Every Formula 1 car broadcasts a stream of sensor data to the timing system several times a second. The public feed includes six channels: speed, engine RPM, gear, throttle position, brake (on or off) and the DRS/aero flag. Laid out against distance around the lap, they tell you almost everything about how a driver took each corner. The telemetry tab on the race data page draws exactly these traces for up to three drivers at once.
Always compare against distance, not time
Two laps plotted against time drift apart immediately: the faster car reaches each corner earlier, so by the second sector you are comparing one driver’s braking zone with another’s straight. Plotting against distance from the start line lines the corners up, so a difference you can see is a difference in how the corner was driven. StatChecked integrates speed over time to get distance for each lap, which is why every chart shares the same horizontal axis.
The speed trace
The speed trace is the backbone. Straights appear as long climbs, and every corner is a “V” or “U” whose lowest point is the minimum corner speed. Three things are worth reading:
- Minimum speed. A higher floor in a slow corner usually means a car with better mechanical grip or a driver carrying more speed in.
- Where the drop starts. The point where speed starts falling is the braking point. A driver who brakes later holds top speed a few metres longer.
- Top speed at the end of a straight. This is where drag, engine mode, slipstream and DRS show up. A big top-speed gap with similar corner speeds usually means a different wing level.
Throttle and brake
Throttle is reported as a percentage. On a quick lap most of the trace sits at 100%, dropping to zero where the driver brakes. The interesting part is the pick-up after the apex: an early, clean ramp back to full throttle means the car is stable on exit. A saw-tooth pattern of lifts means the driver is managing wheelspin or a car that wants to oversteer.
The broadcast brake channel is only on/off, so it shows when a driver braked but not how hard. Line up two drivers’ brake traces and the braking points are easy to compare. Overlaps between throttle and brake are rare in modern F1 and usually mean the driver is balancing the car through a fast direction change.
Gears and RPM
The gear trace shows the lowest gear used in each corner, which is a quick way to classify a circuit: Monaco’s hairpin drops to first gear, while Silverstone’s Maggotts and Becketts stay in sixth and seventh. RPM rises through each gear and resets at every upshift, so it mostly confirms the gear trace. Differences in upshift points between teams can hint at different engine or gearbox strategies.
DRS and active aerodynamics
From 2018 to 2025 the drag reduction system opened a flap in the rear wing on designated straights, adding typically 10–15 km/h by the end of the straight. When comparing race laps from those seasons, check whether one driver had DRS and the other did not before drawing conclusions about raw pace; in qualifying everyone could use it, so the comparison is fair.
The 2026 regulations replaced DRS with active aerodynamics, where the wings switch to a low-drag setting on straights for every car, and added an electrical-energy boost for a car close behind another. Top-speed differences in 2026 sessions therefore say more about energy deployment than about a wing flap.
A worked approach
- Pick two drivers’ fastest laps from the same session.
- Find the corners where their speed traces separate. That is where the time is.
- Look at the brake trace just before that corner: did one brake later?
- Look at the minimum speed: did one carry more through the apex?
- Look at the throttle pick-up after the apex: did one get back to full power sooner?
Most of the lap time between two good drivers is found in a handful of corners, and it almost always shows up as one of those three things. Once you have found the corner, open the 3D replay to watch the cars through it.