Cadillac's debut season
The 11th team. American-funded, GM-engined (eventually), Andretti-built, FIA-approved after years of objections. Currently fighting for points with a rookie pairing and a brand-new factory.
Pull the curtain back
F1 is a soap opera with engineers.
An independent guide to Formula 1, for fans who started with Drive to Survive and want to know who, what, and why.
Meet the cast
Who you should know first
Lando Norris
The reigning champion. Now defending the title with a teammate who is not going to make it easy.
Max Verstappen
Four-time champion. The bar everyone else is measuring themselves against.
Oscar Piastri
McLaren's second weapon, and a quiet bet that the heir to the title is already in the building.
Lewis Hamilton
The most successful driver in F1 history, year two at Ferrari, betting his legacy on the move.
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari's hometown talisman. More poles than wins, which is a very Ferrari sentence.
George Russell
Mercedes' designated successor since 2020. Five seasons in, still waiting for the title to arrive.
Decode the broadcast
What they mean when they say it
Search for any term you have heard a commentator use, or browse the full decoder.
- 10-second stop-go penalty
- 5-second penalty
- Black flag
- Black-and-orange flag
- Blue flag
- Box, box
- Chequered flag
- Deg
- Dirty air
- Double yellow
- Drive-through penalty
- DRS
- ERS
- Fastest lap
- Formation lap
- Free Practice
- Grid drop
- Lights out
- Overcut
- Parc fermé
- Pit window
- Pole position
- Qualifying
- Race Direction
- Reconnaissance lap
- Red flag
- Reprimand
- Safety Car
- Slipstream
- Sprint
- Sprint Shootout
- Standing start
- Stewards
- Track limits
- Tyre cliff
- Undercut
- Virtual Safety Car
- White flag
- Yellow flag
No matches. Try a different term or browse the full decoder.
Meet the principals
The bosses on the pit wall
Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff has run Mercedes since 2013 and is the most public face of any constructor on the grid. He owns a third of the team.
Christian Horner
Christian Horner has been team principal since day one in 2005. The longest-tenured boss on the grid, and the one with the most receipts to point at.
Frédéric Vasseur
Frédéric Vasseur took over from Mattia Binotto in 2023 and brought Lewis Hamilton to Maranello. The most consequential Ferrari hire in a generation, depending on how it ends.
Current storylines
What is interesting right now
Storyline 01 Storyline 03 Storyline 04
The title fight at the quarter mark
Norris is defending, Verstappen is hunting, and Piastri is the one who could quietly take it from both of them. Six rounds in, this is closer than 2024 was at this point.
Storyline 02Hamilton, year two at Ferrari
The honeymoon is over. The car is competitive but not dominant; the comparisons to Leclerc are tightening; the question is whether the move was the right one. Either way, the broadcast cuts to him every weekend.
Silly season starts early
Three top-line drivers have contracts up at the end of the year, and at least two team principals have publicly admitted they are taking calls. By Monaco, the dominoes will start falling.
The basics, in one paragraph
Twenty-two drivers. Eleven teams. The fastest cars on Earth.
Formula 1 is the top tier of motorsport. Each year, eleven teams build two cars from scratch under a strict rulebook, and twenty-two drivers race them around twenty-four circuits. Whoever scores the most points becomes World Champion. That is the surface. The depth, the engineering, the strategy, the politics, is what this site exists to explain.
When you're ready, go deeper
How the sport works
SECTION 01
Drivers
The current grid and the legends who built the sport.
SECTION 02
Teams
Eleven constructors. Eleven engineering philosophies. Eleven paint schemes.
SECTION 03
The Car
Halo. Diffuser. Turbo. Every part of an F1 car decoded.
SECTION 04
Race Weekend
Practice, qualifying, sprint, race: what each session actually does.
SECTION 05
Rules & Regs
Points, flags, penalties, parc fermé, without the rulebook tedium.
SECTION 06
Tracks
24 circuits, 24 personalities. From Monaco to Las Vegas.
SECTION 07
Strategy
Tyres, pit stops, undercut, DRS, ERS: the why behind every move.