USA Grand Prix

A Formula 1 season is a series of grands prix, each held over a weekend at a different circuit. A normal weekend starts with practice sessions, where teams test the car, learn the track and try different tyres and fuel loads. Qualifying comes next and decides the starting grid. It runs in knockout stages, with the slowest cars dropping out after the early stages and the fastest driver in the last stage taking pole position.

The grand prix itself is the main event. The distance is set as a number of laps that adds up to a little over 300 kilometres (Monaco is shorter), and there is a maximum time limit. The winner is the first driver across the line when the leader completes the race distance, and everyone else is classified by laps completed and then by order.

Some weekends use the sprint format. These have less practice and add a short, flat-out sprint race, held before the main race, which awards a smaller number of points. A qualifying-style session sets the sprint grid. Which weekends are sprint weekends is set on each year's calendar, and the exact programme has changed over the years, so check the schedule for the detail.

There are two championships every season. In the drivers' championship, drivers earn points for finishing near the front in grands prix and sprints, and the driver with the most points at the end is world champion. The constructors' championship adds up the points scored by a team's two drivers, and the team with the most wins. Points go to a set number of top finishers, the winner earns the most, and the scale is steeply weighted to the front. The exact scale has been changed several times, so N4 does not state one here. If drivers are level on points, the tie is broken by who has more wins, then more second places and so on.

A constructor is the team that is entered in the championship, with its own car design and name. Each team runs two cars. The power unit is the engine and the systems attached to it, and it is made by a power unit supplier. Some teams build their own, while others buy theirs from a manufacturer, which means two teams with very different results can share the same supplier. So the car and the engine do not always come from the same company.

Flags and light panels tell drivers what is happening on the track. Yellow means danger ahead, with no overtaking in that area, and double yellow means be ready to stop. Red stops the session and sends every car to the pit lane. Blue tells a driver that a faster car is about to lap them and that they must let it past. The table below shows the main flags.

When an accident or debris is more serious than yellow flags can manage, race control can deploy the safety car. It leads the field at reduced speed, no one may overtake, and the cars bunch up behind it, which wipes out the gaps between them. The virtual safety car (VSC) slows every car by electronic limits without sending out a physical car, so the drivers keep their gaps. Both change the race: a pit stop costs less time when the whole field is slow, so teams often react.

Tyres are one of the biggest strategy tools. Dry tyres come in a range of compounds from softer to harder. A softer tyre grips more and gives faster laps but wears out sooner, while a harder one lasts longer but is slower. There are also intermediate and full wet tyres for damp and rainy conditions. The rules decide how many sets each driver may use, and which compounds must be run, and these details vary by season and by event, so we keep to the principle. In most dry races the rules have required at least two different dry compounds, which forces a pit stop.

A pit stop is a visit to the pit lane for fresh tyres, and sometimes repairs. The crew changes all four wheels in a few seconds, but the whole visit costs much more than the stationary time because the car drives the pit lane at a limited speed. A stint is the run between stops. Teams plan one-stop or multi-stop strategies, and trying to jump ahead by stopping earlier than a rival (an undercut) or later (an overcut) is a classic tactic.

A timing screen lists the cars in order, each with a three-letter driver code, a gap to the leader, an interval to the car ahead and a last lap time. Sector times are coloured: purple is the fastest anyone has gone in that sector, green is a driver's own best, and yellow means no improvement. Look at gaps and tyre information together, because a driver who is 20 seconds behind on older tyres may be in a very different position from one who is 20 seconds behind on fresh ones.

N4's live-now page for Formula 1 shows the same ideas as data. It has a session classification with times or gaps, laps, the starting grid position and places gained or lost, points and the finishing status. It also shows the grid, a pace view of fastest laps ranked with the gap to the best, pit stops with each driver's number of stops, the laps they came in and the quickest stop, plus the circuit and the championship table. Each grand prix has its own page with every session of the weekend, including practice, qualifying, any sprint and the race.

N4 is not a live timing screen. The data comes from the data provider, is stored by N4, and can lag the television picture. Where there is no data for a session yet, the page says so rather than guessing.