As McLaren prepares to take on the iconic Brickyard on 26 May and with the Monaco Grand Prix falling on the same date, we bring you all you need to know about the qualifying formats of Indy 500 and Formula 1.

IndyCar qualifying

1. Indy 500 qualifying used to be spread over two weekends and four days, but now it is concentrated on the weekend immediately prior to the race, which this year means 18 and 19 May. The qualifying order is determined by lots drawn in a procedure that starts at 18:15 EST on Friday 17 May.

2. Each car has to go through a technical inspection process and receive a sticker which allows it to participate in qualifying. All cars have to be in line 30 minutes before the session starts.

3. Each car is guaranteed one run on Saturday, with a qualifying run comprised of four timed laps. Every entry gets two warm-up laps before launching into four consecutive flying laps, with the average speed of those four laps registering as the official qualifying time. In the resulting order, cars in positions 10 through 30 are locked into those grid slots for the race and will not re-qualify the next day.

4. Once the cars are in line, teams can only adjust front and rear wing angles, and tyre pressures. The same rear wing mainplane has to be kept on the car for the remainder of the event once a car has qualified.

5. The entrant signals the official start of a qualification attempt by displaying a green flag as the car completes its final warm-up lap. The entrant can also use a yellow flag to wave off or abort a run before the four laps are completed. When the qualifying session officially ends, a car that has been signalled by officials to leave the pits, and which is already moving with its engine running, can carry on and complete a qualification attempt.

6. Once every car has made its Guaranteed Attempt, a ‘break’ in the line occurs. Subsequently drivers can make multiple further attempts, with or without withdrawing their earlier times. However, those who decide to withdraw their times get priority, and join the queue in Line 1. Those who don’t withdraw their times go to Line 2 and can only run when Line 1 is empty.

7. The top nine cars on Saturday are put into the Fast Nine Shootout for Sunday which will determine the starting order of the first three rows. All existing qualifying times from Saturday for these nine cars are now voided.

8. The Last Row Shootout is held on Sunday 12:15-13:15 EST for cars that were unable to complete their Guaranteed Attempt on Saturday because of a mechanical condition or on-track incident and were prevented from making a second attempt.

9. These cars will run in the order drawn on Friday and can ‘bump’ the slowest qualified cars out of the race. Regardless of speed, they will start at the back, behind all cars qualified on Saturday. Bumped cars are allowed to run again and attempt to get back into the race. Cars qualifying in 31st position or lower on Saturday will also be part of the Last Row Shootout on Sunday.

10. The Fast Nine Shootout then commences at 13:15 EST to determine the first nine places on the grid, with the ninth fastest from Saturday running first. The cars have to be in line 45 minutes before the session. Any car which does not complete a full four-lap qualifying run drops to the bottom of the final order, and in this case its Saturday times are used as its official qualifying result.

Formula 1 qualifying

1. Cars are considered to be in parc fermé from the moment they leave their garage at the start of FP3, the final practice session before qualifying. After that, teams can only make details changes to parameters such as front wing angles and tyre pressures.

2. Qualifying is split into three sessions: all cars run in Q1 (18 mins), with the slowest five being eliminated. This session establishes positions 16-20 on the F1 grid.

3. The fastest 10 cars from Q2 (15 mins) progress to the top-10 shootout. This middle session established positions 11-15 on the grid.

4. The 12-minute Q3 session is a straight fight for the top 10 grid positions. Typically, drivers have two fresh sets of the softest (fastest) tyre compound available and make two runs, but drivers who used more tyres to get to this stage may only have one set left.

5. The top 10 drivers who made Q3 have to start the race on exactly the same set of tyres that they used to record their best time in Q2, creating strategic compromise ahead of the race.

6. All cars must qualify within 107% of the fastest time. Drivers can be given dispensation to start if they had a problem or an incident, and have demonstrated their pace earlier in the weekend. They must start at the back of the grid.

7. Drivers may be subject to grid penalties for reasons such as a driving offence in the previous race, an offence committed in practice or qualifying, or for technical infractions.

8. Any time a driver uses a fifth or higher example of any of six power unit elements (such as the V6 or turbo), they get a penalty. There is also a penalty for changing a gearbox prematurely – they are supposed to do six consecutive Saturday/Sundays.

9. Grid position penalties are taken into account in the order that the offences were committed. Drivers with engine or gearbox penalties line up in the order that their teams informed the FIA.

10. Those who do not set a time line up in the following order – any driver who attempted to set a qualifying time by starting a flying lap; any driver who failed to start a flying lap; any driver who failed to leave the pits. Qualifying order and the grid order are regularly different.



