Many Formula 1 fans who are not professional drivers may have, at least once in their lives, imagined that if put to the test they could drive an F1 car. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Formula 1 is a sport that goes deep inside you if you love it. Beyond the memes that have proliferated over the years, everyone has at some point thought they could drive as well as a professional driver. And many might have wondered to themselves, ‘Well, maybe I could drive a Formula 1 car too.’ Unfortunately for most fans, that’s far from reality. You don’t just become a driver overnight—you can’t suddenly go from driving a road car to a Formula 1 car.
Brad Pitt didn’t actually drive an F1 car
In cinematic fiction, we’ve seen the iconic Brad Pitt drive a Formula 1 car at over 60 years old. Of course, we tend to think of movie magic, but in reality, the American actor drove a modified F2 car after taking lessons from none other than Lewis Hamilton. Credit to Pitt for trying to disprove the notion that non-drivers cannot handle an F1 car or, at the very least, complete a number of laps with a decent ‘lap time,’ as it’s so often described today.
The explanation from David Coulthard
David Coulthard, former McLaren, Williams, and Red Bull driver with 13 F1 wins, explains that an untrained person cannot drive an F1 car at race speed for long: “A normal person would last 10 laps in a Grand Prix, and I’m being generous. Maybe only 5.”
This statement is not exaggerated. The body makes all the difference—or rather, the training. Enduring up to 5G in corners and under braking is inhuman; it means carrying more than 450 kg on your body. To put it into perspective, for an 80 kg person, the neck must handle the equivalent of 40 kg! That’s why real drivers train every day, including their neck muscles.
Leg strength is essential too. Braking requires at least 45 kg of pressure, repeated constantly over a race that can last up to two hours. David Coulthard explains: “Physically, everyone talks about the neck: a strong neck is definitely required to drive a Grand Prix car because you experience over 5G in braking and lateral loads. But the other factor is internal organs. Under high G-force, the heart, lungs, stomach, everything inside the body moves.”
And beyond the physical aspect, the mind must be trained. A Formula 1 driver’s reaction time is roughly 200 milliseconds, compared to 500–600 milliseconds for an average person. It may seem small, but at 300 km/h this difference equals about 10 meters—an enormous distance for anyone behind the wheel of an F1 car.
Vicky Piria’s perspective
This concept was also explained a few months ago by Vicky Piria, driver and Sky talent, who spoke on Gazzoli’s BSMT podcast. She was equally blunt: “In my opinion, even just leaving the pits would be difficult. The clutch is on the steering wheel, and you have to pull a lever. You risk stalling immediately, there’s a ton of settings. The real difference is braking speed and the corners, especially the fast ones. On the straight, you get used to it quickly and feel much safer.”
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