Imagine you're walking along the street, thinking sweet thoughts until when you hear a bang! A car crash! Luckily, both drivers are unharmed thanks to the airbags, which activated just in time! But can airbags even save the lives of Formula 1 drivers who accelerate their cars to mind-bending speeds? They probably could... IF there were airbags in F1 race cars!
Well, I admit, it was pretty shocking to find out that F1 drivers don't have any need for airbags. Let me go into detail: high speeds, mind-blowing circuit turns, huge chances of a crash, and no airbags needed. Right. So if you could, where would you fit an airbag in an F1 car? Steering wheel, you say?
Ah, that's where the problem starts! Formula 1 drivers are very meticulous people, and they won't settle for less than a steering wheel with more than a dozen switches, and controls. These wheels alone costs around $60 grand! There's simply no way an airbag could fit in. And even if it did, the cockpit of the vehicle is so tiny that an activated airbag would probably smother the driver to death! Actually, no matter how it may seem, safety is paramount in Formula One. F1 drivers have not just one seat belt, but five or six of them: two shoulder straps, one or two leg straps, and two pelvic straps. In fact, the drivers are so bundled up that they have just enough freedom to steer and reach for different mysterious buttons and switches. In fact, drivers are positioned in their seats so tightly that they can't even fasten all these seat belts on their own. A mechanic must do it for them. On the other hand, if there’s an emergency, an F1 driver can leave the car within 5 seconds! The trick is that they can release all the straps with the single twist of one hand.
And since the primary purpose of the airbag is to not let the driver's head hit the front of the car, you can see why an F1 car wouldn’t need one. There’s no chance for its driver to get flung forward or out of the vehicle unless the car disintegrates. But even then, the driver would stay in a rigid survival cell designed specifically to protect a person in case of a bad crash. And we mustn't forget about F1 drivers' sensational helmets! These helmets must go through serious trials. For example, a helmet has to withstand a penetration test, when a 6.5 pound (3 kg) pointed metal object gets dropped onto the helmet from the height of 10 ft (3 m). Also, designers test the helmet's chin strap which shouldn't stretch by more than 1 inch (25 mm). Then they bombard the visor with projectiles that travel at the speed of about 300 mph (483 kph). Well, why not? And after that, they hit the helmet with an almost 1,500-degree-F (815 °C) flame for 45 seconds. The temperature inside the helmet at this time mustn't be higher than 158 °F (70 °C)!
These superhero helmets sound exciting! But there are even more amazing F1 facts! The tires of a Formula One car rotate so fast that they get blazing-hot during racing. If you manage to get close to an F1 car after the race is over, don’t touch its tire the temperature will be about 248 °F (120 °C), which is enough to boil water or fry an egg! Also, during the average race, the tires lose about 1 pound (0.5 kg) of their weight because of the wear! And while the lifespan of an average tire reaches 13,000 to 35,000 miles (21,000 to 56,000 km), an F1 tire only serves for a maximum 62 miles (100 km). - To make a Formula One racing car, you need to put together more than 80,000 components! It's crucial that the makers assemble the car 100% correctly. It may seem like 99.9% is pretty good, but in this case, it would mean 80 details are incorrectly placed, which would cause grave danger for both the driver and the other participants of the race.
The Formula One car's brake system is made from an indestructible kind of carbon fiber. The F1 disc brakes allow the vehicle to come from full speed to a complete halt in a mere 4 seconds! By the way, in this case, the discs heat up to 2,000 °F (1,100 °C), and that's the temperature of molten lava! If a race takes place on the streets of a city like Singapore or Monaco, workers must weld down the man-hole covers before the race. The problem is that the suction a Formula One car produces is great enough to rip these huge metal discs right out of the street and shoot them into the sky!
Did you know you could drive an F1 car on the ceiling? No, seriously, these vehicles have wings that create a powerful down force pushing them onto the track, and that's what allows the cars to take corners so fast. In fact, the downward force is so strong that at a speed of 150 mph (240 kph), the vehicle could drive upside down on the ceiling of a tunnel!
It takes just 3 seconds for the pit crew to change the tires and refuel a Formula One car. Could it be the same at all gas stations, please? The average basic cost of a Formula One car is about $10 Million! The car's engine alone can cost from $7 to $10 million; a fuel tank's price tag varies from $100,000 to $140,000,and you'll pay $220,000 for the cooling system and $250,000 for the transmission. Formula One racing cars can reach a whopping speed of 234 mph (376 kph)! For comparison, some small planes take off more slowly than an F1 car moves along the track! And finally -- Have you been thinking of slimming down recently? Well, I know a great way to lose some (a lot!) of weight: you should become an F1 driver. This person loses up to 9 pounds (4 kg) after just two hours of racing. It’s mostly due to the scorching temperatures in the cockpit: during the race, it may get as hot as 122 °F (50 °C) inside.
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