Faster than Formula One: The Cars Built to Beat F1

Every few years, a manufacturer claims to have built—or to be building—a car capable of beating a Formula One car around a racing circuit. Most never prove it. A few come remarkably close. Only a few have actually done it. For decades, Formula One has represented the ultimate benchmark for circuit performance. Whenever a manufacturer claims its latest creation can “beat an F1 car,” it is effectively claiming to have surpassed the fastest regulated racing cars in the world. 

Before we move on, let’s agree on the definition of “racetrack” as a road course for the purposes of this discussion, this being the definition assumed for such claims. Of course, on different disciplines other specialized cars can be and will be quicker than an F1 car, such as an Indycar being quicker on an oval or a Top Fuel dragster being quicker at a dragstrip.

Those who already got there

That said, it is important to mention that while F1 is undisputedly faster than any other form of motorsport today on a track with left and right corners, there was a time when things were not quite this way. In the late 60’s and early 70’s, while F1 cars were limited to 3 liter naturally aspirated engines producing around 500 HP, sports cars and prototypes were in a fairly different condition. Group 7 regulations as used in Can-Am and Interserie allowed the use of high displacement and turbocharged engines,with power outputs ranging from over 800 HP to well above 1,100 HP in qualifying trim, more than making up for the nimbleness and agility F1 cars had through corners. Also Group 6 Sports cars such as the Porsche 917 were allowed to run fairly large engines, which coupled with their low-drag bodywork and much greater power made them quite a challenge to F1 cars on certain track layouts.

However, after the 80s madness of the F1 Turbo era, sports cars started to be regulated to keep performance in check, while in F1, even with the occasional regulation revamps bringing the performance down a little, the lap times generally continued to improve despite several regulation resets over the past three decades. This made up for quite a gap versus the fastest race series elsewhere, be they open wheelers or sports cars.

Therefore, for almost 50 years now F1 has remained as the pinnacle of performance, and so as a reference for anyone looking to advertise their car as a quick car. In recent years, after the demise of its WEC program by the end of 2017, Porsche set out to free the 919 Hybrid from the constraints of the LMP1 regulations to create the 919 Evo as a technology demonstrator once competition restrictions were removed . First, the fuel flow and hybrid energy allocation limits from the LMP1 regulations were removed, allowing the engine to produce 720 HP, while the maximum amount of recovered energy was increased from 6.37 MJ to 8.49 MJ for a lap at Spa-Francorchamps.

The weight was reduced by 39 kg with the removal of headlights, windscreen wipers, air conditioning and other electrical equipment, and a new bodywork designed with active DRS, larger rear wing, wider front diffuser and fixed side skirts. With Neel Jani at the wheel, it achieved a lap time of 1m41s770, beating the 2017 pole time of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 W08 EQ Power+ (1m42s553). This record has since been broken, now standing with the pole time of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren MCL39 Mercedes for the 2025 Grand Prix of Belgium at 1m40s510.

The Newey Paradox

While the 919 Evo proved it was possible, other individuals and organizations have made similar claims in recent years. If there is someone able to pull this kind of performance out of a car certainly it is Adrian Newey. With a career spanning IMSA GTP, CART and Formula One, during which he designed some of the fastest racing cars ever built, , Newey has tried his hand at developing a hypercar twice in the last decade. First, through the partnership between Red Bull and Aston Martin the Valkyrie was born. At the time of the car launch, Aston’s Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman claimed in an interview that the track version of the Valkyrie would be able to lap a circuit faster than a 2016 spec F1 car. Later the car was quoted posting lap times comfortably in the range of 1m48s at Bahrain International Circuit by RM Soteby’s during an auction, nearly 20 seconds off the 2005 F1 pole of Fernando Alonso at 1m29s848, and even 7 seconds off the LMP1 record at the track.

The second of Newey’s cars is the RB17, a hypercar built by Red Bull with a similar philosophy to the Valkyrie. In 2025 speaking during an episode of Talking Bulls podcast, Rob Gray, technical director of Red Bull Advanced Technologies stated that the team’s simulator predicted a Spa lap time of around 1m38s, quicker than the current F1 record. The car made its dynamic debut during the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed, but the validity of this claim remains to be proved.

The extreme approach

While to beat a F1 car requires an outstanding project, the Valkrie and RB17 are somewhat conventional in design. The same cannot be said of some other manufacturers, starting with  New Zealand’s Rodin Cars. For a long time David Dicker has built a dream of developing his own hypercar, first by acquiring the rights for the defunct Sintura S99 GT1, and then for the ill-fated Lotus T125. In 2016 Rodin Cars was established in New Zealand with state-of-the-art facilities, initially building an improved version of the T125, now dubbed the Rodin F-ZED and developin its own proprietary 4.0-liter V10 engine, which has since been put to test in the refreshed Rodin Sintura. Rodin’s boldest project, however, is the F-ZERO, which can be better described as a cross between a single-seater and a sports prototype. With covered wheels and a canopy, the futuristic car will be equipped with a 4 liter twin turbocharged engine producing 1,176 HP for a weight of only 698 kg. According to Rodin’s own simulations, the car will be able to lap Albert Park seven seconds quicker than a F1 car, a claim yet to be proved. The F-ZERO made its dynamic debut at Rodin’s test track in 2023, with the promise of travelling the world to break track records and prove the cars capabilities.

On a similar vibe, an Aston Martin prototype has been spotted testing in tracks around Europe. Nicknamed the “Chimera”, the prototype features a mix of characteristics from Aston’s F1 and Valkyrie AMR Pro cars, and is believed to be a single unit commissioned by billionaire Ken Griffin. According to Auto Motor und Sport, the car is is reportedly capable of being around to be 10 seconds faster than a 2026 spec F1 car, although this figure remains unconfirmed by Aston Martin.. Nothing has been officially published about the Chimera so far, and the only known fact is that it uses a naturally aspirated engine (clearly audible from the track recording published) and the aforementioned mix of LMH and F1 parts.

The dream team

Unlike the other entries in this list, which have already reached prototype stage least as development prototypes, there is one additional project worth mentioning that has yet to be built. Developed by engineer Sebastien Lamour (an engineer with more than two decades of experience in Formula One and prototype endurance racing, and previously responsible for the aerodynamic concept of the Enviate Hypercar), the Le Pinacle aims to answer a simple question: what would a racing car look like if its performance were unconstrained by regulations?. The result is an exquisitely styled concept which ideally would be powered by powered by an F1-inspired 1.6-litre twin-turbocharged V6 coupled to an eight-speed sequential gearbox. The aerodynamics are a mix of the fan car and fully skirted ground effect car, using the fan to provide downforce up to 150 kph, after which conventional aerodynamic downforce would become the dominant source of vertical load The fan, by the way, is planned to be driven from the gearbox instead of being electrically powered as the Le Pinacle was intended to be ICE only. Also, the design does not feature a conventional front wing, achieving aero balance through the underfloor similarly to some F1 cars from the 70s. Also, it features active rear DRS and active cooling inlets, active suspension and curiously 18” front tires for improved stiffness and 13” rear tires for improved traction. According to the project’s simulations, the car is capable of 7G lateral acceleration, meaning a G-Suit similar to those used on Red Bull Air Race could be required to prevent G-induced loss of consciousness, and theoretically able to outpace a F1 car by 10-15 seconds at Barcelona per Lamtec simulations.

Building on this project, Formula E champion Lucas Di Grassi presented the Lola-DGR, which is being developed with help from Lamour and his team in conjunction with the reborn Lola Cars, featuring many of the concepts from the Le Pinacle, but with a big difference: instead of being rear-wheel driven and powered by an internal combustion engine, the Lola-DGR aims to be an all-wheel drive electric car that can outperform a contemporary Formula One car. To do so, it is expected to produce a combined output of 800 HP from two electric motors and a 60kWh modular battery, for which modules can be taken out to reduce mass for a hot lap. With this set up, the simulations from Lola indicate the DGR can be 4.3 seconds faster than a current F1 at Monaco.

For more than half a century, Formula One has remained the benchmark against which every ambitious track car is measured. Porsche demonstrated that an unrestricted prototype could surpass it, but only after abandoning the constraints that made it legal to race. Every subsequent attempt—whether from Adrian Newey, Rodin, Aston Martin, Lamour or Lola—has reached the same conclusion: beating Formula One is possible, but only by stepping outside Formula One’s rulebook. Perhaps that is the greatest compliment to Grand Prix engineering. The regulations may change, but the benchmark remains the same.

Sources:

Evo-version of Porsche 919 Hybrid breaks Spa lap record. Available at: https://www.fiawec.com/en/news/evo-version-of-porsche-919-hybrid-breaks-spa-lap-record/5898.

How the Aston Martin Valkyrie will beat an F1 car. Available at: https://www.drive.com.au/news/how-the-aston-martin-valkyrie-will-beat-an-f1-car-gv7uqp/.

2022 Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro. Available at: https://rmsothebys.com/ps00/inventory/r5811-2022-aston-martin-valkyrie-amr-pro/.

RB17 hypercar will lap Spa faster than F1 car, claims Red Bull. Available at: https://www.racefans.net/2025/08/16/rb17-hypercar-will-lap-spa-faster-than-f1-car-claims-red-bull/.

What is Rodin Cars? The story behind the New Zealand company changing up the motorsport world. Available at: https://supercarblondie.com/rodin-fzero-hypercar-new-zealand-faster-f1/.

A track car faster than F1. Available at: https://www.goodwood.com/grr/race/modern/a-track-car-faster-than-f1/.

Engineering. Available at: https://www.lamourlepinacle.com/engineeringmobile.html.

Lucas di Grassi unveils DGR-Lola electric concept race car. Available at: https://lola-cars.co.uk/news/lucas-di-grassi-unveils-dgr-lola-electric-concept-race-car.

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