(disclaimer: I barely watch F1 race)
I’m always puzzled when I hear people refer to a racer as very skilled or very talented, what skills could they possibly need? Isn’t the aim of the race to reach the finish line first? Shouldn’t you just get a really fast car and let it do most of the work, while you try not to crash?
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You have to have exceptional reaction times, F1 cars are built to be driven very, very fast. There’s a great comparison between [GT cars and F1 cars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cNqaPSHv0) going through the same part of a track in different races. Now consider that the cars on the left are the fastest cars on the street, made into race cars.
The next complication is if you can’t drive it fast enough it’s almost uncontrollable (the tires need to be warm to have the designed grip and the steering is designed to have enormous downforce applied). There’s a great video of one of the Top Gear guys [trying to drive an F1 car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUZJVY-sHo). He works his way up going through faster and faster racing series cars, and well before F1 speeds he’s not able to react fast enough to get through the corners.
By the time he’s in the F1 car, he’s not able to control it.
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