Starting Grid¶

StartingGrid is the official grid order for a race. One record per driver, mapping a driver_number to a grid_position. Position 1 is pole; the highest position is the back of the grid.

The grid order is not always the same as the qualifying result. After qualifying, the FIA may apply penalties — typically grid-drop penalties from earlier sessions, or component-change penalties for exceeding the season's allocation of engines and gearboxes. Those penalties are baked into the grid; StartingGrid reflects the order the cars actually lined up in on Sunday.

This object is in beta in the OpenF1 API.

Fields¶

Field	Type	Meaning
`session_key`	int	The race session this grid belongs to. Race-only — there is no grid for practice or qualifying.
`meeting_key`	int	The race weekend.
`driver_number`	int	Driver.
`grid_position`	int	Starting slot, 1 = pole, increasing toward the back of the grid.

Sample record¶

{
  "driver_number": 55,
  "grid_position": 1,
  "meeting_key": 1219,
  "session_key": 9165
}

That record is Sainz on pole for the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.