Formula 1 is becoming increasingly popular with the masses following Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s outrageous battle throughout last season.
The rising popularity of Formula 1: Drive to Survive has also flooded the sport with waves of new fans, and it’s not always the easiest sport to pick up given the technical lingo used.
F1 on TV viewers will see the term ‘interval’ used alongside the names of drivers during spells of the race, but what does it all mean?
RadioTimes.com brings you a full explainer as to what ‘interval’ means in Formula 1 to help you settle into the new campaign in 2022.
Check out more F1 features: F1 calendar 2022 | F1 salaries 2022 | F1 drivers and teams 2022 | F1 presenters on Sky
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.