Formula One racing

Historically, the Monaco Grand Prix held practice on Thursday rather than Friday (up to and including 2021), and the whole schedule for the Las Vegas (starting from its inaugural event in 2023), Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix (in 2024 only) is brought forward by one day.

In addition in 2021, cars are now put under parc fermé conditions after the third practice session instead of qualifying.

[1] The second practice session for the Bahrain, Singapore and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix takes place in the evening, as these races are run at night.

[6] From the 2005 European Grand Prix onwards, the Sunday morning session was dropped for a single run on Saturday afternoon having proved unpopular with drivers, teams and broadcasters.

At the end of Q1, the five slowest drivers are eliminated from further qualification rounds, and fill positions sixteen to twenty on the grid based on their fastest lap time.

After a short break, the second period (Q2) (15 minutes long) begins, with fifteen cars on the circuit.

Finally, the driver will continue back around the track and re-enter the pit lane (the in-lap); however, this is merely strategy, and no teams are obliged by the rules to follow this formula, as drivers may elect to set several flying laps before returning to the pits.

Pre-qualifying was discontinued after the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix when many small teams withdrew from the sport.

[citation needed] In 2003, the qualifying procedure changed to a single-lap system, rendering the rule inoperable.

[9][19] Since the rule was re-introduced, only twice have cars failed to qualify for a Grand Prix – both times involving Hispania Racing cars and both times occurring at the Australian Grand Prix, namely in 2011 (Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan) and 2012 (Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa).

After eleven drivers failed to set satisfactory Q1 times at the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix due to inclement weather, the regulations were amended in 2018 so that wet sessions were not subject to the 107% rule.

Drivers or cars may be issued penalties against their starting positions, commonly for exceeding component limits, or sporting offences in free practice, qualifying, or a previous race.

The top three finishers in sprint qualifying in 2021 received World Championship points in a 3–2–1 scoring system.

[23][24] These plans were abandoned after teams failed to agree on the cost-cap considerations for additional sprint events.

Unlike the 2021 season, the driver who set the fastest time in qualifying was credited as the official pole-sitter (unless penalised), with the winner of the sprint continuing to have the right to start the main race from the first-place grid position.

[28] These plans were approved a few days before the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – the first of the six events on the 2023 calendar to feature the sprint format.

The sprint will then be the first session to take place on Saturday, followed by qualifying for the main race.

This is intended to allow teams to fine tune their cars between the end of the sprint and the start of Grand Prix qualifying.

Thirty minutes prior to race time, the cars take to the track for any number of warm-up laps (formally known as reconnaissance laps), provided they pass through the pit lane and not the grid, after which they assemble on the starting grid in the order they qualified.

[34] At the hour of the race, a green light signifies the beginning of the relatively slow formation lap during which all cars parade around the course doing a final tyre warmup and system checks.

[37] At the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, the three hour countdown was stopped with force majeure being cited.

Prior to the 2010 season, drivers used to make pit stops for fuel more than once during a race, as the cars on average traveled two kilometres per litre (approximately five miles per gallon).

Nowadays this figure is higher, due to changes in engines from 2014, and as a result refuelling has been forbidden during a race since 2010.

[40] If a driver starts the race using intermediate or wet tyres, they are not mandated to make a pit stop.

The three drivers then go to a media room for a press conference where they answer questions in English and their native languages.

With the advent of the Concorde Agreements, this practice has been discontinued, though it did feature prominently in several world championships through the 1970s and 1980s, primarily in 1988 when Alain Prost scored a total of 105 points to Ayrton Senna's 94, but due to only the best 11 results counting towards the World Championship, Senna won, with the final points tally being 90–87.