How to Play

A complete guide for new players — from sign-up to the podium.

1

What is Pit Lane?

Pit Lane is a free-to-play Formula 1 prediction game. Each Grand Prix weekend you predict how the race will unfold. Over the course of a full season you also predict the final championship standings for both drivers and constructors.

There is no real money involved. All prizes and winnings are symbolic — this is purely for bragging rights, friendly competition, and the satisfaction of calling a race before the lights go out.

New to F1? The more you know the drivers, teams, and circuits, the better your predictions will be — but anyone can play and get lucky.

2

Make Season Predictions — Do This First

Before the very first race of the season, you get one opportunity to predict where every driver and team will finish when the season is over. These are your season predictions, and they are only available for a limited window.

  • Drivers Championship: Predict the top 10 drivers in order for their final Driver Championship standings.
  • Constructors Championship: Predict all in order for the final Constructor Championship standings.

Important deadline: Season predictions are locked permanently once Qualifying for the first race of the season begins. After that, you cannot edit them at all. If you miss this window entirely you can still compete in weekly race predictions, but you will not be eligible for the season championship prizes.

3

Make Race Predictions Every Weekend

For every Grand Prix on the calendar, you predict the outcome of that specific race. Find the prediction form from your Dashboard or the Predictions menu.

Your race prediction has three parts:

  1. Top 10 Finishers: Drag 10 drivers into your predicted finishing order, 1st through 10th. You must select exactly 10 drivers before you can submit.
  2. Fastest Lap Pick: Pick one driver you think will set the fastest lap of the race.
  3. Crash / DNF Pick: Pick one driver you think will crash or fail to finish the race.
    • Accident / Crash: Used when a driver hits a wall or barrier independently.
    • Collision: Used when two or more cars make contact, resulting in a DNF.
    • Damage: Occasionally, a car may officially retire due to "Floor damage" or "Wing damage" sustained earlier in the race that makes the car undrivable or unsafe, even if they didn't crash out instantly.

Deadline: the start of Qualifying. Once Qualifying for that weekend begins, your prediction is locked. You can edit your picks as many times as you like right up until that moment — so keep an eye on the schedule and adjust if news breaks during the week.

4

How Race Scoring Works

After the race, the league administrator enters the official FIA results. The scoring engine then calculates points for every player's prediction automatically.

Points use the official Formula 1 championship points scale:

Finish PositionPoints
1st25 pts
2nd18 pts
3rd15 pts
4th12 pts
5th10 pts
6th8 pts
7th6 pts
8th4 pts
9th2 pts
10th1 pt

Here is the twist: for each driver you predicted, your score is based on the worse of the two positions — your prediction or their actual finish.

Think of it as a penalty for being wrong in either direction. Predicted someone too high and they finished lower? You score based on their actual (lower) finish. Predicted someone too low and they actually finished higher? You still only score based on your (lower) prediction.

Your PredictionActual FinishScored AtPoints Earned
1st1st1st — exact match25 pts
2nd1st2nd — your pick was worse18 pts
1st4th4th — actual was worse12 pts
3rd8th8th — actual was worse4 pts
1stOutside top 100 pts
Driver not in your 101st0 pts

Key insight: You only earn points for drivers you actually picked in your top 10. If someone wins the race but you did not include them in your prediction, you get zero for them — no matter how well they did.

5

Single Player Mode

When you first join the game you are put able to make predictions and play as a single player. You won't be competing against anyone other than yourself. To compete against other player you will need to join a League.

6

Join or Create a League

Leagues are how competition is organized. Your predictions are shared across all leagues you belong to, but standings, points, and prizes are tracked separately within each one.

  • Single Player League: Single Player league is a special league. Everyone that joins is able to make predicitons and see their scoring in the Single PLayer league. You do not compete against anyone else.
  • Pit Lane Fantasy Racing League: Open to everyone on the platform. Join it to compete against all other players globally. Go to the Leagues page and click "Join Public League".
  • Public Leagues: Open to everyone on the platform. Join it to compete against all other players globally. Go to the Leagues page and click "Join Public League". Some public leagues the league manager will have to approve a request to join.
  • Private Leagues: Invite-only, typically used for a group of friends, family, or colleagues. A league manager creates it and shares a unique join code. Enter that code on the Leagues page to join.
  • Create Your Own: You can start a league at any time from the Leagues page.

You can be in multiple leagues at once. Your predictions are the same everywhere, but each league has its own leaderboard and its own prize pool.

7

Leaderboards & Winnings

Track how you stack up on the Standings page. Standings are per-league, so you might be leading one league while trailing in another — each is its own competition.

If you are in multiple leagues, you can change which league you are viewing by selecting the league from the league dropdown at the top of the screen.

  • Season Leaderboard: Shows total points earned across all completed predictions in the season. Note that it also includes the season long points for the season championship predictions.

    Note that the winnings shown in this seaction is a total of all winnings from every prediction in the season. This includes the season championship predictions. This is purely symbolic currency for bragging rights and is not actual money.

  • Races Leaderboard: Shows total race prediction points earned across all completed races in the season.
  • Season Championship Tabs: Separate leaderboards for Drivers and Constructors Championship predictions, updated each week after final results are entered.

League switching: If you are in multiple leagues, use the league selector on the Dashboard to switch between them and see league-specific standings and winnings.