Wouldn’t they all be flooring it? If the lane is straight how does one driver speed up and pass another?
Edit: straight aways
In: Engineering
1. **Driver skill** does influence speed on the straight. Not by pressing the gas pedal harder like in the movies, but in the “exit” of the previous corner. Shockingly small variations in car placement allow you to press the accelerator sooner (or later) when you’re on the way out of a corner, and these small differences result in reaching high speeds sooner. The differences between drivers are small, but at top speed 0.1s might be 10 meters of space, which can be enough to lock in a pass. But most of the driver skill that leads to an overtake on the straight occurred in the previous corner (or several corners), and is often not shown on tv.
1. **Tire grip varies**, and grippier tires allow more aggressive acceleration on corner exit. At different points in the race, cars run more or less grippy tire “compounds”, and newer tires grip better than older ones. Deciding what tires to run when is called tire strategy, and for a given pair of cars can result in one having the advantage near the start of the race, and the other having the advantage at the end. Driver skill influences how quickly they wear out their tires as well.
1. Not all F1 cars are equal, **some have slightly stronger engines** (many non-F1 racing series do have ~equal engines, but in F1 they vary in power).
2. Not all F1 cars are equal, **some drag more against the wind**, either in an attempt to use the air to be faster during turns or just because they’re less well designed and have more drag.
3. The car in front pushes the air and leaves a “wake” behind it. A close following car experiences less wind drag in this wake, and goes a little faster than it otherwise would as a result. They call this a “tow” because it feels like **the front car is pulling you along**.
4. Modern F1 rules give each car a special rear-wing flap called **DRS (Drag Reduction System)**. In order to make overtaking easier and make racing more exciting, the rules allow the trailing car to open that flap and reduce drag in at certain places on the track when they’re close enough to the car in front that the extra speed might help them complete the overtake.
5. Modern F1 engines don’t have constant power output. They have batteries and energy recovery systems that let them **boost the engine power in short bursts**. If the trailing driver has somehow conserved their battery power while pressuring the leading driver to spend theirs, they’ll have a temporary but significant advantage in top speed if they juice up their electric systems for the overtake. Various bits on the car can also overheat as well, which can also lead to temporary variation in performance as drivers are forced to drive conservatively to let temperatures recover. Managing all these temperature and power resources while driving as fast as possible is a big differentiator in driver skill.
6. Also they do actually [press on the gas pedal a little extra](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/6a56e759-c201-4084-9a4f-f1af42bdcfa3/db1n4yk-85aae30c-dfe8-498c-ac21-5925353c2ddf.gif?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzZhNTZlNzU5LWMyMDEtNDA4NC05YTRmLWYxYWY0MmJkY2ZhM1wvZGIxbjR5ay04NWFhZTMwYy1kZmU4LTQ5OGMtYWMyMS01OTI1MzUzYzJkZGYuZ2lmIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.a4l-9q-Jt45mXdcmWdy8x5KDwXi38RpM1H_8Pq3IAuc) and legend has it this does help if you believe hard enough.
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