Installation

Install from PyPI

pip install lapbox

lapbox needs Python 3.11 or newer and brings its four dependencies with it:

A virtual environment keeps it apart from other projects:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate      # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install lapbox

With charts

The figures in lapbox.plot need Plotly, which comes with the plot extra:

pip install "lapbox[plot]"

The quotes keep shells such as zsh from reading the brackets. To save figures as PNG or SVG, also install kaleido; HTML needs nothing extra.

Check the install

import lapbox

print(lapbox.__version__)

0.1.0

Getting session data

lapbox downloads nothing: it analyses what FastF1 loads. FastF1 caches every download, so a session is fetched once and loads quickly after that. To choose the cache folder:

import fastf1

fastf1.Cache.enable_cache("f1-cache")  # any folder; it must exist
session = fastf1.get_session(2025, "Monza", "R")
session.load()

FastF1 3.9 still accepts enable_cache but warns that it is deprecated; the new spelling is fastf1.Cache.configure(cache_dir="f1-cache").

Load only what you need — races analysed with lapbox.pace and lapbox.tyres don’t need telemetry, so session.load(telemetry=False, weather=False, messages=False) is much quicker.

If session.load() logs “Failed to load timing data” and session.laps then raises DataNotLoadedError, this is why — see Troubleshooting.

Working on lapbox itself

git clone https://github.com/racemind-ai/lapbox-sdk.git
cd lapbox-sdk
pip install -e ".[dev]"
ruff check . && black --check . && pytest

The tests are synthetic and run offline: no FastF1 download, no network. CI runs them on Python 3.11 and 3.12. Bugs and ideas go to GitHub issues.