Weekend Format

THURSDAY:
The race weekend begins on Thursday with media day. This is a day where the drivers and teams talk to the press and answer questions about the team, their performance, the season so far, etc. There is a press conference that consists of 6 drivers where a room of reporters can ask them all questions which is filmed for broadcast. The other 14 drivers simply speak to the media throughout the day.

FRIDAY:
This is a practice day. This is the first day that cars are out on track. There are 2 practice sessions throughout the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Typically teams will use these sessions to test setups for their cars and see how their car performs on the circuit they are at or to test upgrades. Usually Free Practice 1 (FP1) is used to do "Quali Runs" as well as "Race Stints".

A quali run is a test that mimics a qualifying lap on the soft set of tires. It consists of an out lap, a fast lap, and a cooldown lap. A race stint is a longer repeated test usually done on medium or hard tires with a higher amount of fuel in the car to mimic how the car will behave in the race.

FP2 is usually dedicated to longer run stints as well as some quali runs since this session is around the same time of day that Qualifying occurs.

The team principal press conference also happens this day as well.

SATURDAY:
There are 2 sessions this day as well. FP3 and Qualifying.

FP3 is the final practice session of the weekend. Usually teams are locking in their setups for the weekend and making last minute adjustments to the car.

Qualifying happens in the afternoon. This session determines where the drivers start on the grid for the race on Sunday. Each driver is competing to set the fastest time. This consists of 3 small sessions that occur over the span of an hour. Q1 is 18 mins, Q2 is 15 mins, and Q3 is 12 mins. The drivers in the bottom 5 of a session are in the "drop zone" and will be eliminated at the end of that round. So in Q1, the drivers in 20-16 will be eliminated and wont partake in Q2, the drivers in 11-15 in Q2 are eliminated, and then Q3 is where the drivers are fighting for the top 10 positions. The driver who sets the fastest time is awarded Pole Position and starts in 1st place.

The top 3 drivers are interviewed post session and they participate in press conference.

All 20 drivers talk to the media after the session.

SUNDAY:
This is race day! Prior to the race, there is a drivers parade where the drivers either board a large, flatbed truck and go around the track waving to fans & being interviewed by F1TV or there are placed in individual vintage cars to go around the track.

An hour prior to the race, they allowed to start reconnaissance laps, which essentially just allowed them to gauge the track conditions before going to the grid. 15 mins prior to race start, the national anthem occurs. Then the drivers get prepared to start the race.

The race is usually about 2 hours long. The amount of laps in a race is determined by circuit length. An F1 race is run to a minimum of 305 kilometers or 190 miles, so the amount of laps is determined by how many it will take to exceed that distance.

The top 3 drivers are interviewed post race and partake in a podium celebration. Then they partake in a press conference as well as the media pen. The remaining 17 drivers are also interviewed in the media pen.