Why The Average Human Couldn't Drive An F1 Car | WIRED

“In order to be a great Formula 1 driver, you need to have the cognitive capabilities of a chess grandmaster, the strength, stamina, and reactions of a fighter, and then you also have to have the endurance of a marathon runner.” Former F1 performance coach Clayton Green breaks down precisely why they average person would be unable to drive a Formula One car—and why the professionals are such unique athletes.

*Some minor corrections we wish to highlight:*

In error we combined two Belgian Grand Prix collisions, a near-fatal one from 2012 and one from 2022. Lewis Hamilton did experience 45G of force during the 2022 collision with Fernando Alonso, however.

We erroneously depict the pit lane entry a few metres early. The correct entry is after the “club”  turn before the start/finish line.


Director: Anna O'Donohue
Director of Photography: Lloyd Willacy
Editor: Shandor Garrison
Expert: Clayton Green
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Kameryn Hamilton
Sr. Production Manager: D. Eric Martinez
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Audio Engineer: Tom LeBeau
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward


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[WIRED]

Some minor corrections we wish to highlight:

In error we combined two Belgian Grand Prix collisions, a near-fatal one from 2012 and one from 2022. Lewis Hamilton did experience 45G of force during the 2022 collision with Fernando Alonso, however.

We erroneously depict the Pit lane entry a few metres early. The correct entry is after the “club”  turn before the start/finish line.

[anthonyfrederick]

The average human can’t even drive a regular car.

[Recklezzhuman]

This is the perfect explanation for those saying Formula 1 is not a physical sport

[DarkKnight-uzos]

My respect for Fernando Alonso increased tenfold after watching this, he’s 42 and got better reflexes than most of the young drivers

[SBA_poiko]

The larger neck muscles of an F1 driver prevents fatigue over a race distance. Yes it can help a little bit over a crash, but the HANS device is what ultimately stops whiplash and other serious injuries.

[deepakdongre]

I've driven a go-kart at a leisurely 40 kph and i was worried my neck would snap and land in the grass mid corner. These guys are a different breed.

[_maxgray]

Super confused by the implication that only "younger drivers" drive sims. They literally all do as part of training, including Lewis. The difference between Lando and Lewis is not based on who uses sims.

[rus.t]

They missed one other reason why I couldn't drive an F1 car: I can't afford it.

[radry]

As Niki Lauda once said: Everyone can drive a F1 car, a regular person is just a few seconds slower.

[GeneralKenobi]

I recently went go-karting for the first time and it was unexpectedly one of the most physically demanding activities I've ever done. At the end I couldn't feel my forearms... and that was after like 10 minutes. I can't imagine the intensity of not only racing in a car that has 50x the power for hours on end, but to actually be THE BEST at it. Mad respect tbh

[vineetbiswal]

It's clear the editors don't know much about formula 1. This video isn't very accurate but it's still well made and easily digestible for people who aren't into formula 1.

[limecoke]

Most importantly, you also need to be born into a wealthy family. I don’t remember having a Formula program at my high school.

[rodneycooperjr]

Even though I have never driven a racecar professionally, I always considered it a very grueling sport. Anyone that's ever driven a hundred miles on a regular road trip should understand that, at the very least, it's hard to concentrate after a while. To take it a step further, anyone that's raced go karts can tell you that it requires agility and quick decision making, and when the race is over, you're tired and sweaty.

[MichaelG]

To be fair, a "normal person" could drive a Formula 1 car, but not anywhere near its capabilities or over a race distance. There's a YouTube video of F1 announcer David Croft driving a Lotus F1 car around the Paul Ricard circuit. He did OK for a few laps.

[FatCandyProduction]

Good points throughout the video. But you fail to mention that whilst doing all the things mentioned in this video they also change and control brake balance to every corner. Re-gen levels in almost every corner. Boost through the kers system, multiple DRS zones. Tyre wear control, fuel savings and keeping track of team stratagies and even making pit call decisions. Then also giving constant feedback to your engineer and trying to stay calm when someone tries to cut you off on the edge of what the rulebook allows.. Oh and track limits.... At 5+ g forces. For 90 minutes. Whilst losing around 4kg of bodyweight.

[rafaelfermin]

Ok nice vid but you have a little of misinformation in the crash between Lewis and Nando. That near fatal crash was in 2012, not last year and was provoked by Grosjean. Last year they did made contact but it was in a low speed corner and the result was that Lewis got airborne for a sec but he was back in four wheels unscathed. In other words, it was like a hitting a bump. Minor detail but a medium like Wired shouldn’t make mistake like this

[mogznwaz]

I’ll never forget when Ayrton Senna’s gears jammed and he had to drive a whole race in like 3rd gear - when he finished, his neck, his whole body, was so tense he was in agony and he could barely move.

[nexh]

This sounds hard but the video didn't even talked about strategy changes, changing break balance every corner, racecraft that the drivers start to learn since 5, maintaining pace, talking with the team while driving at 300 kph and many more things.
F1 drivers are aliens.

[victor]

This "drive to survive" levels of accuracy.

[granttong]

They also don’t mention the mental pressure of driving and being in f1, there’s hundreds of people in a team all counting you and also the pressure of being only 1 of 20 drivers in the world is immense and there’s no other sport with that kinda of pressure.