Driver positions at the end of each lap are represented by lines in their team colours
The lines show the pathway of track positions over the course of the race
The first finisher for each team has a solid line while the second finisher has a line with dotted lap markers
The text on the left of the map indicates the starting grid positions
“PL” indicates a start from Pit Lane
The short coloured lines next to this text provide a key for mapping each driver to their line colour
Positions at the end of lap 1 are indicated by the position of the lines after the gap following the grid key
for example in the map above Perez (PER) passed Kvyat (KVY) on lap one so the vertical position of their lines are switched immediately following the starting gap
The short line at the right after the end gap indicates the final finishing positions
Retirements are indicated by a line that terminates prior to the end gap
for example Ericcson (ERI) dropped 5 places from 14th to 19th on the opening lap before recovering back to 14th and subsequently retiring before the halfway point (dark red line with white markers)
Ricciardo started from the Pit Lane and retired four laps after Ericcson
A driver’s race can be tracked by following the path of their line from the start of the race on the left of the map to the end of the race at the right of the map
The gap on the right of the map indicates the end of the race. Larger gaps indicate drivers who have been lapped by the leaders who therefore finished the race with less completed laps
CLARIFYING DIFFICULT MAPS
Sometimes the map becomes difficult to interpret due to a lot of activity – eg multiple pit stops leading to a significant number of position changes
F1 Bytes will often highlight certain drivers and darken the rest in order to provide clearer focus on particular pathways
for example see the map below of the 2017 Azerbaijan GP with Ricciardo and Bottas highlighted
both drivers had an incredible race. Bottas started 2nd on the grid before colliding with Raikonnen. This led to a puncture and an unscheduled pitstop. From last place Bottas managed to climb all the way back to 2nd place!
