Get to grips with F1 Testing Terminology

Formula 1 Pre-Season Testing is here! Just like in 2023, this season the teams are limited to just three days of running with Williams Racing splitting the running between Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant.

If you’re planning on tuning in, you’ll hear plenty of buzzwords during the three days of coverage, but do you know what they mean?

Don’t fret! We’ve put a handy quick-fire glossary of some of the key terms you are likely to hear this week.

Green Track:

A significant lack of grip on track early in the day due to a lack of running. This will be extremely prominent in the opening hours of the first day.

Aero Rakes:

An airflow measuring device that attaches to an F1 car. These come in a variety of sizes, from ones that will be clearly visible, to smaller ones that will be tucked away in hard to reach places.

Sandbagging:

A tactic used to hide the true pace of a car. Whilst no actual sandbags are used, teams might opt to run their cars well below their maximum potential.

Dirty Air:

A section of turbulent air created by a driver ahead. This makes it difficult for the car running immediately behind, despite the newer generation of cars being designed to follow at close quarters.

Flo Vis:

A bright paint used to monitor airflow patterns on a car. This gives aerodynamicists a clear visualisation of how the air is travelling as it passes across the bodywork.

Installation Lap: 

A first lap where a driver checks the standard car functions. This is normally run at the very start of a session, where a driver pulls out of the pits and returns before opening a lap.

Correlation: 

A term for ensuring real life data syncs up with the simulations. All the teams have already run thousands of kilometres with their new cars in their state-of-the-art simulators.

Glory Run: 

A lap where a team deliberately unleashes the true power of its car. Topping the timesheets going into the season always looks good, but in years gone by some teams have pushed it all the way, by running super light and deploying as much power as possible. It’s a tactic rarely deployed in this modern era of F1.

Race Sim:

A testing programme that sees the team set the car up as if it’s a race. These will often the driver carry out long stints, as if it was a race, to get a better understanding of how their car operates in a race scenario.