How to play

1. On the home page press Start a race.
2. Pick a team. For your first race take a fast car like Mercedes or McLaren: it's easier to see the effect of your decisions at the front.
3. Pick a circuit, distance and weather. Start with Sprint (10 laps) and Dry. The box on the right shows your team objective, the result your bosses expect.
4. Difficulty. Easy if you want to win more often: slower rival strategists, a slightly faster car and softer objectives. Hard if the AI should fight back.
5. Qualifying. With Play it you run Q1, Q2 and Q3 yourself: send each car out with Go out, pick new or used softs and one or two timed laps. The track gets quicker towards the end of each part, but traffic grows and a lap only counts if it starts before the flag; the slowest six drop out after Q1 and Q2. The Auto button hands it to the team at any moment. With Auto chosen in setup, qualifying is simulated instantly.
6. Choose starting tyres for each car (the suggestion under the driver's name is a good default), then Lights out.

• Left: the timing tower. Positions, the gap to the car ahead (or to the leader), each car's tyre and how many laps it has done on it. Your cars are highlighted. Click any row to follow that car.
• Centre: the map. Dots are cars in their team colours; yours have a white ring. Cars in the pits move along the dashed pit lane.
• Right: your pit wall. One card per driver, the team orders and the radio.
• Top: track status (green / Safety Car), weather, pause and speed. A race at 1× takes as long as a real one, so play at 4×–8×: auto-pause stops the race whenever something needs your decision.
• Sound. Team radio comes with the broadcast "bip" and is read aloud; passes, pit stops, the Safety Car and the flag have their own short sounds. The 🔊 and 🎙 buttons at the top turn sound and the radio voice on or off.

• P5 is the position. ▲ +0.8 is the gap to the car ahead, ▼ +1.2 to the car behind.
• The coloured bar is tyre life: full = fresh, it shrinks as the tyres wear and turns red when they're nearly finished. ~45% · 8L left means about 45% worn and roughly 8 laps before they fall off a cliff and get very slow.
• Push / Balanced / Conserve is the pace. Push is faster but eats tyres; Conserve is slower but they last longer.
• The five circles choose the tyre for the next stop, and Box calls the car in. It pits when it next crosses the start/finish line. Changed your mind? Cancel.
• Plan: box ~L12 for hards is advice from your strategists. When it changes to Box this lap, the Box button flashes green and your engineer calls it on the radio. When in doubt, follow it.
• Box now → P14, 2.1 s behind ALB shows where you'd rejoin if you pitted this lap (amber = straight into traffic). Below it, hints explain the fight you're in: the pass chance per lap, why you're stuck, and when an undercut is on.
• ⚡ Overtake (key O) is the 2026 Overtake Mode: within a second of the car ahead it gives about 0.8 s for one lap and cancels the dirty air. It costs 40% of the battery, which recharges every lap (fastest in Conserve). Defend (key D) costs 25% and helps you hold off a car attacking you. The AI uses it too, so save some charge.
• Radio requests. Drivers ask for things themselves: "Tyres are finished, box this lap?", "I'm faster, let me through!", "Can I push?". A blue box appears on their card: answer Yes or No (keys Y / N) before the bar runs out.

• Pit before the tyres die. When the bar goes red, "laps left" gets close to zero, or the driver says "my tyres are going off", it's time to box. Every stop costs about 20 seconds, so don't stop more than you need.
• Two compounds rule. In a dry race of half distance or more each car must use two different dry tyres (for example medium then hard), so at least one stop is mandatory. Otherwise: disqualified.
• Safety Car = cheap pit stop. When the Safety Car comes out everyone slows down, so a stop costs about half the usual time. The game pauses and offers Box both: if a stop was coming in the next few laps anyway, take it.
• Rain. Watch the wetness % in the header. From about 17% inters are faster than slicks; in heavy rain switch to full wets. When the track dries, go back to slicks. Change too early or too late and you lose lots of time.
• Push at the right moments: to attack the car ahead, to defend, or in the last few laps when the tyres no longer need to last.
• Team orders. Swap: the car ahead lets its faster teammate through when they're close. Hold: your drivers don't fight each other.
• Overtaking is hard, like in real F1. Following within a second costs up to 0.35 s a lap in dirty air, so you need a clear pace advantage (fresher tyres, a faster car) to pass. If the card says you're stuck, use the undercut: box a lap before the car ahead and use the fresh tyres to jump it while it does its stop.

• SSoft. Fastest, but wears out quickly. Good for short stints and the last few laps.
• MMedium. The all-rounder. A safe choice for the start.
• HHard. Slowest, but lasts the longest. Good for a long final stint.
• IIntermediate. For a damp track: from about 17% wetness.
• WFull wet. For heavy rain and standing water: from about 70% wetness.

After the chequered flag you get a grade from S (brilliant) to D (one to forget). It depends on whether you met the team objective, how your cars finished compared with what the car deserved, and bonuses like a podium or the fastest lap. A Williams in 9th is a great result; a Mercedes in 9th is not.

After the flag, Key moments lists what decided your race: undercuts that worked or were missed, ⚡ chances, stops under the Safety Car, tyres run too long.

Space

Pause / resume

1 – 5

Speed 1× / 2× / 4× / 8× / 16×

B

Box the selected car this lap (press again to cancel)

Q / E

Select your first / second car

O / D

Overtake Mode / Defend for the selected car

Y / N

Answer a driver's radio request: Yes / No

Esc

Close a pop-up and carry on

1. McLaren, any circuit, Sprint, Dry.
2. Start on the suggested tyres and press Lights out, then set the speed to 4×.
3. Watch the "Plan" line on each card. When that lap comes, pick the suggested tyre and press Box.
4. If the Safety Car comes out and a stop is near, press Box both.
5. In the last 3 laps switch both cars to Push.