Closing Velocity - Some F1 Overview + Common Terms Used

Here is a list of the F1/racing terms often used in closing velocity. please feel free to use this as a guide as you read along. You can also find all sorts of guides on the f1 website here.

You can find more indepth explanations of some terms on the f1 website as well

The Race Weekend

A race weekend typically takes place over 3 days, from Friday to Sunday. (There is also usually some media activities on Thursday)
Friday - Free Practice 1 (FP1) and 2 (FP2) - just practice, so the drivers can get used to the track + make set-up changes to the car
Saturday - Free Practice 3 (FP3) (same as above) + Qualifying
→ Qualifying: Separated into Q1 (18 mins), Q2 (15 mins) and Q3 (12 mins) - All 20 drivers try and set the fastest time over a single lap in Q3. The top 15 move into Q2 and try to set another fastest single-lap time. Top 10 then move into Q3. Qualifying determines the position you start the race in on sunday.
→ "Pole Position", which is often mentioned in the fic, refers to qualifying in P1/1st place, and therefore starting the race in 1st
Sunday - Race Day - different amount of laps depending on the circuit, but each race is typically around 90-120 minutes. first across the finish line/chequered flag wins. top 10 drivers are awarded with points

Sprint Races/Weekends - a newish format introduced to the F1 calendar. 6 races weekends will have 'sprint races' in addition to the main race, which are pretty much just the normal race except 1/3 the length
→ (this is barely mentioned in the fic, so i won't go into detail about it. but if you want to learn more here is the f1 guide)

The Points System

Points are awarded for placings in the sprints and main races. These will count towards the World Drivers' Championship (WDC) and World Constructors' Championship (WCC). Each team enters 2 drivers (each individually vying for the WDC) and the sum of those 2 drivers' points determines the WCC.
→ Top 10 in the main races are awarded points
→ Top 8 in the sprint races are awarded points
You can read an article about the exact scoring breakdown here

Fastest Lap - Up until the start of 2025, a point was also awarded to the driver who had the fastest single-lap time in the race. this no longer exists in the current 2025 season but still exists in the point scoring system of Closing Velocity's fake 2025 season, mostly because i planned the scores before i realised it was gone and i also think taking it away is utter woke nonsense

Tire Choices:

There are 3 dry tire compounds (also known as 'slicks') to be used when it's not raining - hards, mediums, and softs. hards are the slowest but last the longest, and softs are the fastest but burn out the soonest.
→ Drivers also have a limited number of sets of each tire to use during each race weekend.
→ typically, the softs are used in qualifying (as you only need one quick lap on them) and the mediums and hards are used in the main races
→ it is mandatory for a driver to use 2 different set of compounds in a dry race, hence requiring at least one pitstop to change tires in the middle of a race (ie. if you start the race on a set of mediums, you must make a pitstop at some point of the race and change to a set of softs or hards)
→ irrelevant to the fic, but tires are marked with a different rim color to show which compound they are. hards are white, mediums are yellow and softs are red

There are also 2 wet weather tire compounds ('wets') - intermediates (inters) and wets
→ Inters (marked with a green rim) - good for light to medium rain
→ wets (marked with a blue rim) - used for heavy rain

Most commonly used:

DRS - short for Drag Reduction System, a piece of the rear wing that can be opened at certain points of any given circuit to give a boost in speed
understeer/oversteer - tldr, understeer is when the car doesn't turn enough, and oversteer is when the car turns too much
overtake - self explanatory. trying to get ahead of the car in front of you
pitstop/box - come into the pitlane to change tires/make some set-up changes (commonly heard over the radio as 'box box')
bouncing/porpoising - a bumpy, bumpy ride. the 2024 mercedes car did actually struggle with this.
tire degradation (deg) - wearing down of tires caused from overheating or underheating. the more deg you have the worse the tire will be.
undercut/overcut - strategy calls for when to come in for the mandatory pitstop. undercut means to go before everybody else, overcut is to stay out longer than everybody else
parc fermé - french for 'closed park'. essentially an area where you're not allowed to touch the car so official can check to see if you're within regulations
yellow flag/red flag - flags waved in case there is an emergency on track that could be dangerous (ie. a crash). yellow means slow down, red means to all return to the pitlane and pause the session (ie. if there is a big crash and a lot of debris on track that would take time to clear up)

pitlane - where all the garages are. drivers will come in for a pitstop (also known as boxing) at least once a race to change tires
corners/turns - pretty self explanatory. each circuit will have anywhere between 10-20 corners.
straights - also pretty self-explanatory. each circuit will typically have 2-4 long straight roads where drivers can go full speed
chicane - series of tight turns (good for overtaking)
circuit/track - made out of corners, straights, chicanes, the pitlane
track limits/white lines - white lines (track limits) on either side of the track that you must stay within. if you go all 4 wheels outside of the white lines too many times you will get a penalty
kerb - raised bumps on the side of tracks to prevent drivers from cutting the corners too much. painful to go over too many
barriers/walls - self explanatory. try not to hit them.
gravel trap/grass - large patches of gravel/grass on some circuits that slow the car down in case of a crash

if you want to search up examples of a track and its corners, straights, chicanes, kerbs, below are my favourite examples on the calendar
→ favourite track: monza, suzuka, interlagos
→ favourite corner: curva parabolica at monza
→ favourite straight (LOL): uh, i don't have a real opinion on this, but the first example that comes to mind is the hanger straight at silverstone
→ favourite chicane: nouvelle chicane at monaco, ascari at monza
→ favourite... kerb?: uh. the las vegas kerbs are really cool with the card suits

Others:

HANs - a device/neck brace thatd rivers clip their helmets to to essentially protect their necks from the high amount of g-force they're taking
delta - relating to the flag system, basically a minimum lap time drivers must follow
graining - throughout the race, tires start to blister and wear down, also knowing as graining
marbles - as tires wear down over the race, little pieces of rubber fly off them and land on the track
lock-up - if a tire is too worn down, it may stop rotating during heavy braking, often causing a large plume of smoke. commonly causes flat-spotting of a tire
bottoming - idk if this is even used in the fic, but it's funny so it's here. basically when the floor of the car scrapes the ground.
grand slam/grand chalem - when a driver is 1st in qualifying, 1st in the race, takes the fastest lap of the race, and leads every single lap of the race. very rare. mild spoiler: yunho has one of them in this season.
ICE/MGU/TC - power unit parts. ICE stands for Internal Combustion Engine, MGU stands for Motor Generator Unit (Heat and Kinetic) and TC is TurboCharger

if i've missed any terms/you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and i will get back to you. im pretty enthuiastic about this sport, as you might be able to tell. there are some track-specific corner names that will be in the read-along, or you can search up each track as you go.

Edit

Pub: 31 Mar 2025 03:55 UTC

Edit: 02 Apr 2025 13:48 UTC

Views: 675