Formula 1 free practice explained

In Formula 1, free practice sessions are held before the qualification and race and are an opportunity for the teams to test and refine their car setup, and for the drivers to get familiar with the track.

Free practice goal and rules

Each session lasts an hour. During the sessions, teams can run as many laps as they want and make various changes to their car's setup in order to find the optimal balance of performance and tire wear. They can also test new components and gather data. The drivers use the sessions to get a feel for the track and work on their race craft. The lap times set during the free practice sessions do not count towards the official classification of the race.

Free practice sessions

In each weekend there are three practice sessions:

• Free practice one: the first session is held on Friday morning; typically used to get used to the track, verify the initial setup from the simulators.
• Free practice two: the second session is held on Friday afternoon; further work is done to refine qualifying and race setup.
• Free practice three: the third and final session is held on Saturday morning; further work is done to refine qualifying and race setup.

The exception-to-the-rule for this schedule are sprint weekends. Those weekend only have 2 free practice sessions, where one session is replaced by the sprint event.