A video explaining all the forces and fatigue the drivers are exposed to while racing would be nice. people tend to believe this is easy but these guys are some of the most resistant athletes out there.

F1 may be a rich man's sport, but driving those cars at those speeds is a near-superhuman feat and is truly commendable.

Tracks also have elevations and depth. That also has to be taken into account.

We used to use F1 tracks as examples in my physics class so it’s cool to see it used it real life 😅

As a long time F1 fan, I seriously appreciate the fact that now more than ever, American news and fans are finally tuning in to watch and learn about the spectacle that is Formula 1.

4:44 what a nice driver, surely his race wouldn't be compromised with no fault of his own via bad strategy calls

As F1 buff please keep making these, i love how F1 is getting all this new interest may be I will make a few videos myself.

I’m surprised Goatifi’s phenomenal track record wasn’t mentioned.

Faint pass attempts, early throttle application for an impending DRS run, switchbacks… tons of reasons you’d also want to purposefully pursue a mathematically non ideal path, too on top of all this correct info. Great to see this discussed!

4:37 isn’t the best example of drivers choosing alternate lines. While side by side, these ideas are thrown out the window, as one driver looks to defend the racing line by fending the other away from it. There are better examples during qualifying, where individual drivers will enter a corner more aggressively than others, while others will focus more on the exit. Verstappen likes a front-heavy car for aggressive turn ins, while his team mate Perez prefers a smoother entry, smoother steering input for a cleaner exit. Great video none the less for beginners!

Watching the W11 Mercedes going at 300kmph around pouhon in spa was when i knew that f1 cars are truly something extraordinary. The sheer downforce on those cars are magnificent.

theoritically it's all about taking the shallowest line, kissing the apex & maintaining max mininum cornering speed. but every corner is different & driver style matters massively, Alonso for example loves to turn in sharp & early.

The '22 Hungarian GP had several excellent camera shots of racing lines and drivers displaying amazing racecraft provided by the helicopter shots.

And the sheer amount of G-force they experience on those corners is massive and those drivers have my respect.

One thing that often gets overlooked when talking about the racing line is that, like Brad said, they don’t exist in a vacuum, and it’s not just other corners that effect the line, it’s the straights between them. The most important corner, on any given flying lap, is the last corner before the longest straight. You must maximize your exit speed on that corner, even if it means compromising a section of the track that precedes it, because every bit of speed you have coming into that straight away is going to be magnified by the end of it.

Everyone: "Formula1" / "F1" Vox: "F-1"

Turn 1 at Baku is about the closest to that 90 degree turn you used as an example, not stowe

good on newbies for wanting to learn and love this breathtaking sport :)

Always love to see big channels bringing new people into the sport

4:41 it is called "not leaving a space" in F1😂 and also all the drivers are following a different line because they are trying to overtake. If you watch a lap where no one is trying to overtake almost all drivers follow a similar line

Been watching F1 for over a decade, so really happy to see this video. More F1 and motorsport coverage please Vox!

Top tips: Make the track as wide as possible Slow in, fast out Don't talk over yourself doing it live 😅

Lol talking about turning really fast while the thumbnail shows one of the slowest corners in the calendar.

As a race driver this is one of the best and well explained videos on racing lines I’ve ever seen. All scenarios are explained and it leaves nothing out. I love it

I love how the 3d model car disappears for exactly one frame at 0:37

F1 is actually one of the hardest sports to master . Big respect to all the drivers

Sainz finally has screen time!

Vox: How F1 Racers Turn Really Fast Thumbnail: Shows the Fairmont Hairpin, literally the slowest corner in F1, that could probably be taken faster in a go kart.

1:09 weird way to say that NASCAR is the exception, though. All other motorsports have "all" corners because that's what a...normal circuit looks like

2:41 "the closest real world example is stowe" Have you not seen Baku?

"The closest we can get to our theoretical 90° corner is Stowe" Sochi: Am I a joke to you?

Thank you VOX for making this. I'm 1 week old newbie in the world of F1, what a great timing this video was for me

1:43 nascar drivers can stay all the way on the inside of the track at daytona and talladega because the nature of the size and banking allows them to run full throttle so the shortest way around can be faster. This manifests the most when watching qualifying as they are out there alone whereas in the race, they use the draft to gain speed to attempt to pass and the physical lap distance isnt vital

The concert of “the line” is found from skiing, to walking through NYC. It is the straightest line through a set of obstacles.

0:45 gotta love how in this segment, yas marina is shown twice

As an f1 fan I find this genuinely fun to watch

Amazing animation/graphics. Vox does it again! 👍🏼

Love this video! I remember learning to do this in Real Racing 3 lol. I'd always use the apex line then and going over those red & white striped things was really satisfying!

❤️ Glad to be able to help!

5:08 it would have been nice to show Max Verstappen's overtake on Nico Rosberg from Brazil 2016 here. What happened is there was a Safety Car and it was raining. After the restart, Nico took the normal racing line while Max overtook him on the outside because it was drier over there. Turns out Max had been testing the surfaces under the Safety Car and found more grip on the outside. Still one of the best overtakes I have ever seen in my life

The DTS effect is huge, even mainstream media like vox is covering F1 now

Ah yes, Stowe, the best example of a 90° corner in f1. Have they heard of Baku? Or did they want a track example explicitly?

I've been searching for the perfect video that explains the core fundamentals of motorsports to introduce my friends into sim racing, and you have provided it. Thank you.

0:45 Shows 3 one-off circuits, 1 canceled one, layouts that are just wrong, and Yas Marina twice :'D

VOX should do a video on WEC or endurance racing in general. Especially the 24 hour races of le Mans or Nurburgring

F1 cars really shine in technical circuits such as Singapore and Suzuka.

3:41 ,the AUTO-TUNE

It would have been nice to get a bit more in depth about trail braking that happens in racing. For 50% you turn the car still the steering wheel and for 50% with the brake. I think Brad could give a very nice explanation of this in a follow up video :)

It should also be taken into account that the driving style and handling of the car matter a lot when it comes to taking the best line. For example, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel are known for taking a V line at certain corners. They share 11 world championships in case anyone's wondering (7 and 4)

As a long time Motorsports fan (and someone who spends hours in sims) I expected this video to get things wrong but it was genuinely well made.

Vox: Closest real world example of a 90-degree turn is Stowe on Silverstone Baku: *am I a joke to you?*

Would have loved the continued geometric explanation: the "radius" of your curve matters and finding the 'apex' gives you effectively the largest radius and therefore the flatest line. Why? It's easier to balance a beachball on your finger than a baseball.

Vox dropping a video like no one has heard of a racing line before

I’ve watched years of f1, done hundreds of hours on sims and karting yet here I am watching this video

I just realised I've been doing this in racing games for years... I only had the actual 'racing line' setting on for a few weeks and then I found racing lines on new maps pretty instinctively! That's actually pretty cool.

Shout out to the guy that made the animations tho 🔥

Finally guys, American find out how CORNER IS!!!!!!

The fastest racing line is a rectangular turn which puts greater Gs on the drivers. F1 cars today can easily pull rectangular turns for faster laps.

0:15 "To make a left turn..." Video shows cars approaching camera from the right and leaving to the left, but they're making right turns.

My favorite sport in the world. ❤ I see now lots of them making videos about this great sport.

This explanation is so needlessly convoluted, beginning from the most fundamental concepts, so it can only become messier afterwards. For starters, what is described erroneously as the "ideal racing line" in the 90-degree corner example is what racing people actually refer to as the geometric racing line. This is the line that forms the shallowest turning radious throughout the corner and enables maximum speed at the apex, thus representing the fastest way to go through that particular section, in isolation of many other factors. It rarely is the exact line that brings the fastest lap time though, primarily because by turning in later than the geometric ideal and/or delaying the point where you reach the apex, you can have a shallower exit radious. That is what racers actually call the "ideal racing line" and it is considered as such because a straighter exit allows the driver to be earlier on the throttle, which will bring a speed advantage that will be carried on through the ensuing straight and until the next corner - rather than for the few meters separating the turn-in point from the apex. In short, it is the "slower in, faster out" concept. That is the primary reason why drivers pick their lines by looking at a sequense of corners rather than one in isolation. Even a simple 90-degree corner can warrant a pretty different approach depending on whether it is followed by a large straight, or there's another slow corner immediately after it. In the latter case, maybe the geometric line would also be the ideal one. Also, these principles are pretty universal and not specific to F1. Anyone watching the video title would think you were going to explain downforce.

I like how that F1 coach is wearing "BOX BOX BOX" WTF1 merch xD

Thanks for showing the GFX folks working in Blender at the end :)

Downforce goes brrrrr

"strategy" Ferrari: Let's put hard compound tyres after struggling to properly fire up new mediums on a cold track.

Baku T1 could literally be the corner in the example lol

I saw Minis racing round the Silverstone track and it was mad.

Latifi is the best in the sport btw, for the ones that dont watch

If you have a 90 degree corner leading onto a long strait it’s sometime better to take a late apex to straighten up the car for a better acceleration onto the strait. This is just one of the things you missed in this VERY simplified video truth is it’s a lot more complex that this video makes it out to be.

As an F1 fan love this video

Something about them saying "F1 Racers" instead of drivers feels strange haha. but nice to see the big channels picking up the sport. Happy to see it!

Today F1 cars generate so much downforce and g-force when turning, the driver's neck have to be able to constantly taking so many forces during the race that there are exercises done to strenghten their neck muscle.

This is basically part of "Racing 101", and if you play racing games (especially with simulation type of handling) you should already know why. Playing many racing games over the years resulting with my instinct just know when and how to make a turn efficiently. It's not a turning calculation or any kind of trick, it's because it just feels right.

The animations are pretty sick man!

There's also the distinction about early and late apex based on the length of straight after the corner, i.e. if a long straight is after the corner you want to take a late apex - kiss the inside late, so you can get on the throttle earlier and go faster quicker for longer. Also double apex, or V-ing the corner on long corners where you go outside inside outside inside. A lot more could be covered.

Brad is so good at explaining this stuff! I love his channel too

The 3D animation is gorgeous.

Wow, this actually explained a lot of F1 for me.

Baku in Azerbaijan has 90 degree corners at turns 1, 2 and 3.

F1 racers? LOL come on. Almost no one calls them that. They're drivers or pilots.

Good video. As someone who has done a bit of legal organized competitive driving with the SCCA in the past I got more out of this than I expected. Specifically the entry line to Luffield at Silverstone. I only driven Silverstone in video games, but on Brooklands I always attempt to take a late apex on what is already a decreasing radius corner in order to setup the entry to Luffield. Now I know I don't need to be that commited to that line.

F1 game multiplayer: Racing line ? never heard of that

1:04 lol wut? NASCAR is the outlier, not the norm, most motorsport consists of tracks that aren't banked ovals. This is a good explanation of racing lines, but what makes F1 cars fast through corners is more about the aero and ground effects.

231 Mph is actually the fastest speed ever reached

Missed Apex Podcast and Vox Media fan here, delighted to see Brad Philpot on here! Cheers sir

I learned how to drive playing Gran Turismo 1 & 2. Those tutorials are so informative.

Calling Nascar a big motorsport is pretty funny. It's basically only practiced in the US.

Racing line isn't important if u using ferrari masterplan

2:38 "Corners aren't that straight forward" no they are not

I’ve known about this concept since I was a kid. I learned about it from watching the Hot Wheels AcceleRacers series: that series mentioned it in its third episode, “Breaking Point.” In that episode, they called the concept “hitting the apex.”

U completely skipped over the fact that drivers take different racing lines to conserve and save their tires for longer, even if it means loosing a little bit of time, and depending on your tire strategy and whether your attacking or defending

F-1, really 🤦‍♂️

Wow did not expect to see Brad from Mixed Apex podcast on here!

love that u despite the title the slowest corner in all of the tracks took for the thumbnail

you know my guy's legit when he has a Nürburgring tattoo 😆

I remember wondering as a kid why cars started so wide and ended wide on a corner. I think I just came to realise myself, perhaps when I started driving. Such an interesting video. Just some of these basic concepts of sport are never really talked about and should be more!

This is the type of analysis I’ve been looking for. Need more of it lol

i do this when i go running too because the track i run at has really sharp turns

I remember reading about the ideal racing line in the manual that came with Gran Turismo 2. Thanks Sony for a great childhood.

when high quality channels go to the topic of F1 that greats the best videos for me as an F1 fan!!