Help & FAQ · BoxThisLap: how to read live F1 timing

Getting around

BoxThisLap is one dashboard with a few views. New here? ⚙ → Take the tour shows you what is where in about a minute.

Just the race, or the full pit wall. On your first visit BoxThisLap asks how much you want to see. Just the race keeps it to the Race page (timing, the live video, the Spotlight, the track map and Your driver), a lighter timing tower (position, gap, interval and tires) and a short Debrief. The full pit wall has every page and widget. Switch any time with ＋ All pages and − Just the race next to the page tabs, ⚙ → View, or the link in the footer. Each view keeps its own layouts, so nothing you arranged is lost when you switch.

Tabs at the top. Data is the dashboard and opens first. Streaming is the video wall. Preview appears from a weekend's first session until the race starts. Debrief appears once a race, sprint or qualifying session is over. Data and Streaming each open in their own window, so you can put them on different screens. Clicking a tab again brings its window to the front. If your browser blocks pop-ups, the tab switches the current window instead.
Pages. Under the top bar, Data is split into Race, Compare, Strategy, Season, Analysis and Schedule, so no screen is a wall of numbers. Keys 1 to 6 switch between them. − Just the race next to them keeps the Race page and the Schedule; in that view ＋ All pages brings the rest back.
Top bar, right side. Air and track temperature (a RAIN badge when it's wet; point at it for humidity and wind), the lap or qualifying part, what's remaining (laps to go in a race, the clock otherwise), the track status and ⚙. A ⏱ chip shows while a TV delay is on, and an F1 TV chip appears when your sign-in needs attention.
⚙ holds everything else: View (Just the race or the full pit wall, and your teams and drivers), Widgets on this page, Match your TV, Preferences (theme, size, alerts, favourite drivers, spoiler-free mode), Accounts (F1 TV sign-in), Help & FAQ, What's new, Send feedback and About. The footer under the widgets has Help & FAQ, Preferences and Send feedback too.

Widgets. Every box on a page is a widget, and you can arrange them as you like:

Drag a widget by its title bar to move it. Drag any edge or corner to resize it. The others make room.
× removes it and ▾ folds it down to its title bar. ⚙ → Widgets on this page adds any widget to the page you're on.
In the same menu, Reset this page brings back the page's standard layout and Lock layout stops accidental drags.
Point at a widget's title, or tap its ⓘ, to see what it shows and how to read it. Tap again (or press Escape) to close it.
Each page keeps its own layout, saved in this browser. Every device keeps its own.

Picking a driver. Click a driver in the timing tower, or use ↑ ↓. The Driver widgets, the charts and the Pit window follow your pick, and it's remembered next time.

Favourites ★. Pick the drivers you follow on your first visit (Who do you support?: a team picks both its drivers), in ⚙ → View → Your teams and drivers, or in ⚙ → Preferences → Your teams and drivers (tap a team for both its drivers). The Your driver widget follows the first of them, the Driver widgets, Compare (against his teammate) and the Debrief open on him, and the Streaming tab starts with their onboards. They get their own alerts (pit stops, race control, team radio, within a second of the car ahead, the pit window opening, the fastest lap), a ★ in the timing tower and the first one's team colour across the dashboard: each widget shades from its usual colour on the left into it on the right, and the widget titles, the selected tabs and the top bar take it (⚙ → Preferences → Your team's colour: Low, Medium or High, or Off), the ★ filter in Moments, team radio auto-play (when you tick it in Team radio), their names on the track map, a boost when the Spotlight picks a battle, and priority in the Streaming tab's auto-director.

The "Now" strip (Race page only) is one line above the widgets with what matters right now. In a race: the leader and whether the car behind is closing, the closest fight, your driver (pinned in the Spotlight, else the one you clicked in the tower, else your first favourite), where they would come out if they pitted now, and the last key moment. In qualifying: the fastest, the cut and your driver. In practice: the fastest and your driver. Click a cell to jump to where it came from.

Past sessions. Click the Grand Prix name at the top left (▾) to watch a past session. Pick a season, then a session. It plays on your screen only, with its own play, pause, speed and timeline. Back to live timing takes you back.

On a phone the widgets stack in one column, timing tower first. The Now strip is left out, and video spots become a ▶ Watch in F1 TV button.

Reading the data

The timing tower

The tower is the order of the field, as on TV. Read it from left to right:

Column	What it means
P	Position. The thin coloured bar next to it is the team colour.
Driver	The three-letter code and car number. A PIT tag means the car is in the pit lane. In qualifying, an OUT tag means the driver has been knocked out, and the row is faded.
Gap	In a race: time behind the leader. In qualifying and practice: time behind the fastest lap, as there is no leader on track.
Int	Interval: time to the car one place ahead.
Best	The driver's best lap. Off by default in races (turn it on in Columns). On in qualifying and practice, where it is the result. A small Q1 or Q2 next to it means the time was set in an earlier part.
Last	The last lap time. Green means it was a personal best.
Sectors	The three sector times, with the mini sectors drawn above each one. Each time is replaced as the car finishes that sector on its new lap.
(flag)	In a race, a small chequered flag appears next to each car that has finished.
Tire	The compound letter in its colour, and the laps on that set (see Tires).

Some special values you may see:

1L, 2L and so on in the Gap column: the car is that many laps down on the leader.
OUT in the Gap column: the car has retired from the race. Its row is faded.
PIT LANE in the Gap column: on the grid, a car that will start from the pit lane.
A red line under a row in qualifying: the cut. Cars above it go through to the next part (P16 in Q1, P10 in Q2).

Next to the Timing title you'll see click a driver, or history · lap 12 of 40 when you are looking at the order at an earlier lap. After the chequered flag in a race it shows Provisional result ↗: the stewards can still change the result (penalties are often decided after the race), so the link opens the official result on formula1.com.

Columns drop away when the widget gets narrow (Last first, then Sectors). Columns lets you pick them yourself; Standard brings back the standard set.

Colours: purple, green, yellow, blue

Purple: the fastest of anyone in the session.
Green: the driver's own personal best.
Yellow: slower than their best.
Blue: pit lane (mini sectors only).

Mini sectors are the small blocks in the Sectors column. Each one is a timing loop on the lap (about 20 at most circuits), grouped by sector, and they fill in as the car crosses each loop. Grey blocks are still to come. The sector times underneath use the same purple, green and yellow. The Driver widget shows the same bar, larger. Elsewhere on the site, purple also marks the fastest, for example the fastest time of a qualifying part.

Tires

S Soft: red
M Medium: yellow
H Hard: white (grey on the light theme)
I Intermediate: green
W Wet: blue

The number next to the letter is how many laps that set has done. A new set has never run. A used set has run before, and its count includes those earlier laps. A grey ? means F1 hasn't said yet which set the car is on, which happens for a short while after a stop.

To see every stint, open the Tire strategy widget: each bar is a stint in its compound's colour, and a striped bar is a used set.

Flags and track status

The pill in the top bar shows the track status:

GREEN: racing as normal.
YELLOW: a yellow flag is out. The banner says which sectors, and whether it's a double yellow. The track map lights up those marshal sectors.
SAFETY CAR: the race is neutralised behind the safety car and the gaps close up. A pit stop costs less time than usual, and the Pit window and strategy figures allow for that.
VSC (virtual safety car): the race is neutralised and the gaps stay about where they were. A stop is cheaper here too. VSC ENDING means it's about to finish.
RED FLAG: the session is suspended.
Chequered flag: the end. In a race, each car gets the chequered mark in the tower as it finishes.

Under a safety car or VSC the whole track map turns amber, and under a red flag it turns red. Under a safety car, VSC or red flag, Outlook makes no predictions.

The flag banner. Whenever anything other than green is out, the bar under the top bar turns yellow (yellow, double yellow, safety car, VSC) or red (red flag). It says what is out and since when, which sectors for yellows, and who:

Caused by: race control named one car in a crash, spin or incident message around that moment.
Involved: race control named several cars.
Stopped: cars reported stopped, or that timing or telemetry show stopped on track around that time.
Cause not reported yet: nothing to go on so far.

Before a start behind the safety car, the banner says so too. The banner follows your TV delay.

EST: what's measured and what's estimated

Timing, gaps, sectors, tires, pit stops, race control, team radio and weather come straight from F1. A few things are worked out by BoxThisLap instead, and are marked EST or estimate:

Battery and energy (battery charge, MGU-K deploy and harvest, Field battery, Energy per lap, the batteries in Battles). F1 does not broadcast battery or ERS data, and kept it out of the public feed for 2026. BoxThisLap estimates it with a physics model from the public car telemetry (speed, throttle, brake, RPM). Read it as a strong hint of when a car deploys or harvests, and a rough guide to how much is left.
Strategy (Pit window, Strategy options, Best strategy now, Pit stop what-if). Fuel loads aren't published, so these are models of tire wear and pit-stop loss, checked against the 2026 races.
Win chances. Thousands of simulated finishes from where every car is now, worked out again every lap. A forecast, not a fact.
Projected finish. Every car in the order of its average place in the same simulated finishes, against where it is now (▲ ▼), the places it finished in the middle half of them, and the stops it still has to make. A forecast, not a fact.

TV delay: "Match your TV"

Live timing reaches BoxThisLap before the pictures reach you: TV and streams run 20–60 s behind it. Without a delay, the tower can show an overtake before you see it happen.

Open ⚙ → Match your TV (or click the ⏱ chip) and set the delay with the slider (0 to 120 s) or the −5, −1, +1 and +5 buttons. Live sets it back to none. The whole dashboard then waits by that much, alerts and the flag banner included. Tip: when a car crosses the line on TV, nudge the delay until the tower updates at the same moment.

In BoxThisLap Desktop the delay sets itself whenever a video plays: the timing follows the video's own clock. The delay is saved on your device. It isn't applied between sessions (there's nothing to spoil) or to past sessions.

Every widget, page by page

The same notes appear in the dashboard when you point at a widget's title or tap its ⓘ. Widgets you don't see on a page may be left out in this kind of session (practice or qualifying), or removed: ⚙ → Widgets on this page brings any of them back.

Race

The story of the session: what matters right now, and everything that happened. The page that opens first (key 1).

Timing tower

The timing tower: order, gaps and lap times, as on TV.

Gap is to the leader, Int to the car ahead. Last is the last lap time (highlighted: a personal best); Best is off by default in races (Columns turns it on).
Sectors: purple is fastest of anyone, green a personal best, yellow slower. Columns chooses mini sectors with the times, or just the times. Columns drop away when the widget is narrow.
The tower takes just the width its columns need, and the Live video and Spotlight beside it get the rest (the video as tall as it can be; on a wide screen the full height, with the Spotlight, the map and Your driver beside it). Columns → "Fit the widget to its columns" turns that off; so does resizing the tower yourself.
Tire: compound and laps on it.
Click a driver (or use ↑ ↓) to select them for the Driver widgets and charts.

Live video

The F1 TV broadcast next to your data.

F1 Live by default; pick another feed or any driver's onboard from the list.
Plays with your own F1 TV login: in the page, or in MultiViewer docked over this widget.
In BoxThisLap Desktop it starts by itself whenever the widget is on screen and F1 TV is signed in (■ Stop holds it until the window is opened again). Elsewhere, once you press Play it comes back by itself when you return to this page.
Turn on Match your TV (⏱ Auto) to keep the timing in step with the video.

Spotlight

The one thing worth watching right now, picked for you.

Auto picks, in order: a flag or safety car, a car that stopped, a close battle, a pit stop, then a push lap.
Use the menu to follow one driver instead. The small text next to the title says why this story was picked.
For a battle, Compare their laps opens the two drivers head to head.

Track map

Where every car is on the circuit.

Corner numbers, the start/finish line and the pit lane come from the circuit map.
Yellow flags light up their marshal sector; the track turns amber under a safety car or VSC and red under a red flag.
Point at a corner, sector line or the pit lane for its name.

Moments

Everything that happened in the session, in plain English, newest first.

Overtakes, pit stops, flags, retirements, penalties, fastest laps and team radio, grouped by lap.
Filters: All, Key (only the big things), ★ (your favourite drivers) and Radio.
⏪ next to a moment rewinds the dashboard to just before it. ▶ plays a radio clip.

Compare

Any two drivers, head to head: telemetry, where the time goes, lap times. Key 2. It needs car telemetry: in a live session, an F1 TV sign-in.

Compare: telemetry

Two drivers' laps on top of each other, by distance around the lap.

Speed (top), the time gap along the lap (middle) and throttle and brake (bottom).
Gap above the line: the second driver is behind at that point of the lap.
Last laps compares the newest representative laps; Best laps the quickest each driver has done. ⇄ swaps the two.
Needs car telemetry (F1 TV sign-in). A lap far off a driver's best (out-lap, safety car) is flagged.

Compare: track

Where on the track one driver gains time on the other.

The lap is split into 25 parts; each part is coloured by the driver who was quicker through it.
The note at the top gives the biggest difference in any one part.
Uses the same two laps as the telemetry chart.

Compare: laps

Both drivers' lap times, lap by lap.

Lines: lap times (higher is quicker). Dashed line: the gap between the two drivers, on the right-hand scale.
Grey dots are pit laps. The header shows each driver's best lap and the gap now.

Strategy

Battles, pit windows, gaps over the race and tires. Key 3. Outside races it shows the timing, the tires and the plans for the race instead.

Timing tower: see Race.

Battles

Cars fighting for position: within 1.5 s of the car ahead.

The gap, and how fast it is closing or growing per lap.
The % is the chance the car behind is ahead by the next line, from the gap, its trend, the last lap and the tyres: how often that happened in this season's battles. PASS LIKELY from 45%.
IN RANGE means within a second; CLOSING or HOLDING shows the trend.
Both cars' battery is a rough estimate from the car's data (F1 doesn't send it). The calls don't use it: on this season's battles it said nothing about who would pass.

Only in races and sprints.

Race trace

The whole race as a picture: each driver's gap to the leader, lap by lap.

A line going down means losing time to the leader; a sudden drop is usually a pit stop.
Top 10 or all cars. Very slow laps (pit stops, the start) break the line and leave a tick at the bottom.

Only in races and sprints.

Win chances

Who is likely to win from here.

Thousands of simulated finishes from where every car is now: each car's recent green-flag pace and tire wear, the stops it still has to make (two dry compounds; tires don't last for ever) at this race's pit loss, the chance of a safety car or a retirement, and how hard it is to pass.
Worked out again every lap. ▲ ▼: a change of 3 points or more since the last lap. "Stops": what the model thinks each car still has to do.
Checked on this season's races and sprints at every tenth of the distance: its favourite won about three times in four, more often than whoever was leading on track.
It learns from the season (Season page → Strategy learning): this circuit's safety-car rate (every Grand Prix there since 2023), how hard passing is here (this season's passes), and a calibration of the percentages, each kept only where the checks say it helps. The line under the table says what is in use. The server records what it showed during a race, for the after-race review.

Only in races and sprints.

Projected finish

Where every car is likely to finish.

From the same simulated finishes as Win chances, worked out again every lap: the cars in the order of their average finishing place, so P1 here is the car that finished highest on average, not always the favourite to win.
"Now": where the car is on track, and ▲ ▼ the places it would gain or lose. "Likely": the places it finished in the middle half of the simulated races; a narrow range means its place looks settled. "Stops": what the model thinks it still has to do.
An estimate: a safety car, a slow stop or a team's call can change it. Cars that retire leave the list.

Only in races and sprints.

Tire strategy

Every car's tire stints across the session.

Each bar is a stint, coloured by compound, with its laps. Striped means a used set.
In races, the stop count is F1's own (tire changes under a red flag don't count).
Point at a stint for its details and the stop time.

Pit window

Where each car would rejoin if it pitted now.

Pit loss is this circuit's usual figure until three of this race's stops have been timed, then the race's own (you can change it). Best strategy now uses the same figure. It is shorter under a safety car or VSC.
The arrow shows how many places a stop would cost.
Not shown before the start, under a red flag or after the finish.

Only in races and sprints.

Best strategy now

Every car's quickest plan from where it is now. An estimate, worked out again every lap.

From each car's tires and their age, the wear this race is showing (blended with the pre-race estimate until enough laps are run, and the car's own wear on its set), the two-compound rule and a stop's time loss here (half under a safety car).
"Stop": the best lap and the window (laps that cost less than 3 s more). "Other": the best plan with a different number of stops. "If it stops now": where the car would come out, from the gaps.
It is the quickest plan for the car on its own: undercuts, track position and safety cars move real stops. It learns after every race: the stop lap is moved by how much later or earlier than the quickest lap teams have really stopped (Season page → Strategy learning has the figures and how it checks out). "Falling off" next to a tire: its last 3 laps have fallen away from the pace it held on that set, by the figure shown; the plan counts that much more for every lap it stays on. A compound nobody has raced on, once three cars have stopped without taking it, is left out of the plans: the teams know something.

Only in races and sprints.

Strategy options

Which race plans look quickest, from what the weekend showed. An estimate.

Every one- and two-stop plan in the dry (two compounds are compulsory), each stop at its best lap: the plans that take least time, with the stop windows.
Tire wear: the season's race wear for each compound, moved by how hard this weekend's practice long runs (and a sprint) were on tires compared with other weekends. Pace between compounds: learned from the season's races when that checks out better (Season page → Strategy learning), else typical figures. The pit-stop loss: a typical figure for this circuit.
Fuel loads aren't published, and safety cars, rain and track position decide many races. Checked on the 2026 season: the plan put first matched what most of the top ten did in 9 of 15 dry races.
New sets used: from the timing, each set the first time it ran new.

Team strengths

Where each team is quick.

Each team's quicker car in each measure: best sector times, top speed through the speed trap, and the speed carried through the circuit's slow (under 130 km/h), medium and fast (over 200) corners, against the quickest team. Top three in green, bottom three in red.
Corner speeds come from F1's car data (speed and position): the lowest speed of each pass through a corner, the car's second-best pass counting. They appear once the session's car data is on the server (its recording, or F1's archive an hour or two after the session).
"This session" or "Weekend" (every session so far). Practice runs on different fuel and engine modes blur all of it.

Season

The season so far: form, each team's car development, teammates, pit crews, starts, tire management, track position, and what the strategy model has learned. Key 4.

Form

Each team's gap to the quickest, race by race.

Race pace: the median of the team's quicker car's clean green-flag laps in the dry, fuel taken out, against the quickest team's. Qualifying: the team's best lap against pole.
Lower is quicker. Point at a line for the team; the table has the season's median and the last three weekends.

Teammates

Teammates head to head.

Qualifying: who was ahead in the qualifying order. Race: who finished ahead when both were classified. Points: from the order at the flag (sprints too), so a penalty given afterwards isn't in it. Q gap: the median gap between their best qualifying laps.

Car development

How far each team's car is behind Mercedes (or the field) now, where it started, and so what it has gained over the season, part by part.

Season: a team's card. The big number is how far behind (or ahead of) Mercedes it is now (its last 4 rounds); under it, where it was at the start (its first 4) and what it gained on Mercedes. Then part by part: slow, medium and fast corners and the straights in seconds, and from the car data traction, acceleration, top speed and clipping (speed lost at the end of the long straights when the battery stops deploying). Beside it every team ranked in the part you pick, closest to Mercedes first.
Which team: the Team box picks any team (kept for next time). Automatic is your favourite's (⚙ → Your teams), else the team that has gained the most; the card says why it shows the team it does.
Against Mercedes: the line is Mercedes, the same place on every row, and a bar runs from where the team started to where it is now (the nearer the line, the closer to Mercedes). Mercedes itself is set against the other teams' average (its own card says how far ahead of them it is). Each round is measured against Mercedes in that round, so Mercedes' own progress is already in every gap. Against the whole field: every team against all the teams' average.
From qualifying and sprint qualifying: each team's quicker car's best lap is cut into the same stretches of track and timed through them, so the corners and straights add up to the overall. Each kind of section is set against the time spent there and put back into seconds on an average lap of the season, so a run of circuits with long straights doesn't pass for development.
Green: gained on Mercedes since the start; red: lost; grey: within the usual round-to-round swing, so it may be the circuits. A car's own development in absolute lap time can't be told from qualifying laps, so every figure is against a reference. Round by round shows the part as a line per team.

Strategy learning

What the strategy model has learned from this season's races, and whether it helped.

After every race the server measures it (tire wear, pace between compounds, how long sets lasted, when teams really stopped, each team's and driver's wear, safety cars, passing) and learns again from all the season's races.
Each part is tried and kept only if the predictions get better: every race is checked against a model learned without it, every 5 laps from lap 10, each top-ten car's next stop. "Through the season" checks each race with only the races before it, as the model was on the day.
Parts that made the predictions worse are left out, with the reason. The pit-stop loss and track position at each circuit are measured but used only once a circuit comes round again and the check can show they help.
The Win chances learn the same way, below it: this circuit's safety-car rate (every Grand Prix there since 2023), how hard passing is here (this season's passes), and a calibration of the percentages. Each is kept only if replaying the season's races with it gives the winner a clearly better chance.

Track position

How hard it was to pass, race by race.

Passes on track: position changes between two green-flag laps, cars in or out of the pits left out. Following: lap time lost within 1 s of the car ahead, against the same car's laps in clean air on the same set.
Where passing is hard, track position is worth more than a few seconds of tire life. The strategy model measures it at every race; it uses it for a circuit when it comes round again and the check shows it helps.

Pit crews

The pit crews over the season.

Stationary time from F1's pit stop timing (not every stop is timed), tire changes only. Typical: the median, stops over 8 s left out (a problem, a repair or a penalty served: the "Slow" column). Spread: how much the middle half of its stops varies. Lane: time in the pit lane against the race's median.

Starts

Who gains places at the start.

Grid slot against the order at the end of lap 1, Grands Prix and sprints (pit-lane starts and cars out on lap 1 left out). A first-lap incident counts as much as the launch.
Launch: the car's speed 3 s after lights out, from F1's car data (the median over its starts). The side of the grid matters too.

Tire management

Who is kind to their tires.

Each driver's tire wear against the field's on the same compound in the same race, and against the teammate's: the slope of each stint's lap times against tire age (stints of 10+ clean laps), fuel taken out. Negative: easier on its tires.
Lap times also carry traffic, pace management and fuel, so it is a rough guide. The strategy model checks whether using it helps its predictions (Strategy learning).

Analysis

Sectors, lap times, incidents, radio, race control and pit stops. Key 5.

Sectors & speed traps

Where the time is: best sectors and top speeds.

Sectors & ideal lap: each driver's best sectors and their ideal lap (best sectors added up).
Speed traps: the top speeds at F1's measuring points.
Click a driver to make them the reference: the others show their difference to that driver.

Lap times & tire wear

The selected driver's lap times, stint by stint.

Each stint is coloured by its tire compound.
Tire wear is how much slower each lap gets on the same set (seconds per lap), from clean laps only.

Incidents

The stewards' cases, one line per incident.

Noted, under investigation, then the decision (no action, warning or penalty).
Also counts each driver's deleted laps for track limits.

Race control

Race control's messages, as they were sent.

Flags, safety car, track limits, investigations and penalties, newest first.

Team radio

Team radio clips published by F1.

Press play to listen. Filter by driver or your favourites.
Auto-play favourites plays new clips from your favourite drivers as they arrive.

Pit stops

Every pit stop of the race.

Stationary time (the stop itself) and the total time in the pit lane.

Only in races and sprints.

Championship

The championship as it would stand if the race ended now.

F1's live prediction: position and points if the race finished now, and ▲ ▼ places gained or lost against the standings before the race.

Only in races and sprints.

Team strengths: see Strategy.

Weather and pace

The weather over the session, and over the season.

This session: track and air temperature from the circuit's weather station, rain shaded, and the field's pace over the same time (in a race, the median lap of the field with fuel taken out; otherwise the median every 5 minutes). Rubber, tires and fuel move the pace too, so it shows what happened together, not the cause.
Season: each race's track temperature, rain and tire wear, and whether hotter races wore the tires more.
A rain alert (⚙ → Alerts → Rain) pops up when the weather station starts reporting rain or race control mentions it.

Debrief

After the race: race history, strategy, pace, tire wear, practice long runs, overtakes, sectors and pit stops. Its own tab at the top (Debrief), once a race or sprint is over.

Race history

The whole race, lap by lap.

Gaps: each car against one lapping at the winner's average pace (the race engineers' "gapper"). Going up: faster than that pace; a step down: a pit stop; the winner ends at zero. Shaded: safety car, VSC or red flag.
Positions: the running order at the end of every lap, from the grid. Lap times: every lap, the dots coloured by tire.
Click drivers above the chart to pick them out; move over the chart to read a lap.

Only in races and sprints.

Tire strategy

Everyone's tire strategy at a glance.

One bar per stint, coloured by compound (paler: a used set), with the number of laps. Shaded columns: safety car, VSC or red flag laps.

Only in races and sprints.

Pit stop what-if

What other pit stops would have given each driver.

Pick a driver. For each of his stops, a strip of squares: one for each lap he could have stopped on, up to 10 laps earlier or later, showing where he'd have finished. Green: higher than he did (brighter: two places or more); grey: the same; red: lower. The outlined square is the lap he stopped on; ★ the quickest; SC and VSC above the strip mark a safety car or virtual safety car (a stop there costs about half). Point at or tap a square for the time he'd have gained or lost and where he'd have come out after the stop; the line under it lists the places by laps.
Other choices: other tires at a stop, all his stops moved together, one stop fewer, or an extra stop, each on its best lap. Everyone: the best change for every finisher.
How: a tire model fitted to every lap of this race (each compound's pace and wear, comparing cars on different tires on the same lap), the race's own pit-stop loss, and the other cars' races exactly as they happened (nobody reacts). Behind a safety car he takes his place in the queue. Traffic after a stop isn't priced in: "stuck" marks coming out right behind a slower car. Differences under a second are within the model's error.

Only in races and sprints.

Race pace

Who had the best race pace, once the race is over.

Pace is the median of each driver's representative laps (green flag, no lap 1, no pit in- or out-lap), fuel-corrected so early and late laps compare fairly.
Teammate: the gap to the other car of the team. Traffic: seconds lost per lap within 1 s of the car ahead, against clear air.

Only in races and sprints.

Tire degradation

How fast each tire wore out.

Lap time (fuel-corrected) against tire age, one compound at a time. Each line is a stint; its number is the time lost per lap of tire age.
Pick the compound at the top and the drivers below the title.

Only in races and sprints.

Stints

Every stint of every driver.

The first and the last representative lap of each stint, the difference, the average and the wear per lap.
Last − first includes fuel burnt, which makes cars faster; wear per lap takes that out.

Only in races and sprints.

Practice vs race

Practice long runs against the race, on the same tires.

For each driver and compound: their longest practice run (FP2 first) against their race laps.
Practice fuel loads aren't published, so compare the wear and the order between drivers more than the raw times. Track temperatures are shown at the top.

Only in races and sprints.

Overtakes & pit battles

Where places were won and lost.

Start: grid to the end of lap 1. Passes: places taken and lost on track from the timing (green flag, neither car on an in- or out-lap; a car slowing with a problem counts as passed). Pits & other: the rest of the change from grid to finish (stops, retirements, penalties).
Pit battles: two cars within 3.5 s when the first of them stopped, the other stopping within 8 laps. The gap before the first stop against the gap after the second shows who won the undercut or the overcut.

Only in races and sprints.

Sectors & speed

Raw speed, sector by sector.

Each driver's best sectors at racing speed, the ideal lap they add up to and how much the best lap actually driven lost against it. Purple: the fastest of the race. Speed trap: the top speed and the median on green-flag laps (a low median often means a high-downforce set-up).

Only in races and sprints.

Lap time spread

How consistent each driver was.

The box is the middle half of a driver's representative laps, the line inside it the median, the whiskers the fastest and slowest.

Only in races and sprints.

Pit stops (debrief)

Every pit stop of the race.

Stationary time and time in the pit lane, the tires before and after, and the places before and after the stop. Stops under a safety car, VSC or red flag are marked.
Lost: in-lap plus out-lap against the rest of the field on the same two laps, green flag only (behind a safety car the field bunches up afterwards, so two laps don't show the cost). Red: 3 s or more over a clean stop here (the quicker quarter of green-flag stops), which the note at the top gives.

Only in races and sprints.

Qualifying debrief

After qualifying: the result part by part, ideal laps, track evolution and last year. The Debrief tab after qualifying.

Qualifying result

Qualifying, part by part.

Each driver's best time in Q1, Q2 and Q3 (purple: the fastest of the part), the gap to pole from the last part they ran, and how much they found from Q1 to their best lap.
In red, next to a time: how much that car missed the cut by. Point at a time for the margin by which a car got through. The note at the top gives each cut.

Only in qualifying.

Track evolution

How much faster the track got.

Every lap within 107% of the best, by time into the session, in team colours; the line is the best time so far. The note gives how much the same cars found from one part to the next (the track rubbering in, and fresh tires and lower fuel).

Only in qualifying.

Against last year

This year's cars against last year's, at the same circuit.

Pole against last year's pole, and each team's best lap against its best a year ago (renamed teams matched). Sector by sector when the site has last year's timing. Last year's results come from Jolpica, the successor of the Ergast F1 database.

Only in qualifying.

Ideal laps

What each driver had in hand.

Their best three sectors of the session put together (the ideal lap) against their best lap. "Lost" is time that never came together on one lap. Purple: the fastest sector and top speed.

Only in qualifying.

Preview

Before the race: the forecast, the circuit's history, long-run and one-lap pace. Its own tab at the top (Preview), from a weekend's first session until the race starts.

Weekend forecast

The weather for the weekend.

For every session: conditions, air temperature, the highest chance of rain in its two hours, and the wind. Below, race day around the start, hour by hour. Times are your own. Forecast: Open-Meteo, from about two weeks out.

Circuit history

What usually happens here.

The last winners at this circuit and where they started, how often pole or the top three won, the furthest back anyone won from, and last year's pole and race fastest lap. Source: Jolpica (Ergast).

Long-run pace

Race pace from practice.

Each driver's race simulation (FP2 first, else their longest run): its average and tire wear per lap, ranked, with the teams' order on top.
Fuel loads aren't published and softer tires are quicker early on: read it as a guide.

One-lap pace

Qualifying pace so far.

Each driver's best lap of the weekend so far (practice and qualifying), where it came, and their ideal lap from their best sectors.

Strategy options: see Strategy.

Team strengths: see Strategy.

More widgets

Not on a page to start with: add any of them to any page from ⚙ → Widgets on this page.

Your driver

The driver you follow, in one place.

Whose: your first favourite driver (pick them in ⚙ → View → Your teams and drivers), else the driver you clicked in the timing tower. The menu in the title bar picks anyone else.
In a race: the gaps to the cars ahead and behind and how they moved over the last few green laps (green: going his way), "attack range" within a second, and where he would come out if he pitted now.
His teammate head to head: the gap between them, best lap and best sectors (green: he is quicker), recent pace (the median of the last five clean laps), every set of tires and the quickest plan from here for both (an estimate, as in Best strategy now).
His win, podium and points chances (as in Win chances) and where he would be in the championship if the race finished now. In qualifying and practice: his best lap against the fastest and his teammate.

Outlook

What happens next if things carry on as they are.

Race: who catches whom, and on which lap, if each car keeps its recent pace.
Qualifying: who is on the bubble for the next part. Practice: long-run pace on the current stint.
Under a safety car, VSC or red flag the race is neutralised, so no predictions are made.

Driver

The selected driver in detail.

Estimated battery charge, what the MGU-K is doing (deploying or harvesting) and energy used this lap.
Live speed, throttle, brake, gear and RPM, with their sectors.
Battery figures are a model built from public car telemetry: F1 does not broadcast them.

Driver charts

The selected driver over the last 90 seconds.

Estimated battery charge, plus speed with deployment and harvesting.
Useful to see where on the lap a driver spends or recovers energy.

Driver onboard

The selected driver's onboard camera next to your data.

Plays through your own F1 TV login (in the page, or in MultiViewer).
For several feeds at once, use the Streaming tab.

Energy per lap

Estimated energy deployed and harvested on each lap.

Deployed: electric power used. Harvested: energy recovered under braking and lifting.
A marked lap reached the harvest limit for the lap.
An estimate from public telemetry (EST), not F1 data.

Field battery

Estimated battery charge for every car at a glance.

Green is well charged, amber half, red low.
An estimate from public telemetry (EST), not F1 data.

Energy on track

Where cars lose speed with the throttle flat out: the battery running out on the straights.

In 2026 the electric motor gives up to 350 kW, but a lap's battery use is capped: towards the end of a long straight the battery stops deploying (or the engine is made to charge it, "clipping") and the car slows although the driver is still flat out.
F1 sends no energy figures, so it is read from the car data: full throttle, no brake, over 200 km/h, and the speed falling. The map colours each part of the lap by how often that happened (the whole field, or the driver you picked), the table each straight.
"Following": the extra top speed when a car starts a straight within a second of the car ahead, against the same car in clean air. That is slipstream and overtake mode together: the data doesn't say which.
Measured from the session's car data: on your own server during the session (every few minutes), on boxthislap.live once the session's files are there.

Race weekend

The next race weekend, in your time.

Every session of the weekend with its day and start time in your time zone, and a countdown to the next one ("on now" while it runs). Sessions that are over are dimmed.
"Add to my calendar" opens the ways to do it. Subscribe: your calendar (Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook) adds every session, or the races only, by itself and keeps them up to date, so a changed time follows; the link is also there to copy (Outlook: Add calendar → Subscribe from web). A calendar app uses its own reminder settings for a subscribed calendar. Or a file, once: ＋ next to a session, this weekend or the whole season saves a calendar file (.ics) to open, each session with a reminder 15 minutes before it starts. Adding the same file again updates the sessions, it doesn't double them.
In the calendar a session is named like "F1 2026 · United States Grand Prix · Practice 1", with the BoxThisLap logo and a link in its notes.
The calendar comes from Jolpica (the community successor of the Ergast F1 API), so a change of time shows up here once it has made the change. A session with no start time yet says so and is left out of the file. The length each session has in your calendar is the usual one (a practice hour, two hours for the race), not an official end time.

Season calendar

Every race of the season.

Round, Grand Prix, circuit and dates in your time; the next race is marked and finished ones are dimmed. Click a race for its sessions. "Sprint" marks a sprint weekend.
"Add to my calendar": subscribe to the season (every session, or the races only), or save one calendar file with every session of every race (a reminder 15 minutes before each); "＋ Add" on a race saves just that weekend.

Questions

Is BoxThisLap official?

No. BoxThisLap is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Formula 1, any team or any driver. Team and driver names and colours are used only to identify them, and there are no team logos. F1, FORMULA ONE and related marks are trademarks of Formula One Licensing B.V. Timing data © Formula One World Championship Ltd.

Where does the data come from?

From F1's own live timing feed: timing, gaps, sectors, tires, pit stops, race control, team radio clips and the circuit's weather station. On boxthislap.live your browser connects to F1 live timing itself. Car telemetry and car positions come from the same feed once you sign in with F1 TV.

The Preview and Debrief also use two free public sources: Jolpica (the successor of the Ergast F1 database) for the calendar, circuit history and last year's qualifying, and Open-Meteo for the weather forecast. The circuit maps are BoxThisLap's own, built from F1's position data, with surroundings from OpenStreetMap. The live feed isn't documented, and F1 can change it at any time.

Why is the dashboard ahead of my TV?

Live timing arrives before the broadcast does: TV and streams run 20–60 s behind it. Set ⚙ → Match your TV to hold the dashboard back by the same amount. See TV delay.

Do I need F1 TV? What does signing in add?

Not for timing. Everyone gets live timing, gaps, mini sectors, tires, pit stops, race control, team radio and weather, free.

F1 only sends car telemetry (speed, throttle, brake, gear, RPM) and car positions to F1 TV subscribers. Sign in with your own F1 TV account on the sign-in page (or ⚙ → Accounts) to add car telemetry, the live track map, battery estimates and the Compare page, just for you. Any active F1 TV subscription should work for this. Past sessions from F1's archive already include car telemetry.

How long does an F1 TV sign-in last?

A few days from when you type your password, so sign in again before each race weekend. ⚙ → Accounts shows how long is left, and an F1 TV chip appears in the top bar when it has less than a day left or has expired.

F1 hands back the login it remembers, however often you sign in. BoxThisLap Desktop asks F1 for a new one by itself when yours has under 2 days left (F1 asks for your password). On the website, sign out on formula1.com first, then sign in and click the BoxThisLap bookmark.

Is my F1 TV login safe? Where does it go?

You sign in on F1's own page, so your password only goes to F1.
On the website, the login stays in your browser, so you don't have to sign in on every visit. Your browser sends it only to F1's live timing server, to fetch telemetry for you. This site's server doesn't receive it, and nobody else gets your telemetry. Sign out removes it from the browser.
If F1 won't accept a connection straight from your browser, the site may offer to connect for you. That happens only if you choose it, and your login is then used for your own connection only, never stored or shared.
BoxThisLap Desktop keeps your login on your computer only (in your Windows account's app data) and talks to F1 and F1 TV directly. It is never sent to the website.
A sign-in link never signs you in by itself: you confirm it with a click. So nobody can swap their login for yours by sending you a link. The one exception is a sign-in your own browser started in the last 15 minutes.

Why does the website ask me to click a bookmark? How is the desktop app different?

A website can't read another site's login: your browser keeps formula1.com's login to formula1.com. The BoxThisLap bookmark can, because you click it while you're on F1's own page.

Once: on the sign-in page, drag the red Send F1 TV login to BoxThisLap button to your bookmarks bar (Ctrl + Shift + B shows the bar). Can't drag it? Use Copy the button and paste it as a new bookmark's URL.
Press Sign in with F1 TV. F1's sign-in page opens in a new tab. Sign in there as usual.
Still on that page, click the BoxThisLap bookmark. The login comes back, F1's tab closes, and the dashboard picks it up by itself.

Next time it's quicker: F1 remembers you, so it's the tab, the bookmark, done. You can also paste the login by hand (under Other ways to sign in).

In BoxThisLap Desktop, Sign in with F1 TV opens a window on F1's sign-in page. Sign in there and BoxThisLap picks up the login by itself and closes the window. No bookmark, nothing to copy. Next time F1 remembers you, so the window opens, signs you in and closes on its own.

Are the battery and energy numbers real?

They are estimates. F1 does not broadcast battery or ERS data, and no paid data product has it either. BoxThisLap works it out from public car telemetry with a physics model. Against BoxThisLap's built-in race simulator it lands within about 5–15% of the true charge; real cars will differ. See EST.

Why doesn't video play on the website?

F1 TV only plays inside its own website and apps. So on boxthislap.live, and on phones and tablets, every video spot is a ▶ Watch in F1 TV button that opens the session in the F1 TV app or website, with your own subscription. Watch there and use ⚙ → Match your TV to hold the timing back to your picture.

For video right next to the timing, get BoxThisLap Desktop: a free Windows app (Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, with Chrome or Edge) that plays F1 TV with your own login, in the Live video widget and the Streaming tab, with the timing held back to match automatically.

Why does F1 TV video say it isn't available?

Video needs an F1 TV plan that includes live video (F1 TV Pro or Premium), and what F1 TV offers depends on your country and your subscription. When a video box can't play, it says why: for example, F1 TV has no onboard for that car, or F1 TV refused the licence (check your sign-in). Boxes that can't open keep trying by themselves. The first video in a new window may take a moment to start.

Can I watch a past session or rewind?

Yes. Click the Grand Prix name at the top left and pick a season and a session. BoxThisLap Desktop can open every practice, qualifying, sprint and race since 2018; on boxthislap.live the list shows the sessions the site has. It plays just for you, so nobody else is disturbed. A session that hasn't been opened before can take about a minute to fetch.

The session bar under the top bar steps back and forward (1 minute down to 0.1 s), plays and pauses, and sets the speed (0.25× to 30×). Its strip shows the whole session, with flags as coloured bands and moments as dots: click or drag it to jump. Keys: Space plays and pauses, ← → move 5 s (Shift: 1 s). In Moments, ⏪ next to a moment takes you to just before it.

During a live session, BoxThisLap Desktop rewinds the whole dashboard and plays on from there; Back to live returns. On boxthislap.live, the strip shows the tower's order, gaps and tires at the end of the lap you pick.

What are the Streaming tab and the "1 + 4" wall?

Streaming is a video wall: the main broadcast, driver onboards, the Driver Tracker and the Data channel, side by side. It plays in BoxThisLap Desktop with your own F1 TV login (or through MultiViewer for F1). On the website and on phones it offers a ▶ Watch in F1 TV button instead.

The standard setup, Classic, is "1 + 4": the main feed big in the middle and two videos of the same size down each side, showing the onboards of the top four cars. Drag the bar between the main feed and a side to make that side's two videos bigger or smaller; the other side stays as it is and the main feed takes the rest. Double-click the bar for the standard size. When there's room, the gap between a side's two videos shows the closest fight (left) and the last key moment (right).

Other setups include Battle director (it picks the cars itself), Podium, Feed + Tracker + Data, 2 × 2 and Big feed + PiP, and you can save your own. Add video adds a box (up to eight); a sixth video lets you move and resize the boxes freely. Press Start streams to begin. Only one box plays sound at a time. Sync lines every video up with the main feed and holds the data back to match. Double-click a video for full screen.

How do I get my layout back to the standard?

A page: ⚙ → Widgets on this page → Reset this page. It resets only the page you're on.
Timing tower columns: Columns → Standard. If you resized the tower and it stopped fitting itself, tick Columns → Fit the widget to its columns.
Streaming: double-click the bar between the main feed and a side, or pick the Classic setup.
Widgets missing in practice or qualifying? Battles, Pit window, Race trace, Pit stops and Championship only mean something in races and sprints, so they're left out. Untick Fit to the session in the Widgets menu to always show them.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. The widgets stack in one column in reading order, timing tower first, and you tap ⓘ for help. Video spots open F1 TV instead of playing in the page. To keep it on your home screen, use ⚙ → Preferences → Install app, or your browser's Add to Home screen. With notifications on, alerts reach you when the page isn't on screen.

Does it cost anything?

No. The website and BoxThisLap Desktop are free. Car telemetry and video use your own F1 TV subscription. You don't need any other subscription: F1 TV unlocks everything that is publicly available, and paid data products don't add battery or ERS data.

How do alerts and notifications work?

Choose them in ⚙ → Preferences → Alerts. They pop up on the page with a sound:

Red flags & chequered flag
Safety car & VSC
Investigations & penalties
Rain: when the circuit's weather station starts reporting rain, or race control mentions it
Everything about my favourite drivers: pit stops, race control, team radio (click a radio alert to listen)
Yellow flags: off at first, as they are frequent in practice

Tick Desktop / phone notifications and allow them in your browser to get alerts when no BoxThisLap window is on screen. Test alert shows how they look and sound. Alerts follow your TV delay, so they arrive in step with your picture.

Even when BoxThisLap is closed (off unless you switch it on) sends the big moments as push notifications with no BoxThisLap tab open: session starting, red and chequered flags, safety car, rain, penalties and your drivers' pit stops, from the alerts you've ticked. They come straight from live timing, so ahead of a TV delay; in spoiler-free mode only the session-starting one. On iPhone and iPad, add BoxThisLap to your Home Screen first (Share → Add to Home Screen) and switch it on there. On a computer, they arrive while the browser is running.

Why is the Compare page empty?

Compare builds each lap in your browser from the car telemetry it receives. In a live session that needs an F1 TV sign-in, and each driver needs one full lap seen by the page. A lap far off a driver's best (an out-lap, a safety car lap) is flagged.

Can I avoid spoilers?

Turn on ⚙ → Preferences → Spoiler-free mode. Finished sessions stay hidden until you choose Show results, and past sessions start paused at the beginning.

Can I change the look or make things bigger?

In ⚙ → Preferences: Appearance is Auto (the standard: it follows your computer's light or dark setting, and changes with it), Dark or Light. Size (90–150%) makes bars, menus and widgets bigger; Text size (90–175%) makes what's inside the widgets bigger again. The tower's text also grows as you make its widget wider. Ctrl + and Ctrl − zoom the whole window (Ctrl 0 goes back).

Can I share what I'm looking at?

Debrief, Preview, Win chances, Team strengths and the strategy widgets have a share button in their title. It makes a picture for X (landscape) or Instagram (portrait), with the session's name and the site's address. On a phone it opens the share sheet; on a computer it downloads.

I joined mid-race. Did I miss the start?

No. When you join late, the dashboard rebuilds the session so far (Moments, flag periods and more) from what F1 sends. Widgets built from lap history fill in as laps are completed.

What does BoxThisLap count about me?

Only daily totals: which views, pages and widgets get used and for how long, the device type, the kind of operating system, and where a visit came from (the tag on a shared link, or just the name of the site that linked here, never the page). No cookies and nothing stored about anyone. Browsers that ask not to be tracked send nothing, and you can switch it off in ⚙ → Anonymous usage counts.

The one exception is push alerts, and only if you switch them on: the site then keeps your browser's push address (made by your browser's push service, with no name, email or IP in it) and the alerts you chose, so it can send them. Switching them off deletes both.

Something looks wrong. How do I tell you?

Use ⚙ → Send feedback. Write a short note, add an email or handle if you'd like a reply, and leave "Include what I'm looking at" ticked so the page, session, screen size and browser come with it. It goes straight to the person who runs the site.

BoxThisLap is a free, unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Formula 1, F1 TV, any team or any driver; team and driver names and colours are used only to identify them. Something missing or unclear? ⚙ → Send feedback on the dashboard.