Formula One racing: Encyclopedia II - Formula One racing - Race

Formula One racing - Race

See Formula One regulations for detailed information on the race start procedure.

The race itself is held on Sunday afternoon. Thirty minutes prior to race time, the cars take to the track for any number of warm-up laps, after which the cars are assembled on the starting grid in the order they qualified. 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 tire warmup and system checks. The cars then return to their assigned grid spot for the standing race start. The starting light system, which consists of five pairs of lights mounted above the start/finish line, then lights up each pair at one second intervals. Once all five pairs are illuminated, after a random length of time (no more than a few seconds) the red lights are turned off by the race director, at which point the race starts. Races are 305 kilometres long (apart from the Monaco Grand Prix, which is 78 laps / 260.5 km), though occasionally some races are truncated due to special circumstances. A race can last for no longer than two hours.

Drivers usually make pitstops for fuel more than once during a race. The cars, on average, get around 2 kilometres per litre. Tire changes, after a year's absence, are once again allowed during pit stops. Timing pitstops with reference to other cars is crucial - if they are following another car but are unable to pass, drivers will pit early in the expectation that when they rejoin the race they will end up in a clear area of track where they will be able to drive as fast as they can go, and thus make up overall time and pass the other car "in the pits".

At the end of the race, the first-, second-, and third-placed drivers take their places on a podium, where they stand as the national anthem of the race winner's home country and that of his team is played. Dignitaries from the country hosting the race then present trophies to the drivers and a constructor's trophy to a representative from the winner's team, and the winning drivers spray each other and the fans with champagne. The three drivers then go to a media room for a press conference where they answer questions in English and their native languages.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Race", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki