Racing glossary

75 racing terms explained in plain English: undercut, overcut, DRS, dirty air, tyre compounds, safety car, VSC, parc fermé, track limits, penalties and more.

Grid: The order the cars line up in before the race begins. Qualifying sets the grid: the fastest car starts first, at the front. In Slipstream the starting grid screen shows where every car begins and how far back it is from pole.
Pole position: First place on the starting grid, given to the fastest qualifier. Starting from pole is the best place to be, because passing is hard on most circuits. In Slipstream the quickest qualifying lap takes pole, and the grid screen marks it.
Flying lap: A lap driven at full speed to set the fastest time possible. A driver leaves the pits, builds up speed, then sets a time over one flat-out lap. Slipstream qualifying gives every car one flying lap to decide the grid.
Out-lap: The lap a driver uses to leave the pits and warm the car up. A car leaving the pit lane is not at racing speed straight away. The out-lap builds tyre and brake temperature before the flying lap begins. Qualifying shows OUT LAP next to cars on theirs.
Lap: One complete trip around the circuit, back to the start line. Slipstream races use each circuit real Grand Prix lap count, and the race bar counts the leader laps as they happen. Pausing the race to read the situation is always fine.
Final lap: The last trip around the circuit. The race ends at the end of it. The race bar highlights FINAL LAP. The leader takes the chequered flag at the end of it, and every other car finishes the next time it crosses the line.
Lights out: The moment the start lights go out and the race begins. Slipstream opens every race with a short lights sequence, then the feed says lights out and away we go. The engineer suggests starting in Balanced to protect the tyres on lap one.
Classification: The finishing order, which decides who scores points. A car needs 90% of the leading finisher's completed laps, rounded down with at least one lap required. Late retirements can be classified and score points. A car that takes the flag below the cutoff is NC. Classified cars rank by completed laps; finishers take priority over retirees on the same lap. A dry-compound breach moves a finisher behind compliant classified cars.
DNF: A car that started the race but did not reach the finish. In Slipstream a retirement can follow a mechanical problem, contact or an accident. A late retirement can still hold a classified position and score points; an early retirement scores zero. Reliability development lowers the chance of a mechanical failure.
DNS: A car that was entered but never made it to the start. A DNS is rarer than a DNF and happens before the race begins, usually after a late mechanical problem. The timing tower shows DNS in place of DNF for that car.
Retirement: When a car stops racing for good, usually with a mechanical problem. A retirement ends that car race. In Slipstream the chance depends on the reliability rating, the driving mode and a little luck, so upgrading reliability lowers the risk for both cars.
Lapped: A driver who is a full lap or more behind the leader. Lapped cars are shown with a lap deficit instead of a time gap. Blue flags tell them to move aside when a faster car arrives, and Slipstream makes them yield without a fight.
Gap: How much time separates one car from another on track. Slipstream shows the gap to the leader by default; the Gap/Int button on the timing tower switches between the two. Display times are scaled to believable lap times, and small gaps are where overtaking and the undercut happen.
Interval: The time between a car and the car directly in front of it. Switch the timing tower to Int to see each driver gap to the car ahead rather than to the leader. Intervals make it easier to spot a driver who is catching the one in front.
Slipstream: The speed boost from following closely behind another car. It is where Slipstream the game gets its name. In the simulation a successful pass commits the car to a short boost, which is why closing right up to the car ahead matters.
Dirty air: The disturbed air behind a car, which costs the car behind some speed. In Slipstream a car within a couple of lengths of a slower car is held slightly below that car speed until it finds a way past. Following closely costs a little pace, but sets up the slipstream boost.
Overtaking zone: A part of the track, usually a long straight, where passing is likely. Circuits are built from corners and straights, and the long full-speed runs become the natural passing places. The chance of a pass also depends on how much faster your car is at that point of the lap.
Fastest lap: The quickest single lap set by any car during the race. The fastest lap appears in the race bar and on the results screen. In Slipstream it carries no extra points: Grands Prix pay the top 10 classified cars and sprints the top 8.
Race engineer: The voice on the radio who watches the data and suggests what to do next. In Slipstream the engineer gives each of your cars one clear, explained call: box now, stay out, push or conserve. In Rookie mode the engineer can make the calls for you through the Auto setting.
Pit wall: Where the team decision makers sit and make the race calls. You are on the pit wall in Slipstream: you choose starting tyres, pit timing and driving modes for both cars. That is the whole job, and pausing to think is part of it.
Sector: One of three equal parts of a lap, used to say where something happened. Slipstream splits every circuit into three sectors. When a yellow flag or an incident happens, the race feed names the sector so you can picture roughly where on the lap the car stopped.
Compound: The type of tyre on a car: Soft, Medium or Hard. Compounds trade grip for life. Soft is quickest but wears fastest, Hard is slowest but lasts longest, and Medium sits between. Every race plan is built around which compounds to use and when.
Soft: The fastest tyre, marked red, but the one that wears out quickest. In Slipstream a fresh Soft is about 1.3% faster per lap than a fresh Hard, but wears roughly 11% per lap against 4.5%. Great for a short final stint or a qualifying-style burst, risky for a long opening run.
Medium: The middle tyre, marked yellow: good pace with good life. A fresh Medium is about 0.6% faster per lap than a Hard and wears around 7% per lap, so it often works as a flexible first stint or a safe final one.
Hard: The slowest tyre, marked white, but the one that lasts longest. A fresh Hard is the baseline: no pace bonus, but only about 4.5% wear per lap. Starting on Hards lets you run a long first stint, or makes a one-stop plan comfortable.
Tyre wear: How used up a tyre is. More wear means less grip and slower laps. Each car panel shows a wear percentage and a rough countdown to the cliff. Wear rises faster in Push mode, on abrasive circuits and with harder driving styles, and rises slower in Conserve.
Tyre life: How much of the tyre is still good, shown as a percentage. Life is simply 100% minus wear. The car panel also estimates how many laps remain before the cliff, which is the number to watch when planning a stop.
The cliff: The point where a worn tyre suddenly starts losing a lot of time. Losses grow gently with wear until the tyre passes about 78% wear, then they fall away sharply. Stopping a lap or two before the cliff is usually cheaper than staying out. The stint timeline marks the projected cliff lap.
Stint: The stretch of a race run on one set of tyres. A race is a series of stints between stops. The stint timeline under each driver shows completed stints in compound colours, the projected cliff and your pit window.
Tyre window: The range where a tyre works best: warm enough but not too hot. Tyres give their best grip in a working range of temperature. In Slipstream the phrase appears during safety car periods, where the advice is to keep the tyres in that window so you are ready to push at the restart.
Abrasion: How rough a circuit surface is, which changes how fast tyres wear. Abrasive circuits eat tyres faster. Every Slipstream circuit carries its own abrasion value, and the tyre charts on the how it works page show what that does to pace over a stint.
Undercut: Stopping for fresh tyres before a rival, hoping to jump ahead of them. Fresh tyres are much faster for a few laps, so stopping first and rejoining in clear air can pass a rival without any on-track overtaking. The engineer calls one when the gap and tyre ages line up.
Overcut: Staying out longer than a rival, hoping their fresh tyres get stuck in traffic. The overcut is the reverse of the undercut. It works best when a rival rejoins into traffic or when your pace on the older tyres is still strong. Slipstream favours the undercut in its advice, but the call is yours.
Pit window: The stretch of laps where making a pit stop is likely to work best. The window opens when a fresh set can comfortably reach the finish and closes when waiting longer means running into the cliff. The engineer shows it above each car as something like L12 to L14.
Pit loss: The time a car gives up by driving through the pit lane and stopping. The pit lane runs at half racing speed and the stop itself takes around 1.6 to 2.0 seconds, so a stop costs several seconds overall. New tyres only pay off if they save more time than that.
Box: Team radio slang for calling a car in for new tyres. Box this lap queues your driver for the next pit entry. Choose the next compound first, and remember you can cancel any time before the car turns into the pit lane.
Pit stop: When a car pulls off the track for new tyres while the crew changes its wheels. A stop costs the pit lane drive plus a stationary spell of around 1.6 to 2.0 seconds. Slipstream keeps counting laps while a car is in the pit lane, and there is a small random element to every stop.
Pit lane: The slow lane beside the track that cars use for stops. Pit lane speed is limited to 50% of normal in Slipstream, and a car takes the pit entry at the end of a lap. Leaving a pit box into another car path can earn an unsafe release penalty.
Attack: The most aggressive driving mode: fastest, dives at every gap, and burns the tyres. Attack is about 1.1% faster per lap and makes overtakes and defending noticeably more likely to succeed, but tyre wear nearly doubles and mistakes and failures become far more likely. Use it for a few laps to make a move stick or in a final charge.
Manage: A driving mode between Balanced and Conserve: slightly slower, tyres last a bit longer. Manage is about 0.4% slower per lap and cuts tyre wear by about a fifth, with slightly less mistake risk. It stretches a stint without giving away as much time as Conserve.
Push: A driving mode that is faster but wears the tyres sooner and adds risk. Push is about 0.8% faster per lap, with roughly 45% more tyre wear and 60% more mistake risk. Save it for a short burst or the final laps, when the engineer says the tyres will reach the flag.
Balanced: The standard driving mode: normal pace with normal tyre wear. Balanced is the baseline every other mode is measured against. It is the safe choice for most of a race, and the mode the engineer starts you in at lights out.
Conserve: A driving mode that is a little slower but makes the tyres last longer. Conserve is about 0.8% slower per lap but cuts tyre wear by nearly 40%, which can be the difference between another stop and reaching the flag. It also helps protect a position in the closing laps.
Auto: A setting where the race engineer makes the pit and mode calls for you. Tick Auto on a driver and the engineer handles that car: it boxes for tyres at sensible moments and switches between Push, Balanced and Conserve. Untick it at any time to take back control.
Compound rule: The dry Grand Prix requirement to use two different dry tyre compounds. In a dry Grand Prix, finishing on a single compound means being classified behind every car that obeyed the rule, so a stop is compulsory. The rule is waived if any car uses Intermediates or Wets, and does not apply to sprints. The engineer warns you when the rule is still owed.
Time penalty: Time added to a car result after the race for breaking a rule. Slipstream adds penalty time at the flag, so a driver can still drive away from it on track. Track limits offences and unsafe releases both cost five seconds, and the results list the reason.
Track limits: The rule about keeping the car on the track. Going off too often costs time. Running wide is fine once in a while, but Slipstream counts offences and every third one costs five seconds. The race feed warns you at one of three and two of three.
Unsafe release: Sending a car out of its pit box into the path of another car. When a car leaves its box into traffic there is a small chance of an unsafe release, which costs five seconds at the flag. It is one of the reasons a pit stop is never entirely risk free.
Stewards: The officials who watch the race and decide on penalties. In Slipstream the stewards mostly appear through the penalties they hand out for track limits and unsafe releases. The results screen lists any penalty applied to a car.
Pit lane start: When a car starts the race from the pit lane instead of the grid. Slipstream can occasionally send a car to the pit lane after a late problem. It joins behind the whole grid, which is a big handicap, and the timing tower shows PL until the car has stopped.
Restart: The moment racing resumes after a safety car period. When the safety car pulls in, the field races back up to speed. Gaps that built up while everyone queued are now tiny, so restarts are a common place for overtaking and mistakes.
Green flag: The signal that the track is clear and racing is on. Slipstream shows green flag messages at the start and after every safety car period. Green around the whole circuit simply means race as normal.
Yellow flag: A warning for danger ahead: slow down there and do not overtake. Slipstream raises a yellow in a specific sector when a car stops, spins, runs wide or locks up. It clears once the incident is over, or a safety car follows if the car cannot be moved.
Double yellow: A stronger warning flag shown when the danger is more serious. Slipstream shows a double yellow when a car has actually stopped on track. It lasts longer than a normal yellow, and the safety car or virtual safety car usually follows.
Blue flag: A flag telling a slower car to move aside for a faster one. Blue flags are shown to lapped cars so the leaders can get through. In Slipstream a lapped car yields on blue flags, which is why the leaders rarely get stuck in traffic.
Red flag: The signal to stop the session because it is not safe to continue. In the sport a red flag can stop a session, and it uses the same three colours as a set of traffic lights. Slipstream prototype races run to the chequered flag, so you mostly meet this term in the primer.
Chequered flag: The flag that ends the race. The first car to see it wins. The leader takes the chequered flag at the end of the final lap, and every other car finishes the next time it crosses the line. Slipstream then shows the classification and pays the points.
Safety car: A car that comes out to slow everyone down after an incident. Everyone queues behind the safety car and overtaking is banned while the track is cleared. The field is bunched up, so a pit stop costs far less time than usual, which is why the engineer often calls a cheap stop when one is out.
Virtual safety car: A slow-down period without a car on track. Drivers hold a set pace. The VSC slows the whole field for a fixed period instead of bunching it up. Gaps stay roughly as they were, but a pit stop is still cheaper than under green flags.
Constructors championship: The championship for teams, scored by adding both drivers points. Slipstream runs two titles side by side: one for drivers and one for teams. Every point either of your drivers scores also counts for your team, and constructor points fund your development budget.
Drivers championship: The championship for individual drivers, decided by their points. The driver with the most points after the 24 rounds wins. Ties are split by wins, then second places, then third places, and so on.
Points: The score a driver earns for finishing in the top ten. Slipstream pays 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 for positions one to ten. Sprints pay the top eight: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. There is no fastest lap point.
Budget: The in-game money you spend on car upgrades. You start with £10m. Each race pays £2.5m plus £200k per constructor point you score, and core upgrade levels cost from £4m to £30m across six levels, and race systems cost about half that. Rival teams earn the same race income, pay their own driver salaries and spend what is left on upgrades, so stronger teams can develop faster. All amounts are fictional game balancing, shown in pounds using a fixed conversion.
Engine: An upgrade that adds straight-line speed, best on power circuits. Each engine level adds 4 engine rating. Power pays off most where a circuit has long straights, so it shines at places like Monza and Jeddah, and matters less through tight corners. Upgrades apply to both of your cars.
Aero: An upgrade that adds cornering grip, best on technical circuits. Each aero level adds 4 aero rating. Aero pays off through the corners, so it is most valuable at technical circuits like Monaco and Hungary. Upgrades apply to both cars and lock once qualifying starts.
Reliability: An upgrade that makes mechanical failures less likely. Each reliability level adds 7 rating and lowers the chance that either car retires. A retirement scores nothing, so for a weaker team a level of reliability can be worth more than a little extra pace.
Suspension: A race systems upgrade that makes tyres wear more slowly. Each suspension level cuts tyre wear by 3% on every compound, so stints last longer and the cliff arrives later. It suits tyre-hungry circuits and one-stop plans. Rivals can buy it too. All values are fictional game balancing.
Pit crew: A race systems upgrade for quicker, cleaner pit stops. Each pit crew level takes 0.1s off every stop and makes wheel-gun problems and cross-threaded wheels less likely. Small on its own, but it adds up over a two-stop race and helps the undercut.
Energy recovery: A race systems upgrade that helps your cars attack and defend. More battery power to deploy means better odds when your driver tries a pass, and a stronger defence when someone tries to pass them. Each level adds 4% to attack and 3% to defence. It does not change lap time on its own.
Grand Prix: One race on the calendar, run over a set number of laps. Slipstream season has 24 Grands Prix and uses each circuit real race distance in laps. Display lap times are scaled to a believable reference lap, so a one or two stop race stays the norm.
Sprint: A short Saturday race that pays fewer points and needs no mandatory stop. Six rounds in Slipstream are sprint weekends. The sprint runs about 100 km and pays the top eight reduced points. A sprint has no compound rule, so most cars run one set flat out and only stop if the tyres fade.
Sprint qualifying: The short session that sets the starting order for the sprint race. Slipstream runs sprint qualifying as its own session before the sprint, and its result sets the sprint grid. The Grand Prix then gets separate qualifying later in the weekend.
Qualifying: The session where each car sets a fast lap to decide the starting order. Slipstream runs three knockout stages. All 22 cars enter Q1, 16 advance to Q2 and ten reach Q3. The classification updates with each attempt; you can watch the laps or skip to the confirmed grid.
Knockout qualifying: The real three-round qualifying format where the slowest cars drop out. Both real F1 and Slipstream use Q1, Q2 and Q3. With 22 cars, six leave after Q1 and six after Q2. The final ten compete for pole in Q3. Drivers eliminated earlier keep their positions from that stage.
Round: One stop on the calendar: a circuit and its race weekend. A Slipstream season is 24 rounds. Rival teams improve a little after every round, so standing still means slipping back. The garage shows your upcoming rounds and what each circuit rewards.