Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
I've been wondering what year an F1 car achieved better performance than the best current production cars in each of the following categories: accelleration from a standing start, braking, cornering, top speed. Weight, aerodymics and tire technology are all factors and it is interesting to consider where the largest and smallest gains were made. Thanks for your help!
There where the best cars on the world in the Fangio era. Most likely in all aspects. But compared to road cars F1 has actually been held back in recent years With restrictions on technology
I thought accelleration with AWD on today's supercars probably exceeded F1 0-100kph sometime in the early 2000s, but I was wrong. F1 cars are in the 1.6 - 2 second range for 0-60, where 2.3 for the 2018 Viper is the fastest I've found. The Bugatti Veyron and Hennesey Venom GT are both a good 20mph faster than even the Bonneville Salt Flats run Honda did, so I'd say the production cars are faster for top speed.
Braking and corning are interesting. F1 may have exceeded the performance of todays supercars 30 years ago. It will be harder to figure out, since the normal skidpad numbers are routinely exceeded when road cars are raced on a track. For example, Corvettes hit 1.5G under braking and 1.8G cornering (assuming their onboard data is accurate) and supercars would exceed that by a sizable margin.
I don't know if we'll be able to get to something like:
Top speed: road cars exceeded F1 in 2005 with the Veyron
Accelleration: maybe the 1987 turbo F1 cars were able to exceed 0-60mph of 2.3 (2018 Viper)
Braking: ?
Cornering: maybe when wings were introduced, but maybe earlier
