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https://m.facebook.com/TheStig/videos/drag-race-formula-e-vs...

And F1 compared to McMurtry Spéirling EV at GoodWood

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Q7a0hfp-A

Its definitely not a speed issue, we can make very fast electric cars and the torque and horsepower delivery is vastly superior to a hydrocarbon engine. The problem is energy density. Petrol stores a lot more energy in a smaller space and weight than a battery currently and that accounts for a large amount of the deficit between them for race distances. Still Formula E is improving and it has a future in a net zero world where as the hydrocarbon super cars of F1 likely do not.

That second link is just insane, the way that thing gets going and maintains speed through the corners is out of this world. I wonder what the disturbance in the air behind the middle of the car is, probably dust but it looks a bit strange for that. Or is it sucking itself to the ground (if so then that makes the run a lot less impressive, F1 outlawed that long ago).

It is all electric rear wheel drive with two fans that suck it to the ground, and the skirt lasts a long time!

Ah ok, then this is an apples to oranges comparison. Thank you!

They actually brought back ground effect this year with the newest regulation change. The argument was that if cars relied on ground effect for downforce and less on front and rear wings, cars could have an easier time following the car ahead because the turbulent air becomes less of a factor (due to ground effect not being as susceptible as the front wing to turbulent air) and being able to follow more closely makes for better racing. As a fan, I certainly can't complain. The commentators certainly never miss a chance to remind us how good the new regulations are.

Yes, but that's not using fans, or is it?

Not fans exactly, but the Bernoulli principle, which is sufficient to keep the car sucked to the track if the floor is designed in a specific way [0][1]

[0] https://motorsport-magazine.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-co...

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(cars)

Yes, but that only works above a minimum speed, fans work all the time so that is why that electric car in the video moves like it is on rails. If that F1 car had had fans it would likely be just as fast, the difference is minimal as it is.

> And F1 compared to McMurtry Spéirling EV at GoodWood

A 23-year old F1 car - for whatever reason, the FIA doesn't let the teams do timed runs at Goodwood anymore.

It'd be neat if they took their car for a test at a track where F1 races.

Due to FIA regulations you can't assume newer F1 cars are always faster.

That car got pole at Brazil with a 76.568-second lap. Last year, the pole lap was 67.934 seconds; I think it's safe to say a modern F1 car would be substantially faster at Goodwood too (almost certainly fast enough to make up the difference in lap times.

Due to recorded lap times on race tracks, you very certainly can. They're not in the same league.

There's always the argument that some obvious engine power restrictions in the rules could be worked around to make any given race car faster (Porsche with the 919 recently showed how spectacular the results of that tinkering can be), but the number of extreme improvements to F1 cars over the last 23 years in every area (aero, tires, brakes, engine, electronics, whatever) is something to contemplate.

There is some very low hanging fruit you could grab involving use of the battery and DRS if you wanted to ignore the rules and make a 2022 F1 car faster over one lap for the purposes of this comparison, so there's also that...

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