Format of a Race Weekend - The Practice Sessions

 

As you may have noticed, Formula 1 weekends do not constitute of just the race on Sundays, but also Practice, Qualifying and more recently, something going by the name of a ‘Sprint’ race. Now, in the next few posts I’ll walk you through each of the type of sessions and how they’re important. Let’s start with the first sessions of the weekend – the Practice sessions.

Now contrary to the name, the drivers in the cars do not need practice of the circuit as they’ll already have hammered in numerous hours in simulators back at team bases. The real use of Practice sessions is to allow the Formula 1 team to set up its car for the best possible Qualifying as well race pace. Formula 1 teams use the Practice 1, 2 and 3 sessions over the course of Fridays and early Saturdays to fully understand parameters such as the cars’ fuel consumption, tyre degradation, etc.

Of course, the drivers at the same time, do not slack off in the cockpit and use the Practice sessions as a launchpad to finetune their brake bias, their lines through various corners and deliver their assessment of the car to their respective teams.

Each Practice session is an hour long and hence as it has always been in the fast-paced world of racing – time is of the essence. Missing a single Practice session may put even the big teams at a serious disadvantage. This might possibly leave the team in doubt over how much fuel to load into their vehicle before the Grand Prix, or when they can pit their drivers for new tires. This can prove to be a major hindrance as it may leave a driver out on slow tires and act as the architect of his journey from say the midfield towards the back of the pack.

So, in a nutshell, Practice sessions help Formula 1 teams to plan their strategies and set up their race cars in accordance with the preference of their drivers to yield the best Qualifying and race pace.

Photo by alban villain: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ferrari-sf-23-racing-car-on-the-track-17809274/