The Hidden Optical Illusion in the Formula 1 Logo Is Tearing Us Apart

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports

A while ago, a friend of mine, Ben, sent me an email.

Titled "mind blown", Ben's email contained a link to a Reddit page concerning the Formula 1 logo, which is displayed below:

What do you see when you look at this logo? Do you see a black F and a swooshy red 1? Many people do. Ben saw it. I see it. Our food channel, Munchies, see it. If you see it too, that's fine – the logo does show a black F and what looks like a sort of swooshy red 1.

However, the Reddit page is titled: " The red part in the Formula 1 logo is not the '1'." Fix your gaze between the black and red areas and another, more traditional 1 appears. Can you see it? Keep looking and… yes! It's a bit like a magic eye puzzle for people who can't do magic eye puzzles. This is the actual, intended logo.

If you can't see it, you're not alone – there are those who have watched F1 for years and not noticed it. 1996 world champion Damon Hill has literally no idea that it's there*, hiding in plain sight.

Damon pictured looking for the magic 1, possibly // PA Images

However, VICE Sports UK staff writer Will Magee can only see the black F and the 'magic 1' next to it. He can not see the red 1; to Will, this is merely a colourful swooshy shape meant to convey the speed that grand prix racing is famous for, and nothing else.

Perhaps warming to his new role as a sports logo truther, Will contends that the red area looks literally nothing like any 1 he has ever seen and grows angry at our insistence that it sort of does, actually. Even when confronted with several of his peers who see F1 written twice, he considers the black F and the 1 immediately next to it to be the only truth. Everything else is blasphemy.

I believe there to be multiple truths – both views are correct. Obviously the red 1 isn't a standard presentation of the number, but it is sufficiently similar that, when you know you're looking at the Formula 1 logo, your brain interprets it thus.

Warming to my new role as a pseudo philosopher, I would suggest that we do not see what is really there, but rather what we believe we should be seeing. Which begs the question: how much of our world is true to reality, and how much is an interpretation formed by our personal beliefs and prejudices? What even is 'reality'? Ultimately, the freedom to shape our own world is something that everyone has a right to.

Except for Will, who I truly believe is just trying to wind me up.

* While this may very well be true we do not actually know it for a fact.

@Jimmy_Weeks