“In order to be a great Formula 1 driver, you need to have the cognitive capabilities of a chess grandmaster, the strength, stamina, and reactions of a fighter, and then you also have to have the endurance of a marathon runner.” Former F1 performance coach Clayton Green breaks down precisely why they average person would be unable to drive a Formula One car—and why the professionals are such unique athletes.
*Some minor corrections we wish to highlight:*
In error we combined two Belgian Grand Prix collisions, a near-fatal one from 2012 and one from 2022. Lewis Hamilton did experience 45G of force during the 2022 collision with Fernando Alonso, however.
We erroneously depict the pit lane entry a few metres early. The correct entry is after the “club” turn before the start/finish line.
We incorrectly state an average human’s reaction speed is 500m/s. This is incorrect as it depicts ‘choice reaction speed’ rather than ‘simple reaction speed’. The average human’s simple reaction speed actually ranges from 231 to 391m/s. (Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00131/full)
Director: Anna O’Donohue
Director of Photography: Lloyd Willacy
Editor: Shandor Garrison
Expert: Clayton Green
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Kameryn Hamilton
Sr. Production Manager: D. Eric Martinez
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Audio Engineer: Tom LeBeau
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
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Some minor corrections we wish to highlight:
In error we combined two Belgian Grand Prix collisions, a near-fatal one from 2012 and one from 2022. Lewis Hamilton did experience 45G of force during the 2022 collision with Fernando Alonso, however.
We erroneously depict the Pit lane entry a few metres early. The correct entry is after the “club” turn before the start/finish line.
We incorrectly state an average human’s reaction speed is 500m/s. This is incorrect as it depicts ‘choice reaction speed’ rather than ‘simple reaction speed’. The average human’s simple reaction speed actually ranges from 231 to 391m/s (Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00131/full)
Feel free to edit the random shade you threw at lando and the other ‘simulator’ drivers not “having grip feel like lewis” lando is arguably one of the best wet weather drivers on the grid which almost exclusively is based on the ability to feel tire grip when there is quite literally none as they’re driving on wet tracks….
glad your team is fixing the few amount of mistakes in the video
Hahahaha
I think you guys meant to type ms and not m/s. They are two very different units of measurement….
why not use max’s crash in silverstone as an example? i believe he experienced 50G during the collision with.. oh nvm
Whatever u put ur body through it just adapt to it
Actually the title is incomplete to be accurate; anyone – any person driving a normal street car -, can drive an F1 car (given learns the ins and outs of the steering wheel) at for example the speed in the pit lane (around 80km/h) or less. Therefor the title is missing an important mention ”… The Average Human Couldn’t Drive An F1 Car” + “At Full Speed”.
Maybe in the next life~ It would be fun!
Chess grandmaster mindset is an overstatement 🥀
Well excuse tf out of me! This video just humbled me lol. “Do you still see yourself in a F1 car?” Very sadistic
This is confusing “why most people can’t do this” with “most people are trained to do this, so that’s why they can’t do this.”
If you or me or whoever grew up racing and training our neck muscles and doing reaction games and etc then many of us COULD do this. It’s the fact that these drivers/athletes spend decades training to get into F1, at the cost of millions of dollars to move up the ranks and get the best training and preparation.
Saying most people can’t do it is not accurate. It’s more the fact that most people aren’t trained to do it. That’s a big difference.
These drivers arent any different or better than the average person if you gave that person the same decades of training and exercising and everything else.
guess what my ego and 1200 hours in F1 24 Says
1:18 I feel like reaction time is always inflated to make athletes seem like aliens capable of so much more than the average human. I have three beers in me right now, and I got a 190 ms average on Human Benchmark, with the lowest being 175 ms. Granted, I’ve been playing games like Unreal Tournament, Quake, Counter Strike, etc. since very very young, but it’s not like a reaction time of 200 ms is that impressive. The average human reaction time to a visual stimuli, such as what Human Benchmark measures, is roughly 220 ms. Unless the F1 driver reaction times are compared directly with average people, with the same test, under the same rules, then it’s completely bogus.
Moving your entire body at that pace versus move a body part is two different things
i am here after F1 movie! who else?
everytime the talks about physicality of F1 drivers come up, I think about Yuki.
the contradictory of being the smallest and lightest but can build up more muscle bcoz he’s way below weight limit
Its a game 😂
A lot of the things in this video are overstated or can be improved over time. Look at Lance Stroll, he’s only in F1 because his father has a billion dollar
That’s why the average human can’t be a stormtrooper. But the empire recruit those useless clones anyway.
Ive driven Silverstone many times and won 😀 Ps2 Gran Tourismo
half a second for average reaction time even on light is such a lie
You forgot the part about having rich parents.
Never thought I would see my hexa wallpaper in a Formula 1 video!
I would like to hear the breakdown of a man racing the Baja 1000 on a motorcycle. I wonder what stressors he must face?
It’s amusing seeing people underestimate the difficulty of driving these cars, as if they’ve ever known how differently even regular cars can behave at anything above highway speeds.
Take away external factors like financial requirements, physical requirements, and just focus on the ability to move the pedals and wheel, and most folks will still lose control. I’m sure sim racers have heard at least one person call sims unrealistic when they spin out and crash too quickly.