What does interval mean in F1?
The word commonly appears on the live leaderboard - but what does it mean?
It appears often on live timing screens, but what does it mean?
Throughout its whole history, F1 has been a highly technical sport and that continues to increase as technology sweeps through.
A newbie fan might initially be overwhelmed by the amount of jargon used in F1, by commentators, pundits, drivers, and fans alike. However, when explained, most of them are fairly straightforward, including an interval.
They are used to separate drivers in terms of on-track performance and the speed of the cars.
RadioTimes.com will explain further what an interval is and when it is used.
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What does interval mean in F1?
The word interval is normally found on the live leaderboard next to the name of the driver currently in pole position.
Underneath the word - and next to the names of the remaining drivers in the race - you'll find a column of numbers accompanied by a plus sign, for example: +1.445.
This number denotes how far behind the car in front of them each driver currently is, measured in seconds.
For example, if the first number underneath the word interval is +1.445, this means the driver in second place is 1.445 seconds behind the current leader.
Then if the next number underneath that is +0.885, that means that the driver in third place is 0.885 seconds behind the driver in second place, and is therefore 2.33 seconds behind the driver in first place.
If the interval is less than +1.000, F1 drivers can trigger DRS to gain a speed boost in their bid to overtake those ahead of them.
Often a separate statistic is given providing these cumulative timings, under the heading 'leader.'
So if the word leader is placed next to the driver in pole position this means the times given for every other driver denotes how far they are behind the leader, whereas if it says interval if means how far they are behind the driver directly ahead of them.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
