How Tall Is The Tallest F1 Driver

How Tall Is The Average Formula 1 Driver Article To news overview © F1 F1 drivers come in all shapes and sizes, but who are the tallest and shortest to compete in the sport since the turn of the century? As it stands, the late Justin Wilson is the tallest driver to have raced in F1 in the modern era . Wilson contested his one and only F1 season in 2003, initially representing Minardi before switching to Jaguar.

At a height of 193cm , he was 7cm taller than the next group of drivers on the list, comprising Alex Albon, Alexander Rossi and Alexander Wurz . Wilson tragically died from injuries sustained in an IndyCar race in 2015 after debris from a crashed car struck his... Had he won the world drivers' championship in 2010 he would have been the tallest F1 world champion in the history of the sport. During his 12-season F1 career, Webber has always done what was expected of him as a well-paid, professional sportsman - he met his team's weight targets.

Webber squeezed his 185-centimetre, 75kg body into claustrophobic cockpits in the name of his craft. But taller drivers don't have to run over the minimum weight limit, so their disadvantage is not this great. Teams are usually able to get their cars far enough under the minimum weight limit that even the heaviest drivers don't carry more weight on the track than their lighter rivals. The advantage shorter drivers have is that the ballast they carry to reach the minimum weight limit can be placed in an optimal position on the car. That means on the floor, and either forward or rearward as the car's set-up requires.

I used that data to plot 2015 NASCAR vs. 2015 F1 heights. The average male NASCAR driver is 69.8″ compared to the average F1 driver, who is 69.3″. So NASCAR drivers are taller by a whopping five tenths of an inch, which is a little more than one centimeter. And that's probably not quite accurate because the F1 drivers all include 1/2-inch measurements and most of the NASCAR data are to the nearest inch.

How great an advantage this is has varied over the years depending on how difficult teams have found it to hit the minimum weight limit. For example when the KERS hybrid boost was introduced in 2009 some teams could only justify the weight penalty of running it for their lighter drivers. At BMW, for example, the heavier Robert Kubica had to make do without KERS but team mate Nick Heidfeld had it.

Teams spend millions shaving grams of weight from their cars, so an F1 driver has a strong incentive to get their weight as low as possible while still being strong enough to drive the car. But becoming shorter isn't a realistic option, so taller drivers are inevitably at a disadvantage. Formula One, abbreviated to F1, is the highest class of open-wheeled auto racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform.

Each year, the F1 World Championship season is held. It consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held usually on purpose-built circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. Drivers are awarded points based on their finishing position in each race, and the driver who accumulates the most points over each championship is crowned that year's World Drivers' Champion. To compensate for this loss of time, taller and heavier drivers had to make certain sacrifices to compete on the same footing as their peers. They had to follow strict diets to lose weight or give up certain functions, such as drinking during the race to avoid carrying water or the KERS system.

Any amount of weight saved does help in few tenths per lap. Force India's Esteban Ocon also has a similar issue as he is the tallest driver on the grid at 6 feet 1 inches – but his light weight despite the tall figure helps him in the car. For the fourth year in a row, Williams have the tallest driver line-up, with both George Russell and Nicholas Latifi standing at 185cm. Their combined height is 10cm taller than the next tallest line-up at Alfa Romeo.

AlphaTauri become the team with the shortest driver line-up, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda reaching a combined height of only 336cm – 11cm shorter than the next shortest line-up at Mercedes. Esteban Ocon is the tallest driver on the 2021 grid, standing at 186cm. Last year, he shared the award for tallest driver with Alex Albon. Introducing a minimum driver weight which is separate from the weight of the car promises to put taller drivers at less of a disadvantage.

The trend for taller drivers to weigh more is clear. The 10 shortest drivers have an average weight of 64.9kg, the 10 tallest are 4kg heavier on average. … So we really can't blame the 'race-car drivers are small' perception on F1, either.

Formula 1 drivers may be racing at the highest level of motorsport but they're not the tallest bunch. Yuki Tsunoda who, at 5ft 2in, is the shortest driver on the grid, explained ahead of his F1 debut how AlphaTauri have had to adjust his new car to ensure he can race it comfortably. For example, in 2009, when the KERS system was introduced, some heavier drivers, such as Robert Kubica, could not afford to install it not to carry more weight, while their lighter teammates could. This was a distinct disadvantage as the KERS system gave you a quite noticeable boost per lap.

Key to the situation is the minimum weight specified for car and driver by the FIA. This is currently set at 642kg, which the teams do not reach. Next season, with the new 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines and attendant energy recovery systems, the minimum weight has been raised to 690kg. Formula 1 drivers usually range from short to average at most. The cars are designed for smaller than average people. Maybe it's because small people have better co-ordination or something.

Afterall featherweights are much quicker than heavyweights in boxing. For most racing drivers, it'll be will about they hit 40 when they start loosing the fitness required for F1 racing and start transitioning to mentor-ship and team roles. Louis Chiron remains the oldest driver to finish a formula race at the age of 55 Years. In other seasons where hitting the minimum weight limit has been difficult some drivers have raced without drinks bottles to save weight.

This year designers are again finding it difficult to hit the minimum weight limit due to the introduction of Halo. So, why do F1 teams prefer such attributes from the drivers? How crucial do height and weight play a role in the sport? Some Formula 1 race cars still have three pedals, but only the middle and right pedals are attached. Some racing teams installed a third pedal, or plate, where the clutch used to be as a footrest for the driver.

Drivers use it to brace themselves during hard turns. Toto Wolff reflects on Ocon departure Ocon will be one of if not the tallest driver on the grid next season, being one of a few standing at over 6ft tall. The former Force India driver hopes that the 2021 changes will make it easier for him to get into the car. As compiled by Racingnews365.com, the following tables show a complete list of who the tallest and shortest drivers to have raced in F1 since the 2000s.

On the current grid, Alex Albon is the tallest driver. His height has been recorded at 186 cm, making him taller than the next drivers on the list in Esteban Ocon, George Russell and Nicholas Latifi. In terms of fighters, you have to think someone's who is nicknamed "The Skyscraper" is going to make some sort of Who's Who of Tall People list. And sure enough, Stefan "The Skyscraper" Struve, a Dutch MMA fighter, is the tallest fighter in the UFC at 6-foot-11. As for the tallest – and heaviest – boxing heavyweight in history, that's Russia's Nikolai Valuev, who checks in at 7-foot-0, 325 pounds.

Valuev, who has an 88-inch reach, has won 50 of his 53 career fights, 34 by knock out. Auto racers tend to be a shorter bunch, having to fit inside those little cars and all. This season's tallest drivers are 6' 1", while the shortest is Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda at 5' 2", according to RacingNews365. After all, the cockpits tend to be larger than the open-wheel cars. I happened to find this lovely infographic summarizing the F1 drivers height.

If I had about 10 days free, I could do this with the NASCAR drivers. I'm not sure if this is an official F1 graphic, as even the image-tracking sites I use didn't find this graphic besides the reddit board I found it on. But it is lovely and informative, so kudos to the originator. A result of these regulations is the liklihood teams will not look to drivers who don't meet an ideal minimum in weight and height. If anything the weight limit will help the older drivers. They can put on a few pounds and work less hard in the gym providing the cars don't get more demanding to drive.

Many of them actually use Karting to keep fit in the winter. The crucial question for 2019 is whether the regulations will specify where driver ballast must be carried. If the new rules state driver ballast has to be contained within the backrest of the seat, then shorter drivers can kiss their weight advantage goodbye after 2018.

Apart from these racing drivers, fighter pilots are the only set of people, who can withstand such high gravitational forces. Peeing in the race suit during the race would be the last thing going on drivers' brains. Hydration is an issue that a driver needs to handle while driving an F1 car. They also need to be light so as to keep the weight down.

This is done in order to gain maximum speed out of the car. Well the is no height limit to technically come a F1 driver in the official F1 rules. But having said that of course you wouldn't want someone too short or to tall. The problems with a short driver is visibility and problem with taller drivers is weight.

Since we are on the subject of athlete's heights , let's check out the height of Formula One drivers. According to the list below, Sebastian Vettel — at 176cm — is currently the tallest of the best F1 drivers. In such a technical sport, every detail counts to be the fastest. Weight is no exception, and both drivers and cars go through numerous tests to check that they are at the ideal weight. In more recent times, there have also been drivers who have struggled with weight.

When Juan Pablo Montoya joined McLaren in 2005, he had to go on an aggressive diet regime because he physically did not fit in the car. In the past decade, tall drivers like Hülkenberg had weight problems, not because they were fat, but because of the minimum weight. Teams tried to design cars that weighed less than the minimum weight so that with the added weight of the driver, they would not carry extra weight but depending on the regulations. They found it easier or more difficult to reach that minimum weight. That is why how great the disadvantage of being a heavy driver varied over time.

The minimum overall weight of the car this year is 734 kg including the driver, where in 80 kg is the minimum weight for a driver. For a tall driver like Ericsson, who is nearly 5 feet 10 inches, his weight becomes a problem in the races. The Swede is one of the tallest drivers and revealed that he doesn't use water bottle to decrease the overall weight of the car. The tall answer is the late Justin Wilson, who is the tallest F1 driver of the modern era. Wilson only ever raced for one season in 2003, having competed for Minardi before making the switch to Jaguar.

He stood at a towering height of 6'4", and was 7 cm taller than the rest on the list. This, right from the pickup, gives you a nice and linear acceleration. Start going on the throttle and the Astor builds speed in a strong manner. And because this is a torque converter automatic, the turbo lag is taken care of and you don't struggle for power while cruising in the city. Start going heavier on the throttle and the same linear acceleration greets you.

It's not very exciting but there is ample pull for overtakes. At BIC, we recorded a 0-100kmph time of 10.76 seconds, which is impressive. And the Astor kept pulling ahead as well, with a recorded top speed of 164.33kmph. So be it city commuting or highway touring, the Astor, at least in its turbo guise, will manage it without breaking a sweat. Even the transmission, though a bit slow to shift on a racetrack, should feel fine in the city. Here, drive modes could have helped the Astor have a better dual personality.

But these elements are cleverly placed and won't hamper the cabin experience in daily drives. The dashboard layout feels clean and the 10.1-inch touchscreen sits in the middle, easy to reach from the driver's seat. Also clear to read is the 7-inch digital instrument cluster with the speed and tachometer on either side. Next year, though, there will be a new minimum weight of 80kgs for the driver and his seat with lighter drivers required to carry ballast under the seat. If it isn't his chiseled features and glistening blue eyes that makes Max Verstappen a chart-topper, it's his impressive racing record.

The Belgium boy is the son of former Formula One driver Jos Verstappen. At the tender age of 19, he emerged as fifth overall in the 2016 World Championship in Brazil. Competing for Red Bull Racing under the Thai flag, Alexander Albon Ansusinha is a British-Thai racing driver that's currently competing in Formula One. He first started his love for racing at a young age at the age of 8 before earning a mid-season promotion to Red Bull Racing when he raced for Toro Rosso for the first half of 2019. After putting his all he was then promoted to Red Bull for the second half of the season, replacing Pierre Gasly. "I personally think that differences and other features which seem like a disadvantage can be turned to advantages if you want it and make the effort for it.

That is exactly what I did." The tallest man in the world, Sultan Kosen who was measured at 8 feet, 2.8 inches in 2018, is also from Turkey. Gelgi says she hopes to meet him in person one day. Unnoticed it may be, but it also might yet prove to be detrimental to the sport in the longer term. "You could have a very talented driver who could be missed for his height and weight," said Button. "If he is over the weight by five kilos that is 0.2 seconds a lap and it is the end of your career." You, of course, remember that a histogramtells you the distribution of data in a set.

In this case, we're looking at how many drivers are at that height. The histogram shows there's one person who is 62″ tall and 3 drivers who are 73″ tall. Most of our Presidents are at least average height, if not much taller than average. President elections, the taller candidate won 10 times. (The most recent exception was Bush v. Gore. Gore was taller and I'm not going there, thank you.) And Obama is only a half-inch shorter than Romney.