The first motor race was a reliability test
In 1894 a French newspaper organised a competition for horseless carriages from Paris to Rouen, about 126 kilometres. It was judged on reliability and ease of driving as much as speed, and the first car to arrive did not win the main prize. The following year a true race from Paris to Bordeaux and back was held, and motor racing had begun.
The French GRAND PRIX of 1906 is usually counted as the first of the kind raced today. The FORMULA in Formula One means the set of rules every car must follow, covering size, weight and engine.
A pit stop in two seconds
During a race, cars come into the pits for fresh tyres. In a modern Formula One PIT STOP, a crew of around twenty people lift the car, change all four wheels and send it away in about two seconds; the fastest ever recorded took 1.80 seconds, in 2023. Each person has one job, practised thousands of times.
Until 2009 cars also took on fuel during stops, which made them slower and brought a risk of fire. Refuelling was banned from 2010, so every car now starts with all the fuel it needs for the whole race.
Races are won and lost in the pits as much as on the track. QUALIFYING sessions decide the order of the starting GRID, and the fastest driver takes POLE position, a term borrowed from horse racing, where the best spot was next to the inside rail, or pole. Each LAP is split into timed SECTOR sections.
Racing through the night
The 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, first run in 1923, is the most famous ENDURANCE race in the world, with teams of drivers taking turns through a day and a night. Until 1969 it began with drivers lined up across the track from their cars; when the flag dropped they ran over, jumped in and set off. The Le Mans start was dropped because drivers were not taking time to fasten their seatbelts.
In a RALLY, cars race one at a time against the clock on closed public roads, forest tracks and snow. The co-driver reads out pace notes describing every bend and crest ahead, because the driver cannot possibly remember them all. The Monte Carlo Rally, first held in 1911, is still one of the most famous, often run over icy mountain passes.
Flags, marshals and the rest of the grid
Volunteer MARSHAL teams stand around every CIRCUIT, waving flags to warn drivers: yellow for danger ahead, blue to let a faster car pass, red to stop the race. The CHEQUERED flag marks the end. A good driver takes the APEX, the innermost point of a corner, and a CHICANE is a tight wiggle of corners added to slow cars down.
Following closely behind another car lets a driver use its SLIPSTREAM to go faster and then OVERTAKE. DOWNFORCE presses the car into the track — our race cars page explains how. Drivers who reach the PODIUM celebrate in the PADDOCK, and over a SEASON the one with the most points becomes CHAMPION. Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher have each won seven world titles.