About F1

Race distance and time limits

A Grand Prix is set at the smallest number of complete laps that adds up to more than 305 km. On a 5 km track that works out at 62 laps, and on a short track like the Red Bull Ring it's 71. Monaco is the exception: it runs to just over 260 km, because a full distance around its tight streets would take far too long.

Most races take between 80 and 100 minutes. If something slows things down, two time limits stop a race going on forever.

The 2-hour limit

Racing can't go on for more than 2 hours from the start. If the 2 hours run out before the leader has finished the full distance, the leader takes the chequered flag at the end of the lap after the one in which the 2 hours ran out. That's done so the finish isn't sprung on the drivers mid-lap.

This is rare in a dry race, but it can happen when there are a lot of slow laps behind the safety car or virtual safety car. The 2012 Singapore Grand Prix, a long night race with two safety car periods, hit the limit after 59 of its planned 61 laps.

The 3-hour cap

If the race is stopped with a red flag, the clock keeps running during the stoppage, but the time the race was stopped for is added on to the 2 hours. There's an overall cap, though: the race can't last more than 3 hours from the start, including all stoppages.

The cap used to be 4 hours. It was cut to 3 in 2022. The longest race in F1 history, the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, lasted just over 4 hours because of a two-hour rain delay, which is one of the reasons the rules changed.

Laps lost before the start

The race distance can also shrink before it begins:

  • Each aborted start or extra formation lap takes one lap off.
  • If the race starts behind the safety car, every lap the safety car leads, minus one, comes off the total.

So a race scheduled for 58 laps that has an extra formation lap and then a start behind the safety car lasting three laps would be down to 57 and then to 55.

If the flag comes out at the wrong time

The chequered flag is waved by a person, and people make mistakes. The rules cover both cases:

  • If the flag is shown too early, the race is counted as finished when the leader last crossed the line before the flag. At the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix the flag was waved a lap early, so the official result was taken from the end of lap 68 instead of lap 70.
  • If the flag is shown too late, the race is counted as finished when it should have finished.

Which laps count

Laps run under the safety car and the virtual safety car count as race laps, even though nobody can race. That's why a long safety car period near the end can see a race finish with almost no green-flag running.

Whether a shortened race gives out full points depends on how far it got. That's covered in points for shortened races. Sprint races have their own shorter distance of about 100 km, which you can read about in how sprint weekends work.

Who gets classified

To be classified in the results, a driver has to have completed at least 90% of the laps covered by the winner, rounded down. In a 57-lap race, that means 51 laps. A driver who retires late but has already done enough laps is still classified, and can still score points if they're high enough up the order. See after the chequered flag for more on how the result is decided.