How Tiny Formula 1 Engines Make 1000 HP!

How F1's 1.6L V6 engines can make 1,000 horsepower at 15,000 RPM!

The power units in Formula 1 are capable of producing 1,000 horsepower! That's all thanks to a 1.6L 90º V6 engine paired with two electric motors, an MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit - Kinetic) and an MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit - Heat). How does such a tiny engine make so much power? The key comes down to efficiency, turbocharging, high RPM limits, and electric assist.

This video will explore the layout of current Formula 1 power units, how the rules ultimately limit power through fuel flow caps, how these engines are capable of achieving extraordinary efficiencies (for combustion engines), and how much boost the turbochargers are making.

References:

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[EngineeringExplained]

**Important Note!** Production cars vs F1 cars: why are F1 cars more efficient? Especially considering my comments in the video about both being impressive, but operating under different rule sets. Several reasons for F1’s efficiency advantage:
1. Quantity - Formula 1 only needs to make a handful of engines for a season. This allows for an attention to detail that you won’t have when producing engine quantities in the millions for production cars. It’s easy to make one efficient engine. Mass production adds complications.
2. Cost - The cost per engine is vastly greater in Formula 1, allowing for opportunities that you don’t have when you’re selling an entire production car for $30, 000. Materials, tolerances, difficult manufacturing designs, etc. Relatively speaking, production car engines are very cheap, which limits the design.
3. Reliability - F1 teams are allowed 3 engines per season without penalties, so an F1 engine only needs to last 7-8 races (plus practice & qualifying), meaning about 1, 500 - 2000 miles. When your engine doesn’t need to last as long, you can run it closer to peak efficiency, where knock is more prevalent (think high spark advance, leaner air fuel mixtures). It’s worth sacrificing reliability for performance, because the goal isn’t an engine that lasts for 200, 000 miles.
4. Rev-Range - F1 engines have a much more defined use case versus road cars. Road cars operate at many different RPM, in many different engine load scenarios. Trying to develop an engine that is efficient across this wide range of use-cases is very difficult. F1, on the other hand, has a much more narrow focus. Create power at full load as efficiently as possible. This means you can pick a region of the engine where it spends most of its time (say 11k RPM) to maximize efficiency.

[TearyBoi]

Imagine if all university lecturers/lectures were this engaging and interesting

[glennnel]

How the heck does this man make this hugely complicated topic not only supremely interesting, but also understandable. My hat is not just tipped to him in appreciation, but thrown high into the air. An absolutely excellent presentation. Thank you heaps mate.

[thehappycamper]

What's extra amazing is it appears he did all the sections of this complicated explanation in one take, with no ums, ahs, etc. A masterpiece! So sharp, so impressive!

[C-Swede]

You are a great educator, breaking down these complex matters so that even us non-engineers can grasp it.

[johng]

This is the best explanation of the MGU-H and modern F1 engines I've seen. After nearly 10 years of commentators trying, they should just bring Jason on to do it.

[mechproject]

I'll never cease to be impressed with how well you present such nuanced topics. I've talked to even car enthusiasts about this very thing and I've seen their eyes glaze over because of how technical and "nerdy" my presenations are. A few months ago I was doing so hardcore thermodynamic calculations and I realized that these engines must be running stupidly lean (my guess was about 2.0 lambda) in order to run the amounts of boost that they do, get anywhere near 1000 hp, and not exceed the max allowable fuel flow rate. I talked about that with some of my car buddies and they were like "there's no way a racecar runs lean. Max power is always rich". I felt vindicated when I saw you pull up that SAE study done by the Renault engineer. Anyways, well done! Keep up the good work!

[archermatie]

Thanks for making such great and interesting videos! I’ve been watching you from the very beginning and it’s amazing how far you’ve come. I’m glad you are able to do something it looks like you really enjoy and are passionate about and be able to educate people in the process. We need more content creators like you!

[jr-cqfx]

Seeing that F1 is currently discussing the new engine specifications for 2026, I think it would be awesome if you could talk about the technologies you would want to see implemented(or removed).

[davidhill]

You have an amazing ability to deliver enthusiasm in engineering. Really wish you had been my professor back in the day.

[Starkiller]

Jason, thank you for speaking to this F1 vs. Production engine debate. They are both amazing feats of engineering. Neither one is superior, and they both bring great things to the table that both studies improve from. It's not really an Engineers argument to say one is "better" engineering than the next as they have different problems to solve. Love the video!

[sambitdas]

You have outdone yourself here, bravo!
I believe I speak for all of the automobile community when I say that we are extremely fortunate that you happen to be this interested in all of this.

[manuel.fischer]

Perfect start into the new season with learning new things about the engines.

[johngraham]

This was so good. I learned so much about formula 1 engines that I was not aware of. Thank you so much. I would love to see you do a comparison of say the old v10s or v12s compared to these new hybrid engines like you do with comparative Corvette engines or something like that. I still miss 20, 000 RPMs out of a V12, that sound is just unbelievable. Keep up the excellent work

[janneronni]

It's amazing how someone smart enough can teach you so much in just under 20 minutes. Great video, keep it up!

[MuchoBoosto]

"Now, they actually state kW, which is a unit of power, not energy. But again, keep in mind this is a mid-pack team, let's cut 'em a little slack" 🤣

Another excellent video, Jason!

[yakabothatesthis]

Been following F1 for over 30 years, and your 14 minute clip explained more to me than all my years of watching the races. Turbo chargers even make more sense now. Thanks.

[MarcoMartinez_]

Congrats to Max for 2023?!?!? 🤣😂

Love your videos but I still hope there's a good title fight for this year! Keep up the great work. It's always a pleasure learning from your explanations.

[cmccoy]

College calculus was a challenge for me and I was struggling to comprehend the basic concepts that was until I stopped using the latest and greatest textbooks we were required to buy. I purchased older, much older textbooks that had been abandoned because they were “outdated.” Same calculus but to legitimize the new books they had to come up with different ways to do the same thing and needlessly becoming more complicated. All this is done so the schools and publishers could bilk more money from students. This guy makes a complex subject understandable and fun to learn.

[deanmonroe]

Very interesting video, as are they all. That precombustion chamber seems very similar to Honda's CVCC technology from the '70's.