Over the years Formula One teams have pitched their cars against some of the world’s most formiddable, and on occasion, fiercesome machines. The most common battle is associated with the car manufacturers who supply engines to the motor sporting world, and these companies will sometimes race an F1 car against a fast road-going car and a small hatch-back or similar. Let’s take a look at some of the vehicles Formula One drivers have found themselves racing against.
Stewart-Ford vs. Ford Focus WRC vs. Ford Cougar
Ferrari F310 vs. Ferrari 575M Maranello vs. Fiat Punto
McLaren Peugeot MP4-9 vs. Porsche 911 vs. Peugeot 306
Spyker F8-VII vs. F16 Jet Fighter
Read more about this race on BlogF1 at the post I wrote last year: Spyker F8-VII vs. F16 Jet Fighter
Ferrari F2004 vs. Eurofighter Typhoon
Schumacher got trounced, but at least the Eurofighter has beaten other cars as well, the Bugatti Veyron for example…
Bugatti Veyron vs. Eurofighter Typhoon
…Top Gear tried racing against the Typhoon with Richard Hammond at the wheel of a Veyron, but the plane was just too quick.
Ferrari 126c vs. F-104 Jet Fighter
There’s very little information on this video other than the race taking place in 1981. I don’t know if Gilles Villeneuve won or if the F-104 did, but I’m certain the Ferrari driver had a lot of fun that day.
BAR Honda vs. Superbike vs. Speedboat
Jenson Button beat the lot of the them after he turned off the anti-stall and started to get away from the line properly.
McLaren Mercedes F1 vs. Mercedes DTM vs. Mercedes SL AMG vs. Mercedes CLC
I’m not very good with Mercedes’s model designation system, so if I’ve got the car models wrong, I apologise in advance.
Another predictable race between a variety of road-going and racing cars.
Arrows vs. Lamborghini
Like Spyker, Arrows rarely set the track alight, but when they race other machines, they are in with a fighting chance. Especially when the result is as obvious as this one.
And the prompt of this post? Lewis Hamilton raced a learjet this morning down a runway. Apparently the McLaren driver is a Learjet Brand Ambassador (which I presume means Ron Dennis gets a discounted jet) and Hamilton raced one in his MP4-23. The race was put together for a publicity event for the Farnborough Air Show, and the BBC have a video of it here.
If you like these videos there’s more to see on BlogF1’s video page…
Is this the way we could see the BBC incorporate Top Gear into it’s F1 shows? Seems to be ideal given that Clarkson and the boys like nothing better than a race between improbable modes of transport!
Thanks for the videos. I was watching Speed Channel Promo video when JPM and Jeff Gordon had swapped Williams F1 and Nascar cars for Publicity gimmick, thank Goodness they didn’t actually take the track together on competitive lap..
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Excellent post!!
Now I remember a very famous duel between Tazio Nuvolari (I don’t remember which car he was driving) and an airplane in the 1930’s!
The race between Gilles and the F104 Starfighter is legendary. They did one run and the Starfighter won. Gilles being Gilles decided that losing wasn’t an option even against the Starfighter wo he told the mechanics to take the wings off. They explained that maybe that was not the most sensible course of action and besides without wings he would never stop before he hit the fence. Gilles insisted and they capitulated. He won by a very small margin and chucked the car into a series of rubber burning spins and stopped just short of the fence.
That was the thing about Gilles he never could let reality stop him from trying to win.