F1 facts and figures

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The Formula One season is right around the corner, so we've come up with a few facts so you can impress your friends and to get you bang up to date this year's competition.

Weight-issues
Once an F1 is completely pieced together, it can weigh no more than 605 kilograms with the driver inside.

Boiling point
Drivers can sweat off anything up to 3kg of their body weight during the course of a race.

Cheats never prosper
The maximum penalty for cheating has been raised this year from $100,000 to a massive $250,000, following Ferrai's team orders mess-up in 2010.

Tyred
A Formula One tyre is designed to last for, at most, 200 kilometres and is constructed to be as light and strong as possible.

Fuel duty
During a typical season a Formula One team will use over 200,000 litres of fuel for testing and racing.

Air-head
Formula One tyres are normally filled with a special, nitrogen-rich air mixture, designed to minimise variations in tyre pressure with temperature. The mixture also retains the pressure longer than normal air would.

Rule change
2011 sees the return of the 107% rule for qualifying. Under this rule, any driver who fails to record a time within 107% of the fastest lap in Q1 can’t compete in the race.

Young at heart
Defending champion Sebastian Vettel is the youngest ever winner. He was 23 and 133 days old when he won last year.

Old-hat
The oldest ever winner was Juan Manuel Fangio, who was 46 and 41 days old back in 1957.