Can a Normal Person Drive an F1 Car?

Can a regular person drive an F1 car? Say tomorrow we took you to track and presented a modern F1 car to you, could you do a few laps? Would you even be able to pull away? Or would you take Lewis’ seat for next year?

I used to work on events with Lotus F1, now Alpine F1, where we’d put people who’d never been on track, in a 2012 F1 car.

But what I really want to talk about is, how difficult is it for a non-racing driver to drive an F1 car? What are the biggest challenges and how far are they off the pace?

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Back before I started Driver61, I was racing and coaching - and one of the jobs I had was working with Winfield Racing School, based at Paul Ricard in France.

They work with the Alpine F1 team to put on probably the best driving experience in the world - driving a 2012 Lotus F1 car. That’s the car that Kimi drove when he did his “leave me alone” speech before going on to win in Abu Dhabi.

The F1 team would bring their sponsors and guests to drive the car - most of whom had never touched a race car, let alone driven an F1 car.

Me and my fellow coaches worked with people like David Croft, Seen Through Glass and Mr JWW and Matt from WTF1, among many other non-racers. It was one of the most amazing automotive adventures, getting to drive a real F1 car.

Imagine that, being invited to drive an F1 car for the first time. From what I could tell, they felt equal measures of excitement and nervousness. I actually spoke to Matt Creed who took part in the programme a few years ago, having only ever done a few driving experiences on track previously.

We’d give guests a briefing and a couple of sighting laps before strapping them into an F4 car - the first step in a very steep learning curve for them: 160 horsepower, 570 kilograms, full-slicks and wings. They’re quicker around a circuit than most hypercars, but actually, a good car to learn the ropes in.

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[Driver]

Do you think you could beat Crofty, Seen Through Glass or Matty in a 1 Lap Race in this thing?

Also, *hit SUBSCRIBE* we are soo close to 700k subscribers!

[henryxiao]

If someone else can pay for my crash... Then Yes for sure...

[scottrobinson]

For me, one of the biggest displays of how important physical strength and fitness is for driving these cars, was Nico Rosberg saying he considered offering to fill in for Lewis at Sakhir last year, but deciding not to because he realised he genuinely couldn't last more than 2 laps before his neck would give in.

He won the championship 4 years prior, and has stayed fairly fit and healthy since. And yet, he knows he's just incapable of driving these cars based on physical fitness alone.

[Izumi]

I imagine sim racers are some of the more dangerous guys to strap into a formula 1 car. They know more or less what to do, but are not used to all the extra elements of actually driving for real, and might overestimate thier own competence.

[StoneMountain]

This would be INSANE! Incredible video man

[jovialgent]

We can all sit there on a Sunday & moan about what drivers did & didn't do but the skill levels possessed by anyone on an F1 grid are beyond incredible!

[due_]

I had a terrible experience driving an 80s f2 car: all I could think about was how to properly change gear, what were the breaking points or the gear to be in in a certain corner; there was no way I could think about going fast. The problem was simple: 3 laps (as most of these kind of experiences allow) isn't nearly enough to enjoy or realize what you're doing. To drive a car that low, that fast and potentially that expencive if you crash it is just too much to handle in such a short amount of time (at least for me!).

[dagjohnsen]

Been a racing fan for a long time with decent knowledge of the various aspects of racing. I wouldnt get an F1 car around 1 lap on any track. Maybe if I started on thursday I could land an out lap on sunday but the pace would be tens of seconds of the real pace and most likely I wouldnt enjoy the ride. The sheer speed of the thing would overload my senses completely.

[fridaycaliforniaa]

I live in France, next to the Paul Ricard circuit. Now I realise you were one of the guys that showed me how to drive those things. Damn, this is a strange feeling, but very cool in the same time =)

[naiboz]

I absolutely could drive an F1

Donuting right into the pit wall on my 16th attempt to get it out the pit box
😂

[PrinceAlhorian]

Definition of a F1 car:

Wheeled, overpowered torpedo, with the sole purpose of projecting a single package of humanity round a track quicker than anything else.

[benji]

I've got probably over a thousand hours clocked in my sim rig. Well over 500 races from f1 to lmp and rally. As a huge motorsport fan I can guarantee that I would have zero success behind the wheel of a real f1 car. I would probably have a panic attack the second I sit in the car lol

[F-Man]

All I know is that I’ve had a few track days with a Formula 2000 car, and even that is enough for me to say “yeah, no.” While that car is one that I could find the limits in, and one that I was confident in my ability to control, even 1-1.5G on the brakes and in fast corners beats the hell out of you after you’ve been out for an hour. 5 times that? Pfff.

[gdoumit]

What a great video. I could only dream of having an F1 experience like this. I'd probably be in tears if I was able to get a day of testing like this. Truly once in a lifetime for an average person.

[tavirosu]

Could you drive a F1 car?
No.
Most people, like 99% could barely drive a 35hp kart on a track.

[bizarrefruit]

I think the fear of breaking an extremely expensive F1 car would be my biggest concern followed quickly by an aching neck.

I had an experience day driving a Murcielago and as soon as i jumped in (without insurance waiver =S) I had to reverse it out from between 4 cars with a combined value of over a million pounds.
That was the scariest part, once it was on the track it felt like driving an executive car, albeit a very fast one. I'd feel like I had accelerated to 60 then look down and realise I was doing 150mph.

What an amazing experience it must be to drive an F1 car.

[Z-u-m-a]

I'm sure a lot of us could 'drive' one after some training but it's the mental recalibration and physical demands that would take a LOT of developing to do it anything like properly!

I tried a Formula Ford, in the wet - that was overwhelming (and thrilling) enough and I'm quite sure it was nowhere near its potential.

A real eye-opener was having a passenger hot lap in a Radical with pro instructor, at Anglesey. Slick tyres, dry. Simply couldn't believe forces at play.

[queencrimson_]

The most incredible thing I have done in my life has been driving a Formula Renault 3.5 around Red Bull Ring back in 2012. I used to race on karts when I was a child and I kept on driving a friend's KZ2 for fun occasionally, but that thing was MENTAL. In two 15 minutes sessions I have never been able to adapt to how freakin' fast it could decelerate at the first, third and fourth corners. I always found myself breaking at least 10 or 15 meters too soon, having to leave the brake pedal and than brake again. My brain was simply not able to process how hard that thing could brake, and my survival instinct has always prevailed. Every time I tried I was simply too scared to keep on the throttle few meters more. And it was not the only thing that scared the crap out of me! The speed in the last corners was INSANE! And the acceleration out of the slow corners!! I'm still exited thinking about it almost 10 years after, I cannot even immagine how mind blowing an F1 car would be, especially considering I could not believe how ludicrously fast a Formula Renault was.

[namenamename]

Richard Hammond barely managed to do this, and he's a professionally trained driver (he's a very skilled driver despite what the jokes about him say), so I don't think I could do this, I'm glad I passed my driver's test lol

[BigC]

Awesome video! I race Formula Enterprise 2 in SCCA which is 3-4 seconds faster than a F4 car in current spec at a track like Auto Club speedway in California. Doing a test like this is on my bucket list.