In 2017, F1 racing won’t be the hottest race event anymore, here’s why

Last Updated on 2016-05-20 , 9:38 am

Tired of watching the repetitive races of Formula One every year? It can be a little boring to watch (or at least try to) cars flying past at high speeds accompanied with the same, old car engine roars. A ticket to the F1 race is pretty hefty, and most of the time, you’re paying to join in the hype with the crowd and see blurs speeding past your seat. If you’re sick and tired of not seeing a proper race, then you have to hear about this.

There’s a new thing called the World Drone Prix, and when we heard about it, we couldn’t help but want to write about it because it’s just that awesome. During the World Drone Prix last weekend, Dubai announced that it will host the World Future Sports Games in 2017 in an effort to stimulate innovation and help contribute to research and technological developments.

The event boasts incredibly futuristic sports where they took regular sports concepts and combined them with advance technology. These include driver-less car racing, robotic runs, robotic swims, robotic wrestling and of course, the main point of this article, drone racing.

When it comes to drone racing, think about flying robots with cameras on them. These cameras provides the live stream camera feed from the drones. As a drone racer, one possesses a first-person-view (FPV) perspective through their drone when they put on a virtual reality (VR) style headset or goggles.

Hand-eye coordination is key as drone racers control their aircraft with a hand-held remote to perform a range of daring manoeuvres and compete against one another to complete a set course as quickly as possible with obstacles they need to fly through, around, under and over.

Remember those video games you used to play where you have to race through the air and dodge obstacles? Now, just imagine that it is not a game – at least not one with fake landscapes and a ‘restart’ button. If you crash, you crash and it is time to repair your aircraft or buy a new frame as replacement for it.

Drone racing is essentially a game-like action sport that allows the drone racer to fly the aircraft at speeds up to a hundred over kilometers per hour in actual, real places. For thrill-seekers, this could very well be an action game which contains all the adrenaline of flight as one tries to avoid crashes and collisions, without the risk of actually getting injured unlike in a F1 race.

That being said, do not underestimate the potential injuries a drone can cause to others – flying this robot can be dangerous when flown too low or too far away from the source. Remember, it is an aircraft, not a toy.

Speaking of futuristic development, what we really want is probably a food printer that gives us food immediately without the cooking time, or a teleport portal, which means no more getting up early for work or school.

Till then, why not look forward to the upcoming World Future Sports Games that will be held in Dubai, recognised as the City of Gold, where we can watch the experts do their thing!