When did F1s have the greatest top speed?

[AlexGTV]

Which era, or if you know, which year was that F1 had the greatest top speed and what was it?
Also was this a compromise for their downforce and thus cornering?

I've come to appreciate much the sport after reading that at full throttle the driver experiences about 1.5g, that is an adult and a child seating on your chest and you having to steer.

I know today's F1 aren't the fastest in history but why is that, safety issues?Costs? Both?

 

[Alex.]

They aren't the fastest any more because:

The cornering speeds are not far from dangerous for the drivers conciousness
We need to look environmentally friendly
Corner speed is more required than straightline speed
FIA seems hellbent on F1 cars being a 1.2 litre 3 cylinder electric hybrid with wheels taller than the car and as safe as putting your driver in the cushioned play area while you go shopping, and about as exciting for anyone watching too.

 

[GTPorsche]

I think the Late 90s/ early-mid 00s were the fastest.

 

[Clark]

The fastest lap I think is either Montoya 2003 or Barrichello 2004 at Monza.The avergae speed is about 155-160mph and they're said to have hit 227mph.

Of cousre there was also that BAR that hit 240-250mph with a fin at the back instead of a rear wing in the desert.

 

[Matti_Dude]

2004 is the peak of F1, they had the awesome V10 engines and had massive toped speeds, in excess of 350kph on the lower downforce tracks I believe.

 

[Dotini]

On the morning of January 28th, 1938, Bernd Rosemeyer established a new speed record over a flying kilometer of 268mph with an Auto Union streamliner on the German autobahn, very similar to the one in GT4. The was a Grand Prix car, as Formula 1 was not formally established until 1950.

Rosemeyer died that day at a speed of over 270mph.

To this day, it remains the highest speed ever officially timed on a public road.

Respectfully submitted, eager for correction,
Dotini

 

[Tired Tyres]

The fastest lap I think is either Montoya 2003 or Barrichello 2004 at Monza.The avergae speed is about 155-160mph and they're said to have hit 227mph.

Of cousre there was also that BAR that hit 240-250mph with a fin at the back instead of a rear wing in the desert.

Not that impressive. Keke Rosberg lapped Silverstone at an average of 160 MPH in 1985 in the damp.

 

[spyrrari]

Antonio Pazzonia /BMW Williams /GP Italy 2004 did 369.9 km/h(229.85 mp/h)

This is the highest topspeed ever recorded in an official F1 race i read today by coincidence...lol..


Source:http://www.autoblog.nl/archive/2011/01/13/video-snelheid-van-een-f1-bolide-in-perspectief




spy.

 

[Greycap]

Not that impressive. Keke Rosberg lapped Silverstone at an average of 160 MPH in 1985 in the damp.

Well, when you think about it Keke had something like 1200 bhp pushing the car forward and not too many chicanes slowing him down on that lap.

 

[IceMan PJN]

I've come to appreciate much the sport after reading that at full throttle the driver experiences about 1.5g, that is an adult and a child seating on your chest and you having to steer.

1.5 Gs is actually pretty low. That might be what they endure while in a straight line, but in corners and under braking it's quite a bit more than this. 3 and 4 Gs is fairly common in a typical F1 race, and sometimes it can even be 5 or more. Turn 8 at Istanbul Park, as an example, forces drivers to endure 4.5 to 5.5 Gs for seven seconds straight.

 

[Clark]

Not that impressive. Keke Rosberg lapped Silverstone at an average of 160 MPH in 1985 in the damp.

Exactly as Greycap said.

Silverstone didn't really change drastically between the 70's and 1991. ONly a few chicanes etc. Current day circuits are far slower and if you were to run the old circuits with current cars (or better V10's) you'd get some astronomical average speeds.

 

[wfooshee]

Monza and the old through-the-woods Hockenheim were the fastest top speed tracks in the 80s and 90s.

But before that, in the pre-aero days, i.e. 1966 and 1967, when the formula went from 1.5 to 3 liters, the softly-sprung zero-downforce cars of the day were well capable of high 190s and low 200s on the straights of the day, notably Nurburgring, Spa, and Monza.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Well, when you think about it Keke had something like 1200 bhp pushing the car forward and not too many chicanes slowing him down on that lap.

Exactly as Greycap said.

Silverstone didn't really change drastically between the 70's and 1991. ONly a few chicanes etc. Current day circuits are far slower and if you were to run the old circuits with current cars (or better V10's) you'd get some astronomical average speeds.

And what is Monza then? A bunch of long straights, chicanes and gimped corners. It has one good corner - the last corner. That's it.

The speed at Silverstone in those days was all about fast corners. You had to display considerable skill to drive around fast. You can see them in the picture. They are called Copse, Becketts, Stowe and Club. The straights are not long like at Monza. It was a much harder track to drive around than Monza.

The only other track that was as fast was the much missed Österreichring. it too was more about fast corners not just mindless straights.

 

[Rich S]

The old CART/Champ cars were really flying towards the end of their reign in North America. At Fontana (California Motor Speedway) the track record there is something like 242 mph. Modern day IRL cars are quite slow compared to those days.

Out of curiosity, In Gran Turismo I bought a Ferrari F10 for 10,000,000 *I'm a sucker*. Even with minimal downforce it only tops off at around 212 mph and thats on a super long straight. 707 BHP compared to the 1,200 hp monsters they used to race. This car is most fun to drive at the Nurburgring, Laguna Seca, and other real world tracks. I was able to get a 5:16 lap in, and a 1:03.2 respectively. The 1:03 is 5 secs quicker than Helio's lap records. he he he

 

[Ardius]

Out of curiosity, In Gran Turismo I bought a Ferrari F10 for 10,000,000 *I'm a sucker*. Even with minimal downforce it only tops off at around 212 mph and thats on a super long straight. 707 BHP compared to the 1,200 hp monsters they used to race. This car is most fun to drive at the Nurburgring, Laguna Seca, and other real world tracks. I was able to get a 5:16 lap in, and a 1:03.2 respectively. The 1:03 is 5 secs quicker than Helio's lap records. he he he

Only 212mph .

First of all, although F1 cars can physically reach extremely high speeds (for reference - the Honda speed run of way over 200mph+), they are not designed for ultimate top speed. They are designed for ultimate track performance, which is more about grip, acceleration and decceleration. Top speed isn't important, so F1 cars are not designed to run higher than 200 very often. Plus the fact that engines are designed these days to last several races and test sessions.

Secondly, they never actually raced the 1200bhp engines in the 80s, those were "qualifying" engines which were designed to run for one lap only (at full boost). The race engines never reached those heights.

Thirdly, have you tried altering the gear ratios? I don't expect the car to go much faster, but there may be a little of speed to find altering the final ratio. The F10 won't go much faster because of point 1, because beyond 200mph you are being limited more and more by drag in the air and power becomes mostly irrelevant. Thanks to the large wings that modern F1 cars use, the cars create a lot of drag so even if setup for top speed runs, they will struggle.

 

[lbsf1]

Fastest f1 car ever in competition was Gehard Bergers Bennaton at 350kph (217mph) in 1986 at Monza, I just googled it however that was posted on a forum in mid 2004 so I don't know if any of the cars then got any faster in that year.

 

[Greycap]

Fastest f1 car ever in competition was Gehard Bergers Bennaton at 350kph (217mph) in 1986 at Monza, I just googled it however that was posted on a forum in mid 2004 so I don't know if any of the cars then got any faster in that year.

Eight posts above yours:

Antonio Pazzonia /BMW Williams /GP Italy 2004 did 369.9 km/h(229.85 mp/h)

 

[AlexGTV]

You're telling me a Veyron tops all-time F1s. Holy...

 

[daan]

You're telling me a Veyron tops all-time F1s. Holy...

But a Veyron wouldn't get anywhere an F1 on a straight the length of Monza.

A Veyron needs a huge straight of Ehra Lessien proportions to get up to 229mph. Pizzonia did 229mph on Monza's 0.59km straight....

Straight line speed is so unimportant to an F1. The Red Bull's were the fastest car round a track all season, yet they were nowhere in a straight line compared to the others.

 

[Danny_GT2]

F1 cars where at their peak in 2004, since then, Mad Max & Bernie have made them slower!

 

[Ardius]

You're telling me a Veyron tops all-time F1s. Holy...

As I (and now Daan has) said previously, top speed is irrelevant for an F1 car, its not one of its design goals.
The point is to be fastest around a track, top speed is something achieved in straight lines. What's so hard to understand about that? Many cars of various types can achieve a higher top speed than an F1 car. But if you designed a car just for top speed, just as an F1 car is designed for ultimate laptime, it wouldn't look anything like an F1 car, it would look more like this:

F1 cars where at their peak in 2004, since then, Mad Max & Bernie have made them slower!

What does Bernie have to do with the speed of F1 cars?

 

[Akmuq]

F1 isn't about top speed. It's about getting to that top speed. On Monza an F1 will probably get to about 205 at the end of each straight. Tons more then what any other car will do. A track like Shanghai will show all of F1's strenghts compared to other series. I'd say that on ovals with the right gearing that they would do indycar speeds as well.

 

[Robin]

I was hoping that F1 would just get faster and faster with even more advanced features to keep them on the track (crazy aero etc). I would hope for a future where one day they would become jet powered for example. I know speed isn't everything but its about pushing technical and driver ability ever further forward.

I get that safety and also financing is an issue but this is top level motor sport which is meant to be the pinnacle of auto technology which often filters down to road cars. With all the aero restrictions and V8 limits I feel that its somewhat lost its underlying magic (even though the racing was spectacular last year).

At least they are thinking of reintroducing turbos and ground effects in the future, reverse the Bernie lunacy.

Robin.

 

[Ardius]

Why do people keep referring to Bernie in all this? He doesn't write the technical regulations!
There are plenty of reasons to dislike and criticise Bernie Ecclestone. FIA Formula 1 technical regulations are most certainly not one of them. He nor FOM nor CVC or whoever have anything to do with how fast the cars go or what engines they use. All Bernie does is manage the "business" of F1, the marketing and distribution of its product. He has (relatively) no say in the technical side of things...that is what the FIA are for.

 

[AlexGTV]

As I (and now Daan has) said previously, top speed is irrelevant for an F1 car, its not one of its design goals.

They are all out about top accel. and decel. right? But are we reaching the point where the limit of driver capabilities lies, meaning the sport might be close to hit the ceiling as far as the safety of drivers is concerned?

 

[Ardius]

Not so much for acceleration and decceleration, but for cornering G-forces, we already are at a limit. The faster cars can go around corners, the harder it is for the drivers to control - its been said in the past by engineers that the easiest solution to going even faster is to actually ditch the drivers and just have remote control cars.
This is where the sport gets into a bit of a vague definition of itself. It can no longer be the fastest possible machines but also be safe for the drivers, so which should it be (about pure machinery or have an element of pure driving ability)? This is why to some extent, I'm happy with the FIA restricting the speed of the cars because its not really safe going any faster and I don't wish to see remote control F1 cars. Just as long as its still the "pinnacle", the fastest motorsport, it doesn't really matter whether it no longer makes huge leaps in speed every few years.

 

[Lw_]

The fastest lap I think is either Montoya 2003 or Barrichello 2004 at Monza.The avergae speed is about 155-160mph and they're said to have hit 227mph.

Of cousre there was also that BAR that hit 240-250mph with a fin at the back instead of a rear wing in the desert.

Almost right. The fastest ever F1 was Montoya in 2004 at monza in a V10 bmw williams. He went at 370 kph or 230 mph.

 

[Clark]

And what is Monza then? A bunch of long straights, chicanes and gimped corners. It has one good corner - the last corner. That's it.

Trust me I know about all the circuits and the chnages throughout history. But just think how slow the particularly the first and second chicanes are at Monza, and then they cars don't just just instantly hit top speed again they have to accelerate up there again.

In the days when Silverstone had the old Stowe and Club where they were just banging down a gear then flooring it again, the cars rarely were slowed by tighter corners hence the high avergae speed.

The OP was referring to top speed anyway, which has never been bettered in race trim than in the last days of the V10's.

 

[Robin]

Not so much for acceleration and decceleration, but for cornering G-forces, we already are at a limit. The faster cars can go around corners, the harder it is for the drivers to control - its been said in the past by engineers that the easiest solution to going even faster is to actually ditch the drivers and just have remote control cars.

Couldnt they wear fighter pilot style suits? The ones which actively inflate around your legs to keep the blood in your head at high G's. They could also strap the helmet to a 4 point bungie rope style mounting to minimise neck strain.

Robin.

 

[daan]

If we take Pizzonia's 229mph as the fastest an F1 has been on a track (ignoring Honda's 2006 salt flat attempts) then Can-am cars (~240mph), Sportscars (240 ish again) and CART (241mph) have all ran faster than that on a racetack.

Even a NASCAR has done a 228mph average at Talladega (admittedly without a restrictor plate and not in a race) so that was probably over 229 down the back straight.