Formula One, also known simply as F1, is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

Whether you are a new fan wanting to learn about the series before the start of the 2025 season, or you are a returning fan wanting a refresh before the grid next take to the track, this article will help you learn the basics of the circus that is ‘Formula One’.

Super Licence

Any drivers who wish to compete in Formula 1 need to hold a current Super Licence – a qualification that is issued by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, based on a series of requirements they need to meet.

Any driver wishing to obtain a Super Licence needs to be a holder of a current FIA International Grade A licence, hold a valid driving licence and be at least 18 years old at the start of their first F1 competition. They will also have to complete a knowledge test on the International Sporting Code and F1 Sporting Regulations, whilst also having completed at least 80% of two separate seasons from a range of certified single-seater championships, including but not limited to: FIA Formula 2, FIA Formula 3, IndyCar, FIA Formula E Championship, FIA WEC etc.

Alongside completing these seasons, a driver needs to accumulate at least 40 ’points’ on their respective path to Formula 1, with the FIA considering either the three-year period preceding the year of application, or the two-year period preceding the year of application, in addition to the points accumulated in that respective year.

If a driver leaves the sport and wishes to return to Formula One, as long as they return within a three-year period, they can be considered for a renewal “at the sole determination of the FIA to have recently and consistently demonstrated ability in single-seater formula cars”.

Additionally, the Formula 1 team a driver wishes to join must show that the driver has completed at least 300km in a representative F1 car “consistently at racing speeds” over no more than two days and not more than 180 days prior to the application. This can be certified by wither the sporting authority of the country where the test took place or during an F1 World Championship event.

There are a few other ways a driver can add to their Super Licence tallies in addition to finishing within the top-ten of their respective championship, including:

• For a FIA Championship where a penalty points system is in place, any drive that completes in a whole Championship without being given any penalty points is granted an additional two points on top of their sporting results.
• The winner of the FIA F3 World Cup is granted an additional five points on top of their sporting result.
• If a driver holds a Free Practice Only Super Licence, they can be granted one additional point per FIA Formula One World Championship event following the successful completion of at least 100km during a free practice session, given that no penalty points were imposed. A maximum total of 10 additional points will be considered for a Super Licence Application.

F1 Engines

Power units and Exhausts

All drivers have an allocated number of times they can change certain components of the power units and gearboxes over the season, with grid penalties to follow if those limits are breached. 

Currently the F1 power units feature several elements that can be changed: the internal combustion engine (ICE), motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), turbocharger, energy store (ES), control electronics (CE), and the exhaust.

Below is the allocations allowed per driver for each of these components:

Component	Allocation for the Season
Internal combustion engine (ICE)	4
Motor generator units-heat (MGU-H)	4
Motor generator units-kinetic (MGU-K)	4
Turbocharger	4
Energy store (ES)	2
Control electronics (CE)	2
Exhaust	8

In the event that a driver uses more power unit elements than the numbers allocated above, a grid penalty is imposed at the first event where each additional element is used.

The first time the allocation of any of these elements is exceeded, a driver will receive a 10-place grid penalty, with the second time it occurs (and so on) resulting in a five-place grid drop – all penalties at the same event apply cumulatively.

If a driver receives a penalty exceeding 15 grid places, they will be required to start the race at the back of the grid. If a driver is classified in qualifying and has received 15 of fewer cumulative grid place penalties, they will be allocated a “temporary” grid position that is equal to their qualifying classification. For example, if a driver qualifies 10th and have penalties totalling 15 spots, they will be placed in a temporary starting position of 25th on the grid – in the event two or more drivers share the same temporary position, the driver who placed higher initially in qualifying will start ahead and so on.

Gearboxes

Drivers are also limited in terms of how many restricted-number components (RNCs) they can use during a season. These are components that make up the gearbox and are split between the gearbox case and cassette, and the gearbox driveline, gear change components and auxiliary components.

Below are the allocated number of components allowed per driver:

Component	Allocation for the season
Gearbox case and cassette	4
Gearbox driveline, gearchange components and auxiliary components	4

As with the power units, drivers have a ‘pool’ of four gearboxes that can be swapped during the season, with penalties being given only when a driver exceeds their allocation. The first time the allocation of either components is exceeded, a five-place grid penalty will be given – a maximum total of 10-place grid penalty can be awarded if the allocation of both sets of components are exceeded at once.

Race Weekend

Free Practice

The first practice session (known as FP1 – Free Practice 1) typically occurs on the Friday and is used to make sure the car works and behaves as it should, whilst drivers also get a feel for the track and start thinking about changes to their set-up. This session lasts for one hour.

The second practice session (FP2) also takes place on the Friday, normally in the afternoon, and generally sees longer stints on the track as the drivers begin to prepare for the race. Some parts of this session are used for qualifying simulation runs when the conditions are right. This session lasts for one hour.

The third practice session (FP3) takes place on the Saturday morning before qualifying, with the drivers tending to focus on shorter runs to get themselves prepared for Qualifying. This session lasts for one hour.

Each driver must also vacate their seat for one FP1 session per season due to the teams being required to field a rookie driver who hasn’t yet completed more than two F1 races.

Qualifying

Historically, F1 has used various different forms of qualifying including: a one-hour shootout – although this was scrapped due to teams not running in the early stages to optimise track conditions, and pre-qualifying – due to the high number of entries, the worst-performing teams had to pre-qualify to then enter the main qualifying session.

The current qualifying system was introduced in the 2006 season and is known as “knock-out” qualifying. It is split into three periods, known as Q1, Q2, and Q3. In each period, driver run qualifying laps in an attempt to advance into the next period, with the slowest 5 drivers being “knocked out” of qualification and their grid positions are set within the further 5 positions based on their best lap times.

In any period, drivers are allowed to complete as many laps as they wish, with the times being reset at the end of each portion, and only their fastest lap (barring infractions) in that period counts.

Currently, with 20 cars on the grid, Q1 runs for 18 minutes, and eliminates the slowest five drivers. During this period, any driver whose fastest lap takes longer than 107% of the fastest time in Q1 will not be allowed to start the race without the permission of the stewards. In Q2, the 15 remaining driver have 15 minutes to set one of the ten fastest times and proceed to the next period. The 107% rule does not affect this period. Finally, Q3 lasts for 12 minutes with the remaining ten drivers battling to set their fastest time and determine the first ten grid positions.

Each car is allocated one set of the softest tyres for use in Q3. The cars that make their way into the Q3 period have to return these tyres, however those who do not qualify for Q3 have the option to use them during the race. As of 2022, all drivers are given the choice of which tyre they wish to use for the start of the race.

Race Day

The race begins with a warm-up lap, after which the cars make their way to the grid in their starting order. This lap is often referred to as the formation lap, allowing the drivers to check the condition of the track and their car, gives the tyres a chance to warm-up to increase traction and grip, and also gives the pit crews time to clear themselves and their equipment from the grid for the race start.

Once all the cars have formed up on the grid, and the medical car takes it’s place at the back of the grid, a light system above the start line indicates the beginning of the race: five red lights are illuminated at intervals of one second; they are all then extinguished simultaneously after an unspecified time (typically less than 3 seconds).

The start procedure may be abandoned if a driver stalls on the grid or on the track in an unsafe position, signalled by raising their arm. If this occurs, the procedure restarts: a new formation lap will begin with the offending car being removed from the grid. The race may also be restarted in the event of a serious accident or dangerous conditions, with the original start being voided. The race may also be started from behind the Safety Car if race control feels a racing start would be excessively dangerous, such as extremely heavy rainfall.

Under normal circumstances, the winner of the race is the first driver to cross the finish line having completed a set number of laps. The race officials can end the race early (by using the red flags) due to unsafe conditions such as extreme rainfall, and it must finish within two hours, although races are only likely to reach this long in the case of extreme weather or if the safety car is deployed during the race.

Championship points awarded in a Grand Prix race:

Place	Points
1st	25
2nd	18
3rd	15
4th	12
5th	10
6th	8
7th	6
8th	4
9th	2
10th	1

Throughout the race, drivers are able to make pit stops to change their tyres and repair any damage their car may have sustained – from 1994 to 2009, they also had the option to refuel the cars. Different teams and drivers will use different pit stop strategies in order to maximise their car’s potential.

There are three dry compound tyres that are made available to the drivers during the race, with different durability and adhesion characteristics, and it is compulsory for the drivers to use two of the three available compounds. These different tyres have different colours on their sidewalls to allow spectators to understand what strategies the drivers are using.

When racing in wet conditions, the drivers may switch to one of two specialised wet weather tyres with additional grooves – one “intermediate” for mild wet conditions such as after recent rain, and one “full wet” for racing in or immediately after rain.

F1 Sprint Race

On a Sprint weekend, two of the practice sessions that normally take place on a race weekend are deleted and replaced. A Sprint Qualifying session replaces FP2 on Friday to determine the grid for the Sprint.

The Sprint Qualifying is split into three stages similar to the regular Qualifying session, although these are dubbed SQ1, SQ2 and SQ3 – lasting for 12 minutes, 10 minutes and 8 minutes respectively. The five slowest drivers are eliminated after SQ1, before five more drop out from SQ2 – setting the grid positions from 20th up to 11th in the Sprint. The remaining 10 drivers compete in SQ3 to determine the top 10 grid slots, with the fastest driver starting from pole position in Saturday’s race.

On the Saturday, the Sprint race covers 100km – about one-third of a typical Grand Prix distance – and lasts around 30 minutes. The length was chosen to encourage a race that is more dynamic instead of strategic. There are no mandatory pit stops as the race distance is too short for tyre changes to be effective.

Championship points awarded in an F1 Sprint:

Place	Points
1st	8
2nd	7
3rd	6
4th	5
5th	4
6th	3
7th	2
8th	1

More Common Questions:

Race Director

You might hear every so often the commentators refer to the “Race Director”. This role involves managing the logistics of each F1 Grand Prix, inspecting cars in parc ferme before a race, enforcing the FIA rules, and controlling the lights which signal the start of each race.

As head of the race officials, the race director also plays a large role in resolving disputes among teams and drivers. They may also refer incidents during the race to the stewards, who may award penalties, such as drive-through penalties, demotions on a pre-race start grid, race disqualifications and fines should parties break the regulations.

Safety Car

In the event of an incident that risks the safety or competitors or trackside race marshals, race officials may choose to deploy the safety car. This in effect suspends the race, with drivers following the safety car around the track at its speed in race order, with no overtaking permitted. Cars that have been lapped may be allowed to un-lap themselves – during the safety car period and depending on circumstances permitted by the race director – in order to ensure a smooth restart and to avoid blue flags being immediately thrown upon the resumption of the race.

The safety car will circulate the track until the danger is cleared, with the race restarting with a rolling start after it has come back into the pits. Pit stops are allowed under the safety car and is deemed mostly beneficial to provide an advantage to teams as it limits the amount of time lost due to pit speed limits. On the lap in which the safety car returns to the pit lane, the leading car takes over the role of the safety car until the timing line, after which the drivers are allowed to start racing for track position once again.

Flags

Green Flag – is used to indicate that the track is clear, whether this is at the start of a warm-up lap, practice session, or immediately after an incident that needed the use of one or more yellow flags.

Yellow Flag – is a signal of danger and can be shown to drivers in two ways.

Single waved:	Double waved:
Drivers need to reduce speed, cannot overtake and must be prepared to change direction, due to a hazard beside or partly on the track (it must be evident that a driver has reduced their speed during the relevant sector/s).	Drivers need to reduce their speed significantly, cannot overtake and must be prepared to change direction or stop, due to a hazard wholly or partly blocking the track and/or marshals working on or beside the track

Yellow/Red Striped Flag – remains motionless and is shown to inform drivers that there has been a deterioration in grip levels due to oil or water on the track up ahead.

Blue Flag – used to inform a driver that they are about to be overtaken but differs across sessions. At all times it is shown to inform a driver leaving the pits that traffic is approaching. During practice it is shown to inform a driver that a faster car is close behind and is about to overtake. During the race it is shown to a driver who is about to be lapped – when shown the driver concerned must allow the follow cars to pass at the earliest opportunity and, if three warnings are ignored, they will be penalised.

White Flag – used to inform the driver that there is a much slower vehicle ahead, and is sometimes seen at the end of practice session whilst drivers complete practice starts.

Red Flag – waved at the start line – and at each marshal post around the circuit – when officials have decided to stop a practice session, qualifying session or race, with reasons ranging from a serious incident to poor weather conditions. In practice and qualifying, all drivers are required to reduce their speed and proceed slowly back to their respective pit garages, whilst in the race, all drivers are required to reduce their speed and proceed slowly to the pitlane, line up at the exit and await instructions.

Black Flag – used to disqualify a driver and orders them to return to their pit garage at once. Decision rests solely with the stewards.

Black and White Flag – shown as a warning to a driver that they have been reported for unsportsmanlike behaviour. It is accompanied by the driver’s race number – which also applies to the black flag and black flag with an orange disc.

Black Flag with Orange Disc (Meatball Flag) – is used to inform a driver that their car has mechanical problems which are likely to pose a danger to themselves or others, and means they must stop in the pits as soon as possible.

Chequered Flag – waved from above the pit wall, marks the end of any practice session, qualifying session or race, and is waved until all competing cars have reached it.