F1 Lap Comparison – Ghost Lap Animation V 0.1

Analyze and visualize Formula 1 drivers’ lap performances across seasons with a ghost lap animation. This project lets you compare a driver’s lap from one year against another on the same track, showing where time is gained or lost in each sector.

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Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Project Structure
• Installation
• Usage
• Dependencies
• Example Output
• Customization
• Acknowledgements
• License

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Overview

The F1 Lap Comparison Project leverages the FastF1 library to load F1 telemetry data and produce a side-by-side ghost lap comparison between two years. It is designed for F1 enthusiasts, data analysts, and anyone curious about lap-by-lap performance differences.

Key highlights include:

• Telemetry-based lap analysis
• Sector-wise time comparison
• Animated ghost lap visualization on the track
• Speed vs. distance plotting

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Features

• Load and process fastest laps for any driver, track, and session.
• Normalize lap distance for consistent comparison.
• Split a lap into three sectors and compute sector deltas.
• Visualize ghost laps side-by-side with moving markers.
• Display sector time differences in real-time during animation.
• Export the animation as an MP4 video.

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Project Structure

The repository is organized as follows:

F1-Lap-Comparison/
├─ data/
  └─ cache/
├─ config.py           # Project configuration (driver, track, session, years)
├─ load_data.py        # Functions to load fastest lap telemetry using FastF1
├─ preprocess.py       # Functions to normalize telemetry distances
├─ analysis.py         # Compute sectors and sector-wise lap times
├─ visualization.py    # Ghost lap animation and speed plotting
├─ style.py            # Color scheme and styling for plots
└─ main.py             # Entry point to run the full comparison workflow

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Installation

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/f1-lap-comparison.git
cd f1-lap-comparison

2. Create and activate a virtual environment (recommended):

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

⚠️ Make sure you have ffmpeg installed on your system for exporting MP4 animations.

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Usage

1. Update config.py with your preferred driver, track, session, and years:

YEAR_1 = 2019
YEAR_2 = 2025
DRIVER = "NOR"
TRACK = "Spa-Francorchamps"
SESSION = "Q"  # Q = Qualifying, R = Race, FP1/FP2/FP3 = Practice

2. Run the main script:

python main.py

3. The script will: • Load telemetry for both years • Normalize distance and compute sector times • Generate a ghost lap animation • Export the animation as ghost_lap_comparison.mp4

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Dependencies

•	Python 3.9+
•	FastF1 – F1 telemetry library
•	NumPy
•	Matplotlib
•	FFmpeg (for animation export)

Install all Python dependencies with:

pip install fastf1 numpy matplotlib

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Example Output

• Animated ghost lap of Lando Norris comparing 2019 vs 2025 on Spa-Francorchamps • Speed vs Distance graph with moving cursor • Sector-wise delta displayed in real-time

⚠️ The cache folder data/cache will store session data to speed up repeated runs.

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Customization

• Change the driver, track, session, or years in config.py. • Adjust plot styling and colors in style.py. • Modify sector split logic in analysis.py for more than 3 sectors. • Enable dark mode by uncommenting the line in visualization.py:

# plt.style.use("dark_background")

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Acknowledgement

• FastF1 Library – Telemetry data source • Formula 1 community for telemetry and data insights • Inspiration from ghost lap animations in F1 broadcasts

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License

Copyright © 2026 Karim Attia

Licensed under the MIT License. You may obtain a copy of the License in the LICENSE file included in this repository.