How to play
- Lights come onFive red lights switch on one second apart.
- Hold your nerveWith all five lit, they hold for a random 0.2 to 3 seconds.
- Go on lights outClicking while any light is on is a jump start, and that start runs again.
- Five startsYour score is the median of the five.
How a real Formula 1 start works
Every Grand Prix begins the same way. Five pairs of red lights hang above the start line. They come on one pair at a time, one second apart. Once all five are lit, there is a pause, and nobody knows how long it will last, not even the drivers.
The race director holds the lights for a random 0.2 to 3 seconds. Then every light goes out at once, and that is the start signal. There is no green light. The race starts when the lights go out.
The random pause is the whole point. If the gap were fixed, drivers would launch on a memorized rhythm, and the start would test timing practice instead of reflexes. Moving before the lights go out is a jump start, and in a real race it earns a penalty.
A real reaction can even be fast enough to look like cheating. At the 2017 Austrian Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas launched so close to the signal that the stewards investigated him for a jump start. They found the start was legal.
What counts as a good start
The badge on your result uses the same scale as the standard reaction test. The numbers are on-screen times, with browser delay included.
| Screen median | Badge | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Under 150 | Superhuman | Hard to reach by reacting to the lights. Check that you were not riding the rhythm. |
| 150-179 | Pro tier | Right at the edge of what people can do. |
| 180-209 | Skilled | A clearly fast start. |
| 210-289 | Standard | Where most healthy adults land. |
| 290-359 | Warming up | Slower than typical. Early starts are often too cautious. |
| 360+ | Needs practice | Most likely fatigue, a laggy setup or a background tab. |
Real scores recorded on this site
So far, 125 runs of this test have been recorded here. Computers and phones score quite differently, so each gets its own table.
Computer (mouse)
| Range | Share |
|---|---|
| Under 150 · Superhuman | |
| 150-179 · Pro tier | |
| 180-209 · Skilled | |
| 210-289 · Standard | |
| 290-359 · Warming up | |
| 360+ · Needs practice |
Phone (touch)
| Range | Share |
|---|---|
| Under 150 · Superhuman | |
| 150-179 · Pro tier | |
| 180-209 · Skilled | |
| 210-289 · Standard | |
| 290-359 · Warming up | |
| 360+ · Needs practice |
Every finished run counts, so someone who plays five times adds five runs. The numbers are recounted every day, and a device table shows up once it passes 30 runs. Last updated: 2 Nov 2026.
Lights out is a different kind of signal
The standard reaction test asks you to answer a color that appears: red turns green, and green means go. The F1 start flips that. Your eyes are fixed on five bright lights, and the signal is that they disappear.
The wait feels different too. In the standard test you wait 1.5 to 7 seconds with nothing to watch. Here you can watch it build: one light, two, three, four, five, then the held breath before dark. We think that countdown is the most fun part of the F1 test.
It is also a trap. Watching the lights advance makes your body follow the rhythm, and the random hold catches exactly that. Most people's first few starts are either careful and slow or eager and voided.
Both versions time how fast you turn one expected change on screen into one movement. Still, they are different tasks, so their records, leaderboards and history are kept fully apart.
What we will not tell you about F1 drivers
Sites with an F1-style reaction game often add a line to your result saying a Formula 1 driver reacts in some exact number of milliseconds. We looked for a published source we could cite for those numbers and could not find one. So this page does not print one.
Here is what we can tell you for sure:
- The start procedure you are playing is the real one.
- The random hold of 0.2 to 3 seconds is the documented range.
- A real driver's start was once fast enough to trigger a stewards' investigation.
Whether your own start would survive that investigation is what this page measures.
The same rules as the standard test
A click before the lights go out is a jump start. That start is void and runs again, because a guess says nothing about your reflexes.
A click within 100 ms of lights-out is voided too. Light has to reach your eye, cross your brain and reach your finger, and that takes more than a tenth of a second. Athletics uses the same line for false starts. Anything above it counts in full, however fast.
The test will not run in a hidden tab, because browsers slow down timers there and the time would be wrong. For the same reason, the lights switch off at once with no fade. A fade would blur the exact moment the clock starts from.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as the standard reaction time test?
Same measurement, different task. Both time one change on screen to one click, and both use the same 100 ms floor and median of five. Here the signal is lights going out after a countdown. There it is a color appearing after a plain wait. Records are kept apart from the standard test, and F1 is not part of the Full Brain Test or the daily rotation.
Why was my start voided?
There are two ways it can happen. If you clicked while any red light was still on, you jumped the start. If you clicked after lights-out but within 100 ms, the click was too fast to be an answer to the signal. A voided start counts toward nothing, and that start simply runs again.
Can I race a friend on the same starts?
Yes. Finish a run and use the challenge box on the result screen. Your link carries the same sequence of hold times you played, so your friend faces the same starts in the same order. They get one try, and it is used up the moment they start.
Why is my time here different from the standard test?
Partly the task, partly you. Spotting lights going out is not the same as spotting a color appear. The countdown you can see also changes how ready your body is when the signal comes. Browser and device delay sit inside both numbers equally, so compare F1 starts with F1 starts.
All tests
- Reaction Time TestClick the moment the panel turns green. Five rounds, median scored.
- Aim TestThirty targets, one at a time. Average time and accuracy.
- Number Memory TestA number flashes, then you type it back. One digit longer each round.
- Sequence Memory TestSquares light up in order. Repeat the pattern as it grows.
- Visual Memory TestSquares flash all at once. Find every one, in any order.
- Chimp TestNumbers flash, then hide. Click them in order.
- Verbal Memory TestWords appear one at a time. Call each one SEEN or NEW.
- Color Match TestOne tile is a slightly different shade. The gap shrinks every level.
- Focus TestFind 1 to 25 on a scrambled grid, in order, as fast as you can.
- Stroop TestPick the color of the ink, not the word it spells.
- 10 Second ChallengeThe clock hides after 3 seconds. Stop it at exactly 10.00.
- Typing Speed TestCopy the sentence for 30 seconds. Only correct letters count.
- F1 Reaction TestGo the instant the five red lights go out, like a real Formula 1 start.
Related guides: What is a good reaction time? · How to improve your reaction time