Plotting Constants API

The plotting_constants module holds the plotting color data. It contains historically accurate team colors and tyre compound colors for each F1 season from 2018 onwards. The tif1.plotting module reads these mappings when it resolves colors and car image codes. The module contains data only; it defines no functions.

Overview

The module defines four public mappings. All are plain dicts, so a program can read and mutate them directly.

Name	Type	Keys	Purpose
`YEAR_CONSTANTS`	`dict[int, dict[str, Any]]`	season years, 2018 to 2026	Compound colors and team profiles per season
`DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS`	`dict[str, str]`	compound names	Fallback colors when no year data exists
`TEAM_COLORS`	`dict[int, dict[str, str]]`	season years, 2018 to 2026	Timing-data team name to chart color
`TEAM_CODES`	`dict[int, dict[str, str]]`	season years, 2018 to 2026	Timing-data team name to car image code

from tif1.plotting_constants import (
    DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS,
    TEAM_CODES,
    TEAM_COLORS,
    YEAR_CONSTANTS,
)

YEAR_CONSTANTS

YEAR_CONSTANTS maps each season year to a dict with two keys:

"compound_colors": dict[str, str] mapping compound name to hex color.
"teams": dict[str, TeamData] mapping a lowercase team key to a team profile.

A team profile has this shape:

{
    "short_name": "Ferrari",
    "colors": {"official": "#e80020", "fastf1": "#e80020"},
}

official and fastf1 are the two colormaps that tif1.plotting.get_team_color and get_driver_color serve. Compound sets changed over the seasons. The 2018 mapping contains 11 entries: nine track compounds plus UNKNOWN and TEST-UNKNOWN. The 2019 to 2026 mappings contain 7 entries: SOFT, MEDIUM, HARD, INTERMEDIATE, and WET, plus the two unknown markers. The table below shows the 2018 entries:

Compound	Color
`HYPERSOFT`	`#feb1c1`
`ULTRASOFT`	`#b24ba7`
`SUPERSOFT`	`#fc2b2a`
`SOFT`	`#ffd318`
`MEDIUM`	`#f0f0f0`
`HARD`	`#00a2f5`
`SUPERHARD`	`#fd7d3c`
`INTERMEDIATE`	`#43b02a`
`WET`	`#0067ad`

Some team entries per season (from the actual data):

Year	Team key	Official color	fastf1 color
2023	`red bull`	`#3671c6`	`#0600ef`
2023	`ferrari`	`#f91536`	`#da291c`
2025	`ferrari`	`#e80020`	`#e80020`

Each season lists the teams that competed in it. For example, 2023 contains ten team keys, from alfa romeo to williams; 2025 replaces them with the current grid, including kick sauber and racing bulls.

DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS

DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS is the fallback mapping. tif1.plotting uses it when a session year is unknown or missing from YEAR_CONSTANTS.

Compound	Color
`SOFT`	`#da291c`
`MEDIUM`	`#ffd12e`
`HARD`	`#f0f0ec`
`INTERMEDIATE`	`#43b02a`
`WET`	`#0067ad`
`UNKNOWN`	`#00ffff`
`TEST-UNKNOWN`	`#434649`

TEAM_COLORS

TEAM_COLORS maps a season year to a mapping of timing-data team names to the TracingInsights v2 chart palette. This bright palette is separate from the official and fastf1 colormaps in YEAR_CONSTANTS. The charts module uses it for bar colors. Example entries for 2025:

Team name	Color
`Red Bull Racing`	`#ffe119`
`Ferrari`	`#e6194b`
`Mercedes`	`#00c0bf`
`Alpine`	`#f032e6`
`Racing Bulls`	`#dcbeff`

The 2026 mapping adds the new teams Audi (#9a9a9a) and Cadillac (#C5A253).

TEAM_CODES

TEAM_CODES maps a season year to a mapping of timing-data team names to short car image codes. The bundled car artwork in tif1.assets uses these codes. Names with engine suffixes map to the same code. Each team name variant in lap data resolves to the correct artwork. Example entries for 2024:

Team name	Code
`Red Bull Racing`	`RBR`
`Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT`	`RBR`
`Ferrari`	`FER`
`Aston Martin`	`AMR`
`Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes`	`AMR`

How plotting.py consumes the constants

tif1.plotting imports all four mappings and resolves them per session and year:

get_compound_color(compound, session=None) and get_compound_mapping(session=None) read the compound colors for the session year. An unknown year falls back to DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS. An unknown compound resolves to the UNKNOWN color.
get_team_color(identifier, session, *, colormap="default", exact_match=False) and get_driver_color(...) resolve team profiles built from YEAR_CONSTANTS for the session year. They require a session.
team_code_mapping(year) returns a copy of TEAM_CODES[year].
team_color_mapping(year) returns a copy of TEAM_COLORS[year]. The copy has a color for every team name with a car code in TEAM_CODES.
get_team_code(identifier, session=None, *, year=None, exact_match=False) resolves a team name to its car image code. It uses the session year when a session is given, and the explicit year otherwise.

Overrides

Two mechanisms change the effective values:

Session-scoped overrides. tif1.plotting.override_team_constants(identifier, session, *, short_name=None, official_color=None, fastf1_color=None) overrides one team for one session. It requires a session and matches the team exactly. The override applies to get_team_color, get_driver_color, and short-name lookups for that session only.
Direct dict mutation. The mappings are module-level dicts, and the plotting helpers copy them at call time. An in-place change, for example TEAM_COLORS[2026]["Audi"] = "#ff0000", takes effect on the next team_color_mapping(2026) call.

Example

This example runs offline.

from tif1.plotting import get_compound_color, team_code_mapping, team_color_mapping
from tif1.plotting_constants import DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS, YEAR_CONSTANTS

print(sorted(YEAR_CONSTANTS))               # [2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026]
print(team_code_mapping(2024)["Ferrari"])   # FER
print(team_color_mapping(2026)["Audi"])     # #9a9a9a
print(get_compound_color("SOFT", None))     # #da291c (DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS)
print(DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS["UNKNOWN"])   # #00ffff

Plotting API: the color and style helpers that read these constants
Assets API: the car artwork selected by TEAM_CODES
Charts API: the chart functions that consume the palettes
Core API: Session, required by the session-scoped color lookups

Getting Started

Core API

Data Pipeline

Configuration & Cache

Visualization & Tools

Utilities & Helpers

Compatibility & Errors

Plotting Constants API

Overview

YEAR_CONSTANTS

DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS

TEAM_COLORS

TEAM_CODES

How plotting.py consumes the constants

Overrides

Example

​Overview

​YEAR_CONSTANTS

​DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS

​TEAM_COLORS

​TEAM_CODES

​How plotting.py consumes the constants

​Overrides

​Example

​Related APIs

Overview

YEAR_CONSTANTS

DEFAULT_COMPOUND_COLORS

TEAM_COLORS

TEAM_CODES

How plotting.py consumes the constants

Overrides

Example

Related APIs