How are Formula 1 (F1) cars able to accelerate so quickly?

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How are Formula 1 (F1) cars able to accelerate so quickly?

In: Engineering

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A Formula 1 car usually weighs about 1/4 to 1/3 of what a street car weighs (640kg vs 1200kg for a hatchback to 2000 for a luxury sedan), but has an engine that’s 2-4x more powerful (650 hp vs 150 hp to 300 hp for many production cars).

Those factors multiply together so they result in a much larger increase in acceleration than you can get from a street car.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Insane power to weight ratio. Fun fact: An F1 car once it’s going fast enough has enough downforce to drive upside down.

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you take into account low gear ratios, nice contact patch to the ground, very good tyres, downforce when it starts going fast and good power to weight ratio I think it make sense that they go from 0-100km/h(0-60mph) in just under 2 seconds, but with enough power you could get more even acceleration at higher speeds because of the extra traction created by downforce.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They have a streamlined body to minimise air resistance as well as specialist engines that have maximised horsepower which combined with the light weight design of the body and also specific tyres types for different road surfaces allows it to get a good grip on the road and use its engine to accelerate faster than a space shuttle