Why do Formula 1 cars have eight gears?

Question

Virtually all racing cars of today have six or seven (forward) gears. F1 cars used to have the latter number of gears for a quite a while, until the hybrid era where they started having eight

But why would they need so many? Wouldn’t seven gears suffice?

In: 11

Answer 1

Engines are only their most powerful at one specific RPM. The further away you get from that rpm, the less power you get. Adding an extra gear keeps them closer to that ideal rpm, and in a field where tenths of a millimeter matters, that little bit of extra average power matters.