F-1 Acceleration Rates

[Pete Tuckerman]

Has anyone run across any really accurate acceleration figures for F-1 cars? For example 0-60 mph, 0-100kmh, standing quarter mile, etc. I found some figures but they are all over the map.

[Adam43]

It is probably quite difficult to pin down. It will depend on gear ratios, wings and quite afew other settings. I would imagine that having a BMW engine instead of a Renault might help too! I wonder what the variations are with settings. WIngs might not effect it too much up to 60mph, but who knows?

Do F1 cars only use 1st gear for starts? In which case they all will be set up for the ideal acceleration to the first corner.

[Pete Tuckerman]

Originally posted by AdamAshmore
It is probably quite difficult to pin down. It will depend on gear ratios, wings and quite afew other settings. I would imagine that having a BMW engine instead of a Renault might help too! I wonder what the variations are with settings. WIngs might not effect it too much up to 60mph, but who knows?

Do F1 cars only use 1st gear for starts? In which case they all will be set up for the ideal acceleration to the first corner.

All those are factors true. I was hoping for some actual test data.

[Adam43]

On BAR's website they claim

"An F1 car can accelerate from a standing start to 120mph and then brake to a standstill in less than 7 seconds. The maximum speed is around 360kph."

I liked their mixing of units!

[Powered by JPM]

if i recall...sometime last year there was an article in Motor Trend comparing accelerations from different vehicles (Jaguar F1 car, Rahal Cart champ car, Suzuki Hayabusa, 600hp Honda Civic CRX <Bergenholtz Racing>, Henessey Viper, HKS Drag Nissan Skyline<over 1000hp>)
I do stand corrected on the list of cars...however, i think they said the Jag did the 0-60 sprint in the area of 3sec and got it to 100mph under 5 sec.
They tested the 1/4mile times too...but i cant remember that.

[Dino IV]

Figures in magazines, books and on websites vary a bit depending on the test situation or the gossip heard.
F1 acceleration with a normal medium set-up is virtually linear until the aero-forces really start mastering the gears which would be at approx. 280 km\h, so much I picked up throughout the years.
Some times I'd reckon to be close would be:
Between 2,0 and 2,5 s for 0-100 km\h
Between 4,0 and 4,5 s for 0-200 km\h
Between 6,0 and 6,5 s for 0-280 km\h
Between 6,6 and 7,5 s for 0-300 km\h
Anybody who has ever seen F1 accelerate live will have noticed they really slingshot when on the power, like being pulled by a huge bungee cord. Very impressive.

As the engine power is around 600 kW the brake power is about 2,5 that, so deceleration is much more phenomenal than the already unimaginable acceleration. Eye-popping literally.

[Crank Case]

Originally posted by Dino IV

As the engine power is around 600 kW the brake power is about 2,5 that, so deceleration is much more phenomenal than the already unimaginable acceleration. Eye-popping literally.

I remember one of the teams engineers saying the drivers never say anything about the acceleration but are always amazed at just how late they can brake.
I wonder how the G forces compare,I suspect cornering will get the highest G's but what about acceleration and braking?

[Dino IV]

Last year with the no-tyre-war-hence-not-so-sticky grooved tyres lateral forces (while cornering) had dropped to about 4 G maximum, maybe even less. So that was quite moderate compared to the 5+ G's at some corners before 1998. This year 4,5 G will probably have been a regular figure again.

Acceleration is the most moderate force, probably 1,5 G. Don't know any figures really, but significant more than that would surprise me.

But braking indeed is tremendous in F1. Keep in mind that braking in a road going braking ace as the Porsche 911 Turbo will give you 1,1 G at optimum and you probably all know what it's like to hit the brakes very hard and hanging in your belt in a more casual car. That's about 0,8 G. In F1 deceleration was approaching 5 G in previous years, also because the front width of the tyres has been increasing to counter the understeer-nature of the post-1998 cars. I've noticed mention of 5,5 G figures on numerous occassions this year. That's without a doubt a force beyond anyone's imagination. Especially because it isn't a impact force of a few milliseconds but lasting for about 1 second. Running against a wall will make you feel such a force for a few milliseconds. Have one wheel of a Mercedes S600 ride over a board with you underneath in 1 s and try withstand that. That's huge.

Has anyone ever seen that piece of video with Johnny Herbert having a microphone in his helmet so you can hear him breathe? He simply can not breathe in the braking zone. He hits the brakes and with an 'ughh' his body is slammed in the belts, pressing all air from his lungs and only when he eases off the pressure off the brakes on his way to the apex he starts breathing again very fast. When he hits the throttle breathing gets heavy again and slows down. Fascinating stuff.

[ljakse]

Originally posted by Crank Case


I remember one of the teams engineers saying the drivers never say anything about the acceleration but are always amazed at just how late they can brake.
I wonder how the G forces compare,I suspect cornering will get the highest G's but what about acceleration and braking?

I've seen a map of all circuits with G-forces they "produce" in corners, but never anything about'em for acc. and braking.
However, the bigest G-force was at Hockeinheim @ 3.7, but I can't remember on what curve that was.

[Roy2]

Fisichella describes a lap at Monza in the F1-Live site. It's interesting and perhaps revealing how he describes it.

He gives the speed on each straight, the braking g-force into each corner, and the gear and speed thru each corner.

I've seen and heard a number of in-car laps described by commentators, and have read a few descriptions purportedly quoted from drivers, but this is the first time I've heard or read of the braking g-forces given consistently as part of a lap description.

Cornering and straightaway speeds (and acceleration) are the commonly known performance measurements. Is GF implying that the braking g-forces into each corner are something he can read from his dashboard? Or is he reading from his telemetry after he's parked the car?

I suppose it's common knowledge for some of you, but I haven't heard it spoken of by a driver in quite this way before.

[Crank Case]

5.5 G's under braking that is amazing I never realized it was so high.

[Gt_R]

Hmmm...i just thought i'd attach this for anybody who wants to take a peak at the comparison times/figures.

Interestingly, F1racing did one in 1997 with the Mclaren '97 vs Mercedes E55 AMG vs Mercedes A-class...

If i'm not wrong, theres a comparison between Senna's Mclaren Honda vs a Honda Accord/Civic...

Acceleration and Braking Figure Comparison: Ferrari F2000 vs Ferrari F50 vs Fiat Brava