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 (one to nine seconds), the red lights are turned off by the race director, at which point the race starts. The race length is defined as the smallest number of complete laps that exceeds 305 kilometers (the Monaco Grand Prix is the sole exception with a race length of 78 laps / 260.5 km), though occasionally some races are truncated due to special circumstances. The race can not exceed two hours in length; if this interval is reached the race will be ended at the end of that lap.
Teams are supplied by the sole tyre supplier (currently Pirelli which replaced Bridgestone in 2011), and receive two different types of slick dry tyre compounds: "Prime" tyres (offiically the Hard or Medium compounds), and "Option" tyres (Soft and Super-soft compounds). The Prime tyres are more durable than the Option tyres, however the Option tyres produce faster lap times than the Prime tyres (the Option tyres are said to be one second per lap quicker than the Prime tyres, though this figure varies between circuits). While the drivers who qualified between first and tenth are required to use the tyres they qualified with to start the race; the other drivers have freedom over which tyres they can start with, which can give those who qualified in eleventh and twelfth place a slight advantage over those placed ninth and tenth in the race. Each driver is also required to use both types of dry compound during a dry race, and so must make a mandatory pit-stop.
Drivers used to make pitstops for fuel more than once during a race though refuelling during the race has been banned for the 2010 season. The cars, on average, get around two kilometres per litre (approximately five miles per gallon). Timing pitstops with reference to other cars is crucial - if they are following another car but are unable to pass, the driver may try to stay on the track as long as possible, as usually a car with worn tyres and low fuel load is faster than a car with new tyres and heavy fuel load.
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.
Read more about this topic: Formula One Racing
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“I never feel so conscious of my race as I do when I stand before a class of twenty-five young men and women eager to learn about what it is to be black in America.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American college professor. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B3 (July 27, 1994)
“Surely, then, the gods who are most interested in the human race preside over the Tavern, where especially men congregate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For now indeed is the race of iron; and men never cease from labour and sorrow by day and from perishing by night.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)