour (208.159 mph).  The cars run on Pirelli tires with the wets and slicks specially configured for Formula 2.

 

 

The top three F2 teams of 2021.

Top to bottom:  Card 117, Preema Racing, Oscar Piastri, Driver;

Card 118 UNI-Virtuosi, Guanyu Zhou, driver; Card 124,Carlin, Dan Ticktum, Driver.

 

 

 

Grand Prix Winners. Lewis Hamilton won 11 of the 17 races run in 2020.  Other winners that year were Valtteri Bottas (2), Max Verstappen (2), Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez.  Six drivers won races in 2021:  Max Verstappen (10), Lewis Hamilton (8) and Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas each with a single trophy.

 

 

Card 157, Winner Portuguese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton

 

 

Drivers of the Day.  Fans vote for the Driver of the Day in Formula 1 races.  On November 29, 2020, Romain Grosjean of the Haas team crashed at high speed into a safety barrier during the first lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix.  The impact split his car in half and ignited the fuel.  Grosjean was able to escape the fiery accident with foot and hand injuries and minor burns.  Fans delivered him the Driver of the Day award for his escape.  He is currently racing for Andretti Autosport on the Indy Car circuit.

 

 

Card 157, Driver of the Day Bahrain, Romain Grosjean

 

 

 

Award Winners.  Lewis Hamilton won his seventh world championship in 2020, tying him with Michael Schumacher for the most ever, and propelling the Mercedes team to a record seventh-straight constructor’s championship. 

 

 

The Hamilton Mercedes Combination. 

Top:  Card 171, Lewis Hamilton, champion driver; Card 172, Mercedes, champion constructor.

 

 

Rookie Cards.  With the field limited to ten teams running two cars, there’s not a lot of room for rookie drivers.  The now-dissolved Uralkali Haas team of 2021 fielded two:  Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.  The son of seven-time Formula 1 champion winner Michael Schumacher, Mick won the Formula 3 European championship in 2018 and the Formula 2 championship two years later.  He is now a reserve driver with the Mercedes team.  Nikita Mazepin is the son of Russian agricultural fertilizer mogul and Uralkali sponsor Dimitry Mazepin.  Haas severed ties with Uralkali and the Mazepins in March of 2022 following the elder Mazepin’s support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Nikita no longer races in Formula 1.

Left to right:  Card 174, Mick Schumacher; Card 175, Nikita Mazepin.

 

Variations.  There are ten official variations.  The Card 9 versions of Fernando Alonso are shown below.

 

 

Card 9, Fernando Alonso, base (top); variation (bottom).

 

Predators Inserts.  Predator cards feature the top 15 drivers on the circuit.  Backs contain brief biographies of the drivers. 

Apex Predators, McLaren Team.

Left: AP-DR, Daniel Ricciardo; right:  AP-LN, Lando Norris.

 

 

Debrief Inserts.  These inserts pair drivers with team principals.

 

 

 

Top to bottom:  Card D-8, Sebastian Vettel and Otmar Szafnauer, Aston Martin;

Card D-13, Carlis Sainz and Matteo Binotto, Ferrari;

Card D-2, Estaban Ocon and Davide Brivio, Alpine.

                                                                               

 

 

Relics.  On average, relics are found once in every 36 hobby packs.

 

 

 

Daniel Ricciardo with Uniform Patch

Image Source: LottiCards

 

Flags of Foundation Inserts.  The nationalities of the drivers are recognized on these cards.  

 

 

 

 

 

Flags of Foundation

Top to bottom: FF-SV, Sebastian Vettel (Germany); FF-GR, George Russell (Great Britain);

FF-JV, Juri Vips (Estonia)

 

 

 

1961 Sports Cars of 1961.  These inserts mimic the Topps 1961 Sports Cars series.  The original cards measure an oversize 2.5” by 4.75”.

 

 

 

 

 

Sports Cars 1961

 Top:  1961 Topps Card 7, Maserati 5000 GT.

Bottom: T61-AG Antonio Giovanazzi, Alfa Romeo.

 

Blaster Box Foil Inserts.  Blaster boxes contain their own set of insert refractors.

 

Blaster Box Foil Inserts

Top:  Card 96, Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Team.

 Bottom: Card 61, Max Verstappen, Driver of the Day, Russian Grand Prix.

 

 

Parallels.  Checker Flag parallels are issued one per hobby pack.  Bordered parallel cards are produced in the following counts:

 

•                     Aqua / 199

•                     Blue / 99

•                     Gold / 50

•                     Orange / 25

•                     Black / 10

•                     Red / 5

 

Left to right:

Card 14, 23/50, Yuki Tsunoda; Card 69, 05/10, Juri Vips; Card 20, 038/199, Nicholas Latifi.

 

 

Card 46.   Sergio Perez wins the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix for Red Bull Honda.

 

Podium.  I bought 456 cards building a base set from foil packs and a left-overs lot of commons.  239 were unique and 217 were duplicates.   Not a bad ratio.  Two last missing cards came from the singles market.  No complaints about the distribution of inserts and parallels.  Total cost, $322.18.  I’ve spent money in worse ways, that’s for sure. There wasn’t any big-ticket card in the packs I opened to objectively prove a dollar value but the buy and sell traffic is all on the higher shelves and in the grading anyway.  Collecting for the sake of collecting is measured in a different currency where the numbers only tell a small part of the story.

 

Bottom line, I’m satisfied, and I’d do it again, no regrets.

 

Will I collect the 2022 set?  No.  It’s a larger set, 200 cards this time around, and even though the extra 25 is a small number, small numbers add up.  But no mostly because there’s only so much to cover between driver, team and car, and 19 different cards of Max Verstappen and 17 different cards of Lewis Hamilton in the 2022 collection don’t give me a thrill. 

 

So, a pass on the 2022 set, also no regrets.

 

The 2023 season starts Sunday.   Time to see if anybody can catch those Red Bulls this year.

 

Except where noted, all images from the author’s collection.