Granted, Formula One cars were designed for much more than straight-line speed, but have you ever wondered how one would fare in a drag race?
UK YouTube channel CarWow wondered exactly this, and managed to assemble two modern electric hypercars and the Red Bull RB8 Formula One car that Sebastian Vettel won the 2012 championship in.
For a little context, and as per the F1 regulations of a decade ago, the Red Bull RB8 has a 2.4-litre V8 engine that produces 560kW at a screaming 18,000rpm.
The McMurtry Speirling is an interesting little British sports car. Smaller than a Suzuki S-Presso and weighing under 1,000kg, it has two electric motors that collectively send 746kW to the rear wheels, which was enough for it to dominate last year’s Goodwood Hillclimb.
The Rimac Nevera, however, holds the official world quarter mile record for production cars, at 8.852 seconds if you have to know, and is powered by four electric motors that produce a total of 1,427kW.
CarWow host Mat Watson was the one behind the wheel of the latter, in which he also set the unofficial ¼ mile record in 2021, while the McMurtry was piloted by test driver Alex Summers and F1 car by Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson. The CarWow video below explains all you need to know about the cars, but if you want to rush to the drag race, skip to around the 6 minute mark:
Spoiler alert:
The Red Bull F1 car got obliterated in all three standing-start drag races, which saw a close tussle between the Rimac, which won two of the races, and the McMurtry, which took one victory in the middle race after the Rimac was bogged down with wheelspin at the start.
But wait, there’s more.
The CarWow team also did a final race with a rolling start, and here the F1 car crept into contention, only narrowly beaten by the Rimac.
Granted, this contest would no doubt have turned out completely different if the three cars were competing for a lap time around a circuit, but if you’ve ever wondered how an F1 car would fare in a drag race, now you know…
IOL Motoring