Formula 1 Race Rules & More
Most Importantly, Flags and their meanings
Tire Compounds for 2021
Dry Compound:
Softs (Red): Fastest Tires in the dry compound but wear out fairly quickly.
Hards (White): Slowest Tire in the dry compound but take a long time to wear out.
Mediums (Yellow): A mix between the hards and the softs. They are in the middle. Medium speed and medium wear.
Wet Compound:
Wets (Blue): Used when there is heavy rain. They provide great grip when the conditions are heavy rain but overheat when it is light rain or it is dry.
Intermediates (Green): Used when there is light rain on track. They skip when it is heavily raining and they overheat in dry conditions.
(Wear out means lose grip. When grip is lost, some track time will be lost as well)
Below I have a video that explains all the flags and their meanings, directly from Formula 1
Championship Points and how they are applied
P1: 25 Points
P2: 18 Points
P3:15 Points
P4:12 Points
P5:10 Points
P6:8 Points
P7:6 Points
P8:4 Points
P9:2 Points
P10:1 Point
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P11 & Below: 0 Points
Fastest lap when finishing 10th or above:1 Point
('P' means Position. So If Someone is currently first, they are in P1.)
Press here To watch the video since I can't put it on the website or it gets taken down.
Safety Car & Virtual Safety Car
The Formula 1 Safety Car. The Safety car in F1 plays a huge role. When there is a big accident which causes a car or debris to be stranded on the track, the safety car is called out. The safety car basically slows down the pack of cars and makes them line up right behind each other in a line. Now when the cars are slowed down, the debris on track can be removed by marshalls. The safety car usually lasts 2 to 3 laps but if it's a big accident, it could last up to 5 or 6 laps.
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The Virtual Safety car is also the same thing, but as you can guess, it's virtual. This means that the accident wasn't that big and no safety car has to come out. It slows the cars down but doesn't make them line up. They all have to go at a slow yet similar speed until the debris is removed. After the debris is removed, the VSC goes away and the drivers can go up to normal racing speeds.
(If a driver does not slow down or is going faster than the required delta [Delta is time] they are handed a penalty.)
Pit STOPS
Pit stops in Formula 1. They are simple to understand. A pitstop in formula 1 is when a car comes into the pit lane for new tires. If you don't know, I recommend you read the tires part a few topics above. So when the tires of a formula one car wear out, the car needs new tires to get more grip and also so that the tires don't get a puncture from wearing out too much. So what a pit stop is, is basically a car comes into the pitlane and gets new tires. There are many people working on one car on a pitstop and one failed or slow pitstop could cause someone to lose a position or more. The main part of the pitstop where the tires are changed takes around 2.0 to 3.5 seconds.
If the front wing is damaged and needs to be replaced, that could add 5 to 7 more seconds to your main pitstop. All pitlanes have a speed limit and that's why pitstops in total have a time around 15 to 25 seconds depending on which pitlane it is as different tracks have different max speeds and lengths. To watch the fastest pitstop ever in formula 1, click here.