Events Collection

Fetching Formula 1 race calendars using events.py

The events.py script is the foundation of the data collection pipeline. It fetches the race calendar for each season and creates the directory structure for storing race data.

Script Overview

Location: ~/workspace/source/events.py

The events script:

1. Fetches the race calendar for specified seasons
2. Creates year and race directories
3. Saves event metadata for each race
4. Stores the complete season calendar

API Endpoint

The script uses the Ergast API races endpoint:

url = f"https://api.jolpi.ca/ergast/f1/{year}/races/"

Key Functions

Race Name Slugification

Converts race names to URL-friendly folder names:

def slugify(race_name):
    # Convert to lowercase and replace spaces with hyphens
    slug = race_name.lower().replace(" ", "-")
    return slug

Example:

• “Belgian Grand Prix” → belgian-grand-prix
• “Monaco Grand Prix” → monaco-grand-prix

Directory Creation

def create_directory(path):
    if not os.path.exists(path):
        os.makedirs(path)
        print(f"Created directory: {path}")

Rate-Limited Fetching

def fetch_with_rate_limit(url):
    # Respect rate limits: 4 requests per second, 500 requests per hour
    time.sleep(0.3)  # Wait 0.25 seconds between requests (4 req/sec)

    response = requests.get(url)

    # Handle rate limiting
    if response.status_code == 429:
        print("Rate limit exceeded. Waiting 60 seconds before retrying...")
        time.sleep(60)
        return fetch_with_rate_limit(url)

    return response.json()

The script sleeps for 0.3 seconds between requests to stay within the 4 requests/second limit.

Main Process

The main function iterates through seasons and processes each race:

def main():
    base_dir = "."
    start_year = 2026
    end_year = 2026

    for year in range(start_year, end_year + 1):
        print(f"Processing year {year}...")

        # Create year directory
        year_dir = os.path.join(base_dir, str(year))
        create_directory(year_dir)

        # Fetch races for the year
        url = f"https://api.jolpi.ca/ergast/f1/{year}/races/"
        data = fetch_with_rate_limit(url)

        # Save year data to a JSON file in the year folder
        with open(os.path.join(year_dir, f"events.json"), "w") as f:
            json.dump(data, f, indent=2)

        # Process each race
        if (
            "MRData" in data
            and "RaceTable" in data["MRData"]
            and "Races" in data["MRData"]["RaceTable"]
        ):
            races = data["MRData"]["RaceTable"]["Races"]

            for race in races:
                race_name = race["raceName"]
                race_slug = slugify(race_name)

                # Create race directory
                race_dir = os.path.join(year_dir, f"{race_slug}")
                create_directory(race_dir)

                # Save race data to a JSON file
                with open(os.path.join(race_dir, "event_info.json"), "w") as f:
                    json.dump(race, f, indent=2)

                print(f"Processed: {year} - {race_name}")

Output Structure

events.json (Season Calendar)

Stored at: {year}/events.json

{
  "MRData": {
    "series": "f1",
    "url": "https://api.jolpi.ca/ergast/f1/1950/races/",
    "limit": "30",
    "offset": "0",
    "total": "7",
    "RaceTable": {
      "season": "1950",
      "Races": [
        {
          "season": "1950",
          "round": "1",
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_British_Grand_Prix",
          "raceName": "British Grand Prix",
          "Circuit": {
            "circuitId": "silverstone",
            "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverstone_Circuit",
            "circuitName": "Silverstone Circuit",
            "Location": {
              "lat": "52.0786",
              "long": "-1.01694",
              "locality": "Silverstone",
              "country": "UK"
            }
          },
          "date": "1950-05-13"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

event_info.json (Individual Race)

Stored at: {year}/{race-name}/event_info.json

{
  "season": "1950",
  "round": "1",
  "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_British_Grand_Prix",
  "raceName": "British Grand Prix",
  "Circuit": {
    "circuitId": "silverstone",
    "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverstone_Circuit",
    "circuitName": "Silverstone Circuit",
    "Location": {
      "lat": "52.0786",
      "long": "-1.01694",
      "locality": "Silverstone",
      "country": "UK"
    }
  },
  "date": "1950-05-13"
}

Usage Example

To fetch events for multiple seasons:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()
    print("Done! All races have been processed and folders created.")

Modify the year range in the main() function:

start_year = 1950
end_year = 2024

Fetching data for all seasons (1950-2024) will make hundreds of API requests. Ensure you respect the rate limits to avoid being blocked.

Next Steps

After collecting events data, you can fetch:

Race Results

Fetch finishing positions and race outcomes

Qualifying

Collect qualifying session results