How to Start Learning Formula 1 Data Analysis During the Winter Break
With the 2021 season over, I’m sure you might be looking for some great stuff to do during the winter break. Why not learn how to analyze Formula 1 data yourself?
Over the past few months, I have been creating tutorials about how to analyze & visualize Formula 1 data using Python. This article is to briefly run you through them, so you have some guidance if you want to start learning!
If you are a complete beginner…
If you’re new to Python and data analysis, I have created a tutorial designed specifically for you. It shows you how to set up your Python environment, how to install the required packages and how to retrieve your first Formula 1 data. You can check it out here:
If you want to analyze telemetry…
If you want to dive into the throttle, brake, speed, gear and DRS data of drivers during a lap, these tutorials are your next stop! The following tutorial analyzes the fastest laps of Hamilton and Bottas during the Dutch GP, which showed some interesting insights:
If you want to analyze telemetry, but also want to take it one step further by putting it into context by analyzing a battle in a race, you might want to have a look at the following tutorial. This tutorial dives into the battle between Verstappen and Ricciardo during the Italian GP.
If you want to analyze minisectors of a lap…
In other words: if you really want to do cool stuff with data. Well, actually, that is just my opinion, but I was really hyped when I found out the way to do this and the insights that these analyses gave me. That’s why I’m more than happy to share them.
First of all, I did a tutorial after the Russian GP. When the rain started falling, the big question was whether a car should switch to inters or not. I analyzed the minisectors of both types of tyres, and where they were faster. You can check it out here:
In addition, I created a bit more straightforward tutorial, comparing the fastest laps of two drivers during qualifying. In this case, I did it for Hamilton vs. Verstappen during the qualification of the Abu Dhabi GP, but this is easily adjustable to other drivers and/or races. Check it out here:
If you want to visualize the championship standings…
Next to telemetry and minisectors, there’s also more high-level data available. With that, I mean data like race results, qualifying results, championship standings, et cetera. This data is all available through the Ergast API, about which I created a tutorial that shows you how to visualize the championship standings. You can check it out here:
If you want to visualize teammate qualifying battles…
Another analysis using data from the Ergast API is about the teammate qualifying battles. An easy and straightforward graph that can easily be obtained through just Googling the results and putting them in Excel, but actually there’s much more to it when you do it in Python which can be really interesting and insightful.
So, that’s what I created for you to get through the off-season. More is to come. Please, share all your insights, feedback and ideas. I’d love to find out what you make from it.
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