Building the ThrottlePass Driver Rating
Jason@ThrottlePass The joy of measuring progress
One of the best parts of hitting the track is chasing improvement — shaving off tenths, nailing that braking point, or just feeling smoother each session. Naturally, we all want to know: how much better am I getting? And maybe even more interestingly: how do I stack up against others?
That’s always been a tough question to answer. Everyone drives different cars, setups, and tires. Even in organized time attack, comparing across builds has been an unsolved puzzle for years.
So at ThrottlePass, we decided to take a crack at it. The result is our Driver Rating — a normalized score that estimates driver performance independent of vehicle. It evolves over time as you log more laps, and it’s accessible right on your profile.
TL;DR on the algorithm
Here’s the short version:
- Every vehicle gets a performance score based on its capability.
- Every track gets a fitted model that predicts lap times for a given performance level.
- Your actual lap time is compared against the expected time.
- Your driver rating is then informed by how you perform relative to that expectation.
- As you log more laps — across different cars and tracks — your confidence rating increases.
Vehicle performance score
At the foundation of the system is each car’s performance score. This starts with good old power-to-weight ratio from the stock specs.
From there, we layer in modifiers for common upgrades — things like aero packages, ECU tunes, or stickier tires. The idea is to get as close as possible to your car’s true potential performance, not just what came from the factory.
Expected lap times
Once we know how fast your car should be, we can model how fast it should go at each track.
Each track configuration is fitted with a model that predicts lap time based on performance score. We then compare your actual laps against those predictions to see where you land.
Because tracks vary in length, we normalize these differences — and we also account for “compression” at the fast end of the spectrum (where top times tend to bunch together). That helps ensure fairness across everything from small technical circuits to high-speed tracks.
Confidence rating
No algorithm is perfect, and we wanted to be transparent about that. So, alongside your rating, you’ll also see a confidence score — a quick way to gauge how strong the underlying data is.
It’s a weighted composite of a few things:
- The number of valid laps you’ve logged
- The variety of tracks you’ve driven
- The range of vehicles you’ve recorded laps in
As you continue to record laps, your confidence score — and the accuracy of your rating — naturally improves.
The road ahead
This is just the first version of the ThrottlePass Driver Rating. As more lap data rolls in, we’ll keep refining the models and tightening accuracy.
The goal isn’t perfection — it’s to give every driver a way to see progress, benchmark fairly, and celebrate improvement over time.
So next time you post a new PB, check your profile — your rating might have something to say about it!