Formula 1 glossary

Terms

Undercut

Pitting before the rival right ahead. On fresh tyres you lap faster while they're still on worn ones; when they pit, you come out ahead. It works if the gap is small (about 2–3 s) and the new tyre makes up for the time lost in the pits.

Overcut

The opposite: staying out longer than the rival who has already pitted. It works when they get stuck behind slow cars, or when the new tyre takes a while to warm up and yours still performs.

Stint

Each part of a race between two pit stops, on the same set of tyres. A two-stop race has three stints.

Tyre compounds

There are dry compounds (soft S, medium M and hard H) and wet ones (intermediate I and full wet W). The soft grips more but lasts less; the hard is the opposite. Choosing when to fit each one is the heart of strategy.

Degradation

The tyre's gradual loss of performance: each lap costs a little more. You can see it in lap times, although the car also gets lighter as it burns fuel, which masks it. It's what the "trend" in the Analysis tab measures.

Pit stop

Coming into the pit lane to change tyres. The stop itself lasts about 2–3 s; the pit lane time (entry to exit) is around 20–25 s depending on the track and the speed limit.

Pit window

The range of laps in which it pays to pit: too early and you'll need an extra stop; too late and the tyre will have lost a lot of pace. A safety car can open it all at once.

Safety car (SC)

An official car comes onto the track and everyone follows it at reduced speed, without overtaking. Gaps close up and many teams take the chance to pit, because losing time in the pits costs much less with the pack going slowly.

Virtual safety car (VSC)

No car on track: everyone must stay under a time set by race control. It keeps the gaps as they are and lets an incident be cleared with less disruption.

Red flag

The race is stopped. Cars return to the pits and tyres can be changed without losing race time; afterwards there's a rolling or standing restart depending on the case.

Blue flag

Shown to a lapped driver so they let a faster car about to lap them go by. Ignoring it leads to penalties.

Dirty air

A car's turbulent wake reduces downforce for the car right behind: it slides more, the tyres overheat and following closely is hard. That's why overtaking is difficult even with more pace.

DRS and overtake mode

Until 2025, DRS opened the rear wing to overtake on certain straights within one second of the car ahead. The 2026 rules replace it with active aerodynamics and an overtake mode that gives the chasing car extra electrical energy; in race control messages you'll see "OVERTAKE ENABLED/DISABLED".

Lead change on track

A change at the front not explained by a pit stop: someone genuinely overtakes. When the leader pits, the lead changes for a while but it doesn't count as an overtake.

Interval and gap to the leader

The interval is the time to the car ahead; the gap to the leader, to the car in first. With an interval under ~1 s there's an attack; at ~2–3 s, an undercut is possible.

Fastest lap

The fastest lap of the race. It's usually set on fresh tyres near the end, when the car is light and an extra stop can be risked without losing position.

Grid and pole

Qualifying sets the starting order; pole is first place. On tracks where overtaking is hard, the grid weighs heavily on the final result.