Curious about Formula 1? If you’ve never really taken the time to figure out the nuances of the sport and what makes it so fascinating to follow, the App Store is here to help.

Read on for our starter guide to everything F1, and put this app in pole position on your Home Screen to keep up with all the action on and off the track this season.

Eleven teams are competing in 2026, and even if you’ve never watched F1, you’ll recognise some names, such as Ferrari, Cadillac and Mercedes.

Each team has two competing drivers who try to cross the finish line as high up in the order as possible, with each position netting a certain amount of points. Whoever has the most points out of all drivers at the end of the season is that year’s champion.

Running in tandem is the constructors’ championship. The cumulative points of each team’s drivers count towards the standing of the team – but the champion driver’s team isn’t always the constructors’ title winner (Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the 2024 champion, but rival team McLaren took the constructors’ trophy).

There are 24 races this season, taking drivers and teams from the Americas to Australia and in between. The calendar is packed with classic tracks that have a long history in the sport, such as Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, Zandvoort in The Netherlands and Interlagos in Brazil, but in recent years there have been lots of new tracks, including Las Vegas and Miami in the US and Lusail in Qatar.

In three parts: practice, qualifying and the race. Practice is an opportunity to test out different car setups. Qualifying is where the battle really begins. Over three rounds, drivers have to set speedy lap times, with the 15 fastest drivers from round 1 (or Q1) moving to Q2. From there, the 10 fastest go to Q3. The lap times are then used to sort the starting grid for the race – the fastest driver starts in pole position.

The race weekend in some countries adds one more wrinkle: the Sprint. This is a shorter format race (100 kilometers) that has its own qualifying event. It’s an opportunity to rack up more points and can give viewers a good indication of how everyone will fare in the race. In 2026, there are six Sprints set to take place in China, Miami, Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands and Singapore.

Tyre management is key to race day strategy. Over a race weekend, teams choose between three tyre types: soft, medium and hard. Softs have the most grip and allow drivers to keep the pace high – but they also degrade the quickest. Hards offer less grip but last longer. Every driver needs to use at least two different tyre types during a race – provided it’s dry. If it’s raining or if the circuit is wet, they can use intermediate or wet tyres, depending on the track conditions.

Which tyres to use, how long each set is used for and what type to switch to when you pit – as well as whether to pit once or twice – are crucial race decisions. Every pit stop is a trade-off: it takes time to swap the tyres (generally a pit manoeuvre takes 20 to 30 seconds), but that fresh set will increase pace substantially. Timing a pit stop just right can be the key to outpacing cars ahead and clinching victory.

Not exactly! F1 is unpredictable – it only takes one incident on track to leave teams scrambling to figure out a new strategy. For example, a safety car will force cars to bunch up and drive at a slower pace until the danger on track is cleared – in this scenario, losing 20 seconds on a pit stop for fresh tyres can be a smart tactic since places can be more easily made up again.