Formula 1 is undeniably a culture unto itself; the fastest cars in the world rushing past paddocks packed with fashion models and the fabulously wealthy.  The 2026 season will see the most watched motorsport in the world travel to 24 unique circuits in 21 nations.  While much of the focus of the hundreds of millions of fans will certainly be on the cars, the drivers, and the results, these essays will focus on the fabled heritage sites which will flash across the background of your screen.  In Monaco, drivers zip past the eleventh-century Sainte-Dévote Chapel on the first corner, while the Autodromo Nazione Monza entirely resides on the grounds of the town's Royal Villa, a neoclassical marvel built by the Hapsburgs. The walls of Baku’s Old City, a place where humans have lived since the Paleolithic, are encircled by the narrowest strips of tarmac in Formula 1, between Turns 7 and 19 of the Baku City Circuit.  In Singapore, the drivers, and fans, enjoy a view of considerably more modern marvels, twenty-first century architectural icons such as the eponymous Marina Bay Sands Resort and futuristic Gardens by the Bay.    

I would like to encourage you to consider such sites every time you watch a race.  After all, although they serve as aesthetic backdrops to theatre of Formula 1 one weekend a year, these heritage sites and spaces are integral parts of the cultural fabric of their homes, and of human excellence and innovation in its own right – much like the engines, wings, and halos, of the fastest cars ever made.