Formula One cars wind through the infield section of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the 2003 United States Grand Prix

Current Season Summary: 2007 Formula One season Image File history File links Formula One cars wind through the infield section of Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the 2003 United States Grand Prix, by Rick Dikeman File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Formula One cars wind through the infield section of Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the 2003 United States Grand Prix, by Rick Dikeman File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Formula One - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana (a separate town completely surrounded by Indianapolis) in the United States, is the second-oldest surviving automobile racing track in the world (after the Milwaukee Mile), having existed since 1909, and the original Speedway, the first racing facility historically to incorporate the word. ... Summary Michael Schumacher took a huge step toward his record-breaking sixth drivers championship by winning the 2003 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis by 18. ... The United States Grand Prix is a motor racing event which has taken place at various times since 1959 in several locations, at first as a part of the American Grand Prize series and later as a race in the Formula One World Championship. ... 2007 Formula One season - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Articles related to Formula One: History of Formula One Formula One regulations Formula One cars Formula One racing Future of Formula One Formula One - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Formula One has its roots in the European Grand Prix motor racing ( for pre-1947 history) of the 1920s and 1930s. ... The numerous Formula One regulations, made and enforced by the FIA and later the FISA, have changed dramatically since the first Formula One World Championship in 1950. ... A modern Formula One car is a single-seat, open cockpit, open wheel race car with substantial front and rear wings, and engine positioned behind the driver. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Lists: Drivers (Champions) Constructors (Champions) Pointscoring system Grands Prix | Circuits Records | Engines Colors | Racing flags Other People | TV Broadcasters Fatal Accidents Drivers who never qualified This is a list of Formula One drivers; that is, a list of all drivers who have entered a Formula One Championship Grand Prix since 1950. ... The Formula One World Drivers Championship (WDC) is awarded by the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile (FIA) to the most successful Formula One race car driver over a season, as determined by a points system based on Grand Prix results. ... The following is a list of constructors which have competed or plan to compete in the Formula One World Championship. ... The Formula One World Constructors Championship (WCC) is awarded by the FIA to the most successful Formula One constructor over a season, as determined by a points system based on Grand Prix results. ... This is a list of pointscoring systems used to determine the outcome of the Formula One World Drivers and Constructors Championships since 1950. ... The following is a complete list of Grands Prix which have been a part of the FIA World Championship since its inception in 1950. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This is a list of records in Formula One, since 1950. ... Since its inception in 1947, Formula 1 has used a variety of engine regulations. ... From the 1920s until the late 1960s, before sponsorship liveries came in use, vehicles competing in Formula One, sports car racing, touring car racing and other international auto racing competitions customarily painted their cars in racing colors (which sometimes resembled political national colours). ... Racing flags are traditionally used in auto racing and similar motorsports to communicate important messages to drivers. ... The following people play or have played significant roles in Formula One: // Administration Jo Bauer, FIA Formula One Technical Delegate Bernie Ecclestone, owner, promoter, and president of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration Gary Hartstein, race doctor and first responder to crashes Bernd Maylander, driver of the Safety car... This is a List of Formula One broadcasters and World Feed producers. ... This is a list of Formula One fatal accidents, which consists of all the drivers who have died during a FIA World Championship race weekend, or elsewhere while driving a Formula One car. ... This is a complete list of drivers, currently 65, who have entered a FIA Formula One World Championship race since 1950, yet failed to qualify for the race. ...

This article focuses on a specific subtopic of Formula One.

A Formula One race takes place over an entire weekend, with two free practice sessions on Friday, a practice session and a qualifying session on Saturday, and the race on Sunday. There are typically races in other FIA series (such as the GP2 Series) over the weekend to keep crowds entertained. Formula One - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile, commonly referred to as the FIA, is a non-profit association established in 1904 to represent the interest of motoring organisations and motor car users. ... GP2 Series, GP2 for short, is a form of motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder sport, Formula 3000. ...

Free practice sessions

The event usually begins on Friday (except in Monaco where it begins on Thursday) with two free practice sessions, from 11:00 to 12:00 and from 14:00 to 15:00, for the drivers to learn the circuit and for the teams to experiment with their cars to figure out the best settings for the particular track. Third drivers for teams that finished outside the top four of the previous season's World Constructors' Championship are allowed to take part in Friday's free practice sessions. Another free practice session will take place on Saturday from 11:00 to 12:00. A third driver is a type of Formula One driver. ...

Qualifying sessions

On Saturday at 14:00 the qualifying session takes place to determine the running order at the beginning of the race. For 2006, the single-lap qualifying system used in recent years is replaced by a three-part knockout format, with multiple cars on track. The qualifying hour is split into three 15-minute sessions, with seven-minute breaks in between. During the first session, all 22 cars run laps at any time. The six slowest cars are assigned grid places 17 through 22. Lap times are reset for the second session, which sees the remaining 16 cars on track together. Again, the six slowest of those cars are assigned grid places 11 through 16. The final qualifying session is a shootout among the final ten competitors to determine the final 10 grid places. To add an additional strategic challenge to the race engineers, the top-ten drivers must begin the final 15-minute session with the fuel load on which they plan to start the race. They will be weighed before they leave the pits, and whatever fuel they use in the 15 minutes may be replaced at the end of the session. The number of laps run during any session is uncontrolled.

A driver or car that sets the fastest time qualifies at the front of the grid and is said to be on pole position. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

DNQ

As of 2007 only 11 teams are entered for the Formula One world championship, each entering two cars for a total of 22 cars, while the regulations place a limit of 24 entries for the championship. At some periods in the history of Formula One the number of cars entered for each race has exceeded the number permitted, which historically would vary from race to race according to the circuit used. Monaco, for example, for many years allowed only 20 cars to compete because of the restricted space available. The slowest cars excess to the circuit limit would not qualify for the race and would be list as 'Did not Qualify' (DNQ) in race results.

Pre-Qualifying

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the number of cars attempting to enter each race was as high as 38 for some races. Because of the dangers of having so many cars on the track at the same time, a pre-qualifying session was introduced for the teams with the worst record over the previous 6 months, including all new teams. Only the four fastest cars from this session were then allowed into the qualifying session proper, where 30 cars competed for 26 places on the starting grid for the race. The slowest cars from the pre-qualifying session were listed in race results as 'Did Not Pre-Qualify' (DNPQ). Pre-qualifying ended after a period in the early 1990s when many small teams withdrew from the sport.

107% Rule

As the number of cars entered in the world championship fell below 26, a situation arose in which any car entered would automatically qualify for the race, no matter how slowly it had been driven. The 107% rule was introduced in 1996 to prevent completely uncompetitive cars being entered in the championship. If a car's qualifying time was not within 107% of the pole sitter's time, that car would not qualify for the race, unless at the discretion of the race stewards. There are now only 11 teams in F1 so the 107% rule has been removed since the FIA's rules indicate that 24 cars can take the start of an F1 race, and a minimum of 20 cars must enter a race. The qualifying format has also changed several times since the 107% rule was introduced, rendering the rule inoperable. Each team has two cars, and currently, if two teams were to drop out the remaining teams would have to figure out how to maintain the 20 car rule. The current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of the 2007 season. The 1996 Formula One season was the 47th FIA Formula One World Championship season. ... The Concorde Agreement is a contract between the FIA, the ten Formula One teams and Formula One Administration which dictates the terms by which the teams compete in in races and take their share of the television revenues and prize money. ...

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. 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. The numerous Formula One regulations, made and enforced by the FIA and later the FISA, have changed dramatically since the first Formula One World Championship in 1950. ... Charlie Whiting is FIA Formula One Race Director, Safety Delegate, Permanent Starter and head of the F1 Technical Department, in which capacities he generally manages the logistics of each F1 Grand Prix, inspects cars in Parc Ferme before a race, enforces FIA rules, and controls the lights which start each...

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". The BAR Formula One team executes a pitstop A typical pit lane and garages parallel to the start/finish straight at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway In autosport a pit stop is where a racing vehicle stops in the pits during a race for refuelling, new tyres, repairs, mechanical adjustments, a...

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.

Points system

Points are awarded to drivers and teams exclusively on where they finish in a race, with the winner receiving 10 points, the second place finisher 8 points, third 6, fourth 5, fifth 4 and sixth 3, seventh 2 and eighth 1. If a race has to be abandoned before 75% of the planned distance has been completed all points are halved. In a dead heat, prizes and points are added together and shared equally for all those drivers who tie. The winner of the annual championship is the driver (or team, for the Constructors' Championship) with the most points. If the number of points is the same, priority is given to the driver with more wins. If that is the same it will be decided on the most second places and so on.

Historically, the races were scored on the basis of a six-place tally: i.e via an 8-6-4-3-2-1 scoring system, with the holder of the fastest race lap also receiving a bonus point. In 1961, the scoring was revised to give the winner nine points instead of eight, and the single point awarded for fastest lap was given for sixth place for the first time the previous year.

In 1991, the points system was again revised to give the victor 10 points, with all other scorers recording the same 6-4-3-2-1 result. This was thought to have been something of a knee-jerk reaction to the spate of drivers who had won the championship despite scoring fewer victories than their nearest challenger.

In 2003, the FIA again revised the scoring system to apportion points to the first eight classified finishers (a classified finisher must complete 90% of race distance) on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. The winner of the world championship is the driver who accumulates the most points throughout the course of the season.

At certain periods in F1's history, the world champion has been determined by virtue of the "best 7 scores" in each "half" of the world championship, meaning that drivers have been able to "discard" lower scores in either half of the season. This was done in order to equalise the footings of teams which may not have had the wherewithall to compete in all events. With the advent of the Concorde Agreements, this practice has been discontinued, though it did feature prominently in several world championships through the 1970s and 1980s.

The change in the awarding of world championship points has rendered the comparison of historical teams and drivers to current ones largely ineffective. For instance, Michael Schumacher is widely credited with being the most successful GP driver of all time. While his statistics are very impressive and easily outstrip those of his nearest competitor, it is worth noting that his points tally vs points available, and winning percentage of grands prix entered, do not significantly exceed those of Juan Manuel Fangio, whom he dethroned as "winningest" driver recently. As with most other sports, it is very difficult to compare stars of different eras owing to the changes in the sport and regulations.

Worldwide appeal

Despite being the pinnacle of racing in terms of budgets, and driver skill, Formula One racing has often been accused of being unexciting when compared to less-prestigious categories. The differences in driver ability are usually dwarfed when compared to the relative speed of the different makes of cars, and on-track overtaking is very rare due to the aerodynamics of trailing cars being adversely affected by the car in front (making overtaking only possible by very risky and thus rarely-taken chances, or a much faster car trailing a slower one).

The sport is lesser-known in the United States than either their mostly-domestic open-wheeler racing series (at the moment there are two major ones, IRL and Champ Car World Series) or NASCAR, but in terms of budgets and global TV audiences F1 is bigger than all three. The Indy Racing League, better known as IRL, is the sanctioning body of a predominantly American based open-wheel racing series. ... Nigel Mansell racing in a Champcar in 1993 Terminology Champcar, a shortened form of Championship Car, has been the name for a class of cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades. ... The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is the largest sanctioning body of motorsports in the United States. ...

Estimates for Ferrari's racing budget in 1999 were around 240 million USD, and even tailender Minardi reportedly spent 50 million. Estimates of TV audiences are around 300 million per race. Ferrari is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Minardi was an automobile racing team and constructor founded in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. ...

External links

• F1 Sporting Regulations