Red Bull Air Race

Race calendar: The 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Championship did span eight races on four continents with 14 Master Class pilots competing. Master Class pilots comprised Cristian Bolton (CHI), Mikaël Brageot (FRA), Kirby Chambliss (USA), Matthias Dolderer (GER), Michael Goulian (USA), Matt Hall (AUS), Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA), Petr Kopfstein (CZE), François Le Vot (FRA), Pete McLeod (CAN), Yoshihide Muroya (JPN), Martin Šonka (CZE), Juan Velarde (SPA), as well as rookie Ben Murphy (UK) progressing from the Challenger Cup.
The Challenger Cup saw ten pilots flying the official race circuits on race day prior to the first round of the Master Class competition. The Challenger pilots comprised Mélanie Astles (FRA), Florian Bergér (GER), Kenny Chiang (HK), Kevin Coleman (USA), Luke Czepiela (POL), Daniel Genevey (HUN), Daniel Ryfa (SWE), and Baptiste Vignes (FRA). The two rookies Dario Costa (ITA) and Patrick Davidson (RSA) will complete the line-up.
Red Bull provided standardised Zivko Edge 540 V2 planes for the Challenger Cup. The six pilots with the best scores from four races, counted after the penultimate race, were invited to the season finale. The pilot with the best overall score at the season finale was to be crowned the Challenger Cup champion.
Race format: Fastest time from two qualification runs defines ranking for race day. Seven winners of head-to-head races in the Round of 14 proceed to the next stage, plus the fastest loser. The Round of 8 again sees heats with the pilots being reseeded based on the times they clocked in the Round of 14. The fastest from the previous round races against the slowest, and so on. The four winners proceed to the Final 4 where they race against the clock. However, if both pilots in a heat do not post a valid time, another lucky loser will proceed to the next round based on clocked time. This rule change applies to Round of 14 as well as Round of 8. The Challenger Class race will take place before the Round of 14 contest.
Standard engines (Lycoming Thunderbolt AEIO-540-EXP), propellers (Hartzell composite 3-blade 'The Claw') and exhaust systems to be employed by all pilots.
Pylons (air gates) are kept 25 m high for safety reasons. Knife edge flying through gates and the quadro gate remain removed from the race format.
Scoring: The winner on race day gets 15 points, the second 12 points, the third 9 points, the fourth 6 points, the fifth 5 points, down to one point for ninth place. However, any pilot collecting a DQ in any round will receive no points at all.
Penalties: 3 seconds each for the first two pylon hits in a run; 2 seconds for flying too high, as well as incorrect level flying; 1 second for missing smoke, for entry speed between 201 kn [181 kn] (372.3 km/h | 335.2 km/h) and 201.99 kn [181.99 kn] (374.1 km/h | 337.1 km/h), as well as for operational violations specific to a given race track. Pulling more than 10 g for more than 0.6 seconds ('Over G', indicated via telemetry or post-flight analysis) will result in a 2-second penalty instead of a DNF. The general entry speed limit of 200 kn (370.4 km/h) may be reduced by the race committee to 180 kn (333.4 km/h) under certain circumstances.
Disqualification (DQ): Uncontrolled flying (e.g. closer than 10 m to the ground), third pylon hit in a run, crossing the safety line, pulling more than 12 g (Master Class) and 11 g (Challenger Class), respectively, indicated via telemetry or post-flight analysis ('Exceeding maximum G'), entry speed above 202 kn [182 kn] (374.1 km/h | 337.1 km/h), engine above 2,950 rpm limit (indicated via post-flight analysis), as well as missing the post-flight minimum weight of 698 kg (with a tolerance of -5 kg).