Qualifying

Before you can race, first you must qualify. The modern qualifying format is very interesting and unique in racing. There are currently 22 cars competing in F1. Where each car starts from in the grid is determined by how fast the car goes in qualifying.

Starting up front is a huge advantage in F1 because overtaking (passing) is difficult. The leading car tends to leave so-called 'dirty' air in its wake, which does two things. One, it creates less drag on the car following, allowing the trailing car to accelerate faster. This is called drafting or slip-streaming. Two, the wake also reduces the effectiveness of the trailing car's wings, leading to less grip which slows the trailing car down in the corners.

Therefore the current overtaking strategy is to try to get a draft on the straights, but then fall back enough in the corners to maintain downforce. The passing move itself almost always comes under braking. The trailing driver will try to brake later than the lead driver, get ahead, and stay ahead out of the corner. Sometimes the trailing driver ends up braking too late and either going too far into the corner, or going off-track. Either means the trailing driver's pass won't stick and he'll have to do it all over again.

Qualifying is done in three 15-minute periods in a format known as 'knock-out'. During each period, cars are free to run on the track, trying to set their best single-lap time. Cars can run as many laps as they want, pit, and change tires. If a car has started a lap when the session ends, the car is allowed to finish its current lap. In the first period, the slowest 6 cars are assigned grid spots 17 to 22 and are excluded from the next two sessions. In session two, again the slowest 6 cars are assigned spots 11 to 16 and excluded from the next session.

In the third and final session, the top 10 cars must declare how much fuel they want to start the race with. After the third session, these cars are allowed to refill their cars to account for the fuel used during the qualifying session. This is where race strategy begins to enter into play. An F1 car can carry around 26 gallons of fuel, which weights about 162 lbs, although the cars are rarely filled to capacity. Each lap on-track burns between 4.8 and 6.5 lbs of fuel. Any reduction in weight results in better laptimes, so the amount of fuel on-board is critical. During sessions 1 and 2 the cars run as little fuel as possible. However, since cars in the final session must start with their race fuel load, they start lapping immediately, trying to burn off as much fuel as possible before trying to post a fast lap.

Once qualifying starts, several rules go into effect, putting the cars in a condition known as parc ferme ('park firm-ay') which is a special area of the paddock were the cars are put after qualifying and the race to ensure they are not touched by the teams. Parc ferme also specifies a set of allowable adjustments to the car. During this, the teams can adjust the front wing angle to put more or less front down-force on the car. They can also attach small blowers to cool the brakes and engine. However little else can be changed on the car once qualifying starts. This is to prevent the teams from building special qualifying parts and then changing them before the race.

Top position in qualifying is called Pole Position (as in pretty much every form of motorsports), and history judges drivers not only on how many wins they scored, but also how many poles they captured and how many fast laps they set. Its considered a 'trifecta' when a driver does all three in one race; a display of total dominance over the rest of the field.