The official F1 top speed record is claimed by Honda's 2006 RA106 F1 car during testing. With its unrestricted V10 engine and meticulous adjustments, it reached a remarkable 246.91 mph (397.36 km/h), just shy of Honda's 248.55 mph (400 km/h) goal.
This record is held by Honda, who took their RA106 to the Bonneville Salt Flats in the US, a site famous for top-speed runs, to try and break 400km/h. They were unsuccessful, but set a 397.36km/h (246.9mph) top speed, to claim the highest speed in an F1 car.
You may be surprised to learn that Formula One cars can reach remarkable speeds. The peak speed of an F1 race cars is around 233 mph, but this top speed is only achieved on long straight line runs by the fastest cars.
It really was just in traffic – the W11 didn't struggle at Autodromo Monza in clean air. In fact, Hamilton's final qualifying lap that weekend, at an average speed of 164.266 mph, stands as the fastest single lap in Formula 1 history.
Max Verstappen therefore won the race after one lap, completed in a time of three minutes and 27.071 seconds. With just 6.880km covered, the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix set a new record as the shortest race – in terms of both time to complete and distance raced.
Leading Formula 1 drivers 1950-2024, by number of fastest laps. As of January 2024, the German Formula One legend Michael Schumacher still held the record for the most fastest race laps, with a total of 77. He was followed by Lewis Hamilton on 65.
Porsche's new 919 Hybrid Evo Le Mans Car is Faster than an F1 Car After retiring from the top tier of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) last year, Porsche have released their LMP1 car of any regulations and made it faster than an F1 car. Now, that's how to have 'one last hoorah'.
In addition, the graph shows the RB19 being on average 0.42 seconds faster than its rival the W14, interestingly the average difference between the cars of 2020 is 0.52 seconds, in favour of the W11. On average the W11 of 2020 is faster than the RB19 of 2023.
The W11 has a system which Mercedes had developed called Dual Axis Steering (DAS) which allowed the driver to adjust the toe of the front wheels to optimise mechanical grip by pulling or pushing on the steering wheel.
What is faster a Bugatti or a F1 car? The only thing a Bugatti Veyron or Chiron is better at than an F1 car is top speed. Anything else the F1 car wins, faster lap times, faster quarter mile, faster acceleration. A Bugatti can go over 400 kph, an F1 car usually stops at 330 kph or less depending on the race track.
The previous generation of cars are still faster at most venues but, in some cases, even older cars still hold the records, thanks to their powerful V10s and lower levels of downforce that made for better top speeds.
The McLaren MP4/4 is statistically (for now at least) the best F1 car of all time. In the 1988 F1 season, in the hands of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, the MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 races, only missing out on the complete set at the Italian Grand Prix thanks to Senna's famous collision with Jean-Louis Schlesser.
Based solely on top speeds, then IndyCar wins out – Scott Dixon took pole for the 2022 Indy 500 with a 234mph run. The 'usual' top speed for a Formula 1 car is around 205mph, although Valtteri Bottas hit 231mph while slipstreaming at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City in 2016.
Bentley's legendary 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged W12, created in 2002, has evolved into the latest iteration of W12 engine used across today's current model range. The unique W-configuration means that the engine is 24 per cent shorter than an equivalent V12, benefitting packaging and maximising usable cabin space.
The Mercedes W11 driven by Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix set the fastest average speed during an F1 race at 264.362 km/h (164.267 mph). When it comes to top speed, Valtteri Bottas's Williams FW38 reached a blistering 378 km/h (234.9mph) at the 2016 European Grand Prix.
The downforce created by the RB19's floor is 20 times more important and powerful than what is generated by the surfaces on the top of the car. "Red Bull are able to run their floor flat and low to the track which gives the car immense useable downforce across the speed range," says Kravitz.
Over Formula 1's 72-year-history, there is just one car that won every race it entered: the Alfa Romeo 158. Originally developed all the way back in 1937, the Alfa 158 was powered by an eight cylinder engine that produced more than 300hp.
By breaking a record for consecutive Constructors titles (held by Ferrari), the Mercedes W11 is rightfully considered to be one of the greatest Formula 1 race cars in the history of the sport. Had the season been longer, it may have proven to be even more dominant, which would have landed it higher on this list.
In a Nico Rosberg video (Yes, the 2016 Formula One World Champion) he says the standard version of Aston Martin Valkyrie had 95% the lap time of an F1 car, with the track pack added, 97% and the race version is 105% of an F1 car (so there is your racing car beating an F1 car, at least according to t…
The reason for this is undoubtedly the reduced downforce on the 2022 cars. Although the difference is not huge, over the course of a lap these small differences add up resulting in the 2022 car being roughly 2.3 seconds slower than the 2021 car.
