Formula 1 Cars

Could an F1 Car Drive Inverted?

by Charlie (S)

Could a Formula One car drive upside-down?

Due to the amount of downforce a Formula 1 Car produces, people have often said that an F1 car could drive upside-down, but is it actually possible?

Formula 1 cars are capable of generating 3.5g of lateral cornering force due to their aerodynamics. This means at high-speeds, an F1 car could support three and a half times its own weight. They do this by directing air over ‘wings’. Comparing an airplane wing to a Formula 1 wing:

Airplane F1 rear wing

The airplane wing creates fast moving air on top and slow moving air on the bottom of the wing. The F1 wing creates slow moving air on the top of the wing and fast moving air on the bottom. Bernoulli’s principle states that fast moving air has relatively low pressure, and slow moving air has relatively high pressure. The difference in pressure around both wings causes a force. In the case of the airplane wing, this force acts upwards, whereas the force acts downwards on the F1 wing.

However, Formula One cars utilise a "dry slump" engine this means that being upsidedown the engine would be at risk of oil starvation, this however could be easily fixed with a few tweaks.

An F1 car only produces the incredible downforce when it is operating at high speeds, this would mean that the car would either need to start on the ground and then slowly drive up a banked wall onto the ceiling, or start already travelling at 180mph, both of which are implausible.

Overall, although an F1 car could theoretically drive upside-down it would be almost impossible to actually recreate, as well as costing a small fortune for the engine modifications and tunnel necessary.