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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.

Table of Contents

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

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.

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

Installation

  1. Clone this repository:
git clone https://github.com/your-username/f1-lap-comparison.git
cd f1-lap-comparison
  1. Create and activate a virtual environment (recommended):
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
  1. Install dependencies:
pip install -r requirements.txt

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

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
  1. Run the main script:
python main.py
  1. 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

Dependencies

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

Install all Python dependencies with:

pip install fastf1 numpy matplotlib

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.

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")

Acknowledgement

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

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.