About Formula One
Formula One, or F1, is the top level of motorsport in the world.
How it works:
It basically works as any other sport you may watch where it spans over the course of a "season" and they compete in various races throughout the season.
For example, the National Basketball Association (NBA) season is from October to April. Since it is 2022 right now, their season would be called the 2022-2023 season since it spans over two different years. Similarly, the F1 season is from March to November every year, this year, they are in the 2022 season. The NBA has 30 teams within the league from various parts of the US and Canada. F1 has 10 teams based around the world. Each NBA team has a roster of players to represent their team, and each F1 has 2 drivers to represent their team. Every few days, the teams compete in basketball games to fight their way through the standings. Each team plays 82 games a season. F1's version of competition is through a race every few weeks called a "Grand Prix." There are usually 22 races a season. These races are occur all over the globe as opposed to staying in one continent for the entire season.
Additionally, there are a lot more events to watch that lead up to the Grand Prixs on Sundays. Races are actually race weekends that last from Friday to Sunday.
What is a race weekend?
A race week in an F1 season means there is a Grand Prix at the end of that week. The race weekend is that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday which consists of 3 free practices, a qualifying round, and the Grand Prix race.
Free Practice
Free Practice is a 1 hour practice round that allows the drivers get a feel for the race circuit and practice driving on it. There are 3 rounds of free practice, usually called FP1, FP2, and FP3. FP1 and FP2 take place on Fridays, and FP3 takes place on Saturday before qualifying. The drivers get to have timed laps, or "flying laps," where the drivers go all out to try and record the best times for each round. These times can represent who has the best pace, or lap time, going into the weekend. These are just practice rounds though so their times do not impact what occurs on Sunday unlike Qualifying.
Qualifying
Qualifying, or quali, is the round on Saturdays where the drivers drive to determine their starting place on the track for the official race the next day. It works like this:
There are 3 sessions in a qualifying round that are knockout style: Q1, Q2, and Q3.
Q1
These 3 sessions are basically knockout rounds where in Q1, every driver has 18 minutes to record the fastest time for that session. The drivers do not have to be on track and "racing" for the entire 18 minutes. Sometimes drivers will be in the pits getting their car checked, saving fuel, driving to warmup their tires, etc. Once they are ready to try and record a time, they go on "flying laps" which are the timed laps. They can go on as many flying laps as they want, as long as they do it within 18 minutes; however, they usually don't do flying laps back-to-back because they usually want to allow their their tires cool down or return to the pits. The drivers get ranked in order from fastest to slowest, 1st through 20th place respectively.
Then as the 18 minutes tick down, the 5 drivers with the 5 slowest times get knocked out and their starting position for the next day would be 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th place for their respective times (if no one else in the grid has grid penalties). They cannot go onto the next session which is Q2.
Q2
When Q1 is over, there is a 5 minute break where the drivers wait in the pits until Q2 begins, and the 15 drivers that have made it now have 15 minutes to record the fastest time again.
The times from Q1 do not matter anymore, for the drivers just have to try and be the fastest in the current session, but they typically do go faster than
Q1 anyway. Once again, they will go on their flying laps whenever they are ready, but they have to be aware of how much time they have left.
Once 15 minutes go by, the 5 slowest
drivers of this session are knocked out and are respectively placed in 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th place for the official starting lineup.
Q3
When Q2 is over, there is a 5 minute break again until the final session begins, and the remaining 10 now have 12 minutes to record the fastest time once again. They are competing for who gets pole position, or the first starting position in front of all the drivers for Sunday's race. Whoever gets the fastest time gets pole, simple as that. The pressure is put on as the drivers fight to be in front. As the 12 minutes wind down, the drivers go on their final flying laps to try and be as close to the front as possible.
Race Day
Sunday is race day. This is what the entire weekend has led up to, and it is the official Grand Prix. When the race is ready to begin, the drivers lineup on the grid according to what they placed in qualifying the previous day. Before the official countdown to the start, they must do a formation lap first where they just do a single lap around the circuit to warm up their tires and get in formation. Once they finish that lap, they line up again on the grid and wait for countdown to signify that the race has begun.