![]() Not to be confused with: Running faster than an F1 car. Use it in a sentence: “Fernando Alonso outperformed his car to qualify third” Fernando Alonso has been a prime example over much of the last decade, but other famous ones include Ayrton Senna’s performance for Toleman at Monaco in 1984 and Sebastian Vettel’s win for Toro Rosso at Monza in 2008. What is it: When a driver’s talent manages to overcome the limitations of a car that is far from the class of the field. READ MORE: 5 storylines that could define F1 in the ‘20s OUTPERFORMING THE CAR Not to be confused with: Something that requires a verruca sock in the case of blistering, or something to do with trees in the case of graining. Use it in a sentence: “We were struggling a little more than Ferrari with the tyre blistering”/ "I had a lot of graining on my tyres because we went out on the soft in very cold conditions and they lost temperature” Graining is when the tyre’s carcass is cold and surface is hot, with the resulting flex in the tyre causing the rubber to chunk off and stick to the surface of the tyre, reducing grip. What is it: Blistering is when the temperature imbalance between a tyre’s hot carcass (the inner bit) and cold surface (the outer bit) cause pieces of rubber to explode out of the tyre, leaving a hole. Not to be confused with: Anything involving the gluteus maximus. Use it in a sentence: “The car had a good balance, although on my qualifying lap, it was bottoming and I lost some time” The act of bottoming was made more spectacular, if you’ll pardon the expression, by the introduction of titanium skid blocks in 2015, which throw off a shower of sparks when the cars’ undersides hit the deck. It’s usually caused by bumps in the track or a sudden rise or crest, à la Eau Rouge. What is it: Quite simply, it’s when the underside of the car hits the track. Not to be confused with: A gastric problem. But once he pitted and I got some clean air, I could start to put in some decent laps” Use it in a sentence: “I tried to get past but I was stuck in his dirty air. Clean air is when a car is out on its own, with a nice, undisturbed airflow passing over its wings, providing good downforce. What is it: ‘Dirty air’ is created by the odd vortices of air spinning off the back of a leading car and reducing the efficient airflow over the wings of the following one, giving it a performance disadvantage by reducing downforce. ![]() ![]() READ MORE: Our beginner’s guide to F1 cliches DIRTY AIR/CLEAN AIR Not to be confused with: Lots of small glass balls on the track. Use it in a sentence: “I got onto the marbles in the hairpin, went a bit wide and got the tyres dirty” Driving over them after the chequered flag, however, is a nifty tactic the drivers use to try and make sure their cars aren’t underweight at the race end. Running onto them mid-race can be treacherous as they prevent the tyre making proper contact with the road, thereby reducing grip. What are they: Small pieces of rubber that are shredded from the tyres during cornering, which build up off the racing line. Not to be confused with: A haircut popular with hipsters the world over. Use it in a sentence: “He’s going to try to use the undercut to get ahead” What is it: When a driver, struggling to get past another car, pits early in a bid to get a performance advantage from fresh tyres that will hopefully put them ahead when their rival then pits. So to help new fans get themselves up to speed, we decided to produce a guide to some of the most commonly used pieces of F1 slang, and what they mean – and here it is! UNDERCUT But with F1 being the technical, jargon-laden sport that it is, it can sometimes be hard for a newbie to work out what the hell the drivers, team bosses and commentators are talking about half the time. A new F1 season means a new set of fans ready to immerse themselves in the technicolour, sensory overload-y glory that is Formula 1 (we’re biased, we know).
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