I climbed atop my nanny and grandad’s sofa at their house in Lordswood, and I picked up the daily edition of The Sun. My feet didn’t touch the ground as I scrolled through the tabloid. Skipping past the page 3 girls and all the inappropriate barging-into-private-lives-stuff. Yeah. Maybe The Sun wasn’t the right paper for a child to be reading.
Every time I went to their house I’d check the newspaper. It’s funny really, I had my little hand grasped lightly on the current affairs from a young age. I’ve always been obsessed with the news. How the world is, how it was, what’s going on. Especially what the weather will be like.
And I’ve stated in my previous blog, I was always into music and drama and the arts. I thought this was what I wanted to do, until I fell head over heels in love with sports.
In 2023, my brother got into Formula One. I remember one day, we were at my grandparents actually, he wanted me to watch it with him. So we came home and turned the telly on, sat down, Sky Sports blaring as I gazed at the TV.
I’d never seen anything like this before. Why were there these massive, alien-looking cars, driving super quickly in the rain - and why did I actually enjoy it?
If you follow this epic sport, you’d know that the 2023 season was dominated by Max Verstappen and Red Bull. The team won all but one race. That weekend was a little different, however.
It was the Belgian Grand Prix. Oscar Piastri, young rookie sensation driving the papaya McLaren cars, showed his virtuosity in the wet Ardenne forests at Spa-Francorchamps. I nicknamed him Pastry due to his surname. He almost won Saturday’s Sprint race, and he really stood out for me.
I had my first “we’re gonna miss it moment!!” on Sunday. We didn’t want to miss the race, but we were out. I remember bursting through the doors of our flat, scrambling to find the remote and switch on the television.
After Max had things wrapped up on the Sunday, it was just in time for the summer break. As the paddock rested, my mission was to go wild researching this wonderful sport.
I learned about the greats my father pretended to be when he drove me around as a child - Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna. He always used to shout “Schumacher!” as he accelerated through the roads, similar to the great Murray Walker.
I even got to know this Oscar Piastri fellow better. I learned he won back-to-back Formula Renault, Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles before he paved his way into F1. Then, at the end of 2022, two teams had a bidding war over him. Pretty exciting stuff in my book.
The next race of the season was in the Netherlands, at Zandvoort. It was marred by the death of my childhood cat, Simba. He had to be put down on Sunday morning, a few hours before the race began.
That weekend, I learned that this sport would lift me and comfort me. I was horribly saddened by the passing of Sim, but these cars that drove around in odd little circles? They became my best friend. They could put a hand on my shoulder at any time.
I bought a little notebook that I titled “Not Ted’s Notebook” in October. Ted Kravitz is a reporter who has a Sky Sports special that I watch religiously, called Ted’s Notebook.
It wouldn’t be going anywhere for now. It was just a place where I could write about F1. I wrote during sessions, I wrote during free time. It was like my childhood notebook where my imagination grew abundant, and this time it was grown by the facts.
This sport opened more doors than ever before for me. The asphalt roads led me to becoming invested in other sports. I love watching football, tennis, NFL (although I can’t understand it half the time!), and many more categories of motorsport just because of Formula One.
One day in February 2024, I asked my dad if we could go to London to see the 2024 F1 McLaren car in the Reiss pop-up shop on Barrett Street. It was a greyish but mild Saturday morning when we turned up and saw it in all its glory.
One of my fondest memories is staying there and just looking at the car. I wanted to touch it and feel it so terribly. I knew from that moment on I wanted to be around those cars as a job. Little did I know, that car would be the Constructors’ championship winner at the end of the season.
I decided to create an ode to this sport, paying it back for all it has done for me. I wanted to write about it. I wanted to do something that showcased my numerous passions.
So in early 2024, at the age of 14, I made the framework for my blog. I needed a clever little name, a pun almost. There was a phrase that I could adapt. My family approved.
So from that day forth, Shift Happens was formed. It started off slow - very slow. I think my first blog post was about Nico Hulkenberg’s move to Sauber for the 2025 season. It felt so great that I was putting myself out there.
I wrote an article for every session. I watched every practice, qualifying, Sprint, and race. Reflected on the race weekend, looked ahead to the next. I was making graphics that I put on my Instagram, I made TikToks to promote it. A couple went pretty viral on there. I’d like to think they are funny and follow all the latest trends, but others may beg to differ…
My new hobby grew fat through social media. A couple TikToks got big, my writing went off on numerous tangents, my skills were developing and I fell in love with blogging about this glorious sport. At the same time I was building my portfolio, showcasing my talent, and giving myself hope and motivation for the future.
Highlight of my time on F1 Shift Happens? Developing my writing by coming up with ideas for longer pieces. I document and analyse racing incidents, write about the past, infer what we have seen in the present, and look to the future. It feels so nerdy to just go off on a whim in a long essay!
You can find the link to my blog here: https://f1shifthappens.co.uk
All my socials are here too if you want to have a look!
TikTok - @f1.shift_happens
Instagram -https://www.instagram.com/shift.happens_f1/
Thank you for reading about my journey. I do hope you find my blog interesting :)