A Brief history of Formula 1 Lap Times

May 05, 2021

There is a great dataset of Formula 1 lap times going all the way back to 1996, which allows us to look at how the history of lap times has changed. I love using Joyplots to visualize this kind of data. They give you an easy visual comparison to see how the data has evolved over time. These charts show every lap time for every driver for every race. The chart at the top of the article an aggregate of all drivers lap times at all tracks for an entire season.

I've also produced it at a yearly level for every track that has been raced on since 2006. Some (like Barcelona) have 25 years of races to compare. Some (like Portugal) have very little, while others (like Imola) have big gaps between year raced. Nevertheless each one of them is interesting in its own right. It's easy to assume that times are always getting faster, but thats not the case. The myriad of rule changes, new regulations, changes in track layouts, and weather conditions year to year provide some fascinating results. It's easy to get lost trying to remember what caused any given change.

What stands out to you?

Races on the 2021 F1 Calendar

Bahrain Grand Prix

Chinese Grand Prix (Cancelled)

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Portuguese Grand Prix

Spanish Grand Prix

Monaco Grand Prix

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Canadian Grand Prix (Cancelled)

French Grand Prix

Austrian Grand Prix

British Grand Prix

Hungarian Grand Prix

Belgian Grand Prix

Dutch Grand Prix

No data... Come back in a year or two

Italian Grand Prix

Russian Grand Prix

Singapore Grand Prix

Japanese Grand Prix

United States Grand Prix

Previous track for US Grand Prix (2000-2007)

Mexican Grand Prix

Brazilian Grand Prix

Australian Grand Prix

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix