F1 Explains: The Grid – what happens before lights out?

Packed with drivers, cars, team personnel, media, celebrities and more, their voices drowned out by the noise of passionate fans in the grandstands and engineers at work, the Formula 1 grid before a race start is probably the most exciting, chaotic and loudest places to be in all sport.

But what actually happens on the grid before lights out? How are the drivers preparing in those final moments before going into battle? What work is being done on the cars? 

Christian Hewgill and Molly Hudson, F1 correspondent for UK newspaper The Times, are together on the grid before this year’s F1 Sprint race in Zandvoort to answer those questions and explain the rules everyone has to follow on the grid.

Plus, Cadillac Reserve Driver Zhou Guanyu, who drove for Alfa Romeo/Sauber between 2022 and 2024, gives us the drivers’ perspective of what it’s like being in that environment when you’re about to go racing.