These 3 videos illustrate just how hard life is in F1

Formula 1 drivers are members of perhaps the most exclusive club in all of sports.

After all, with just 20 seats to go around, if you manage to find a full-time seat, you are among the best of the best.

That also means you have to be very good at what you do, and bring an incredible skill-set to the table. Each grand prix offers yet more evidence of just what it is these drivers face on the track, and the reaction ability — and fearlessness — they need to excel.

These three videos from the Australian Grand Prix are perhaps the best examples from the past weekend.

The first comes right at the start of the race. One of the more fascinating aspects to this past weekend’s Australian Grand Prix was how Max Verstappen of Red Bull would navigate things starting on pole, with both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes in P2 and P3 respectively.

As you can see from these two videos, Russell got the better of Verstappen off the start, and eventually Hamilton would follow. First is a side-by-side look from both Russell’s on-board camera and Verstappen’s:

As you can see, Verstappen’s pre-race advantage is quickly erased by Russell, who pulls alongside Verstappen heading into the first set of turns, and then accelerates into the lead through that initial chicane at the Australian Grand Prix.

How did Russell eliminate that advantage? His reaction off the start, which you can see in this second video from F1’s Twitter account:

As you can see, according to F1/AWS Russell’s reaction time at the start was 0.19 seconds. As noted in this piece from McLaren, 0.20 to 0.30 seconds is an average reaction time for an F1 driver at the start, so Russell was really on his game this weekend.

The other on-board video that highlights just how quick you need to be as an F1 driver comes just a few laps later, from Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg. Ahead of him, Alex Albon has lost control of his car and spun off the track and into the gravel. Hülkenberg is quickly upon Albon’s car, and has to make a split-second reaction to avoid a collision:

In the second part of that video, you get a look at Hülkenberg’s maneuver from the on-board camera of Esteban Ocon, which illustrates just how close Hülkenberg’s VF-23 came to Albon’s car on the left side of the track.

F1 drivers work on their reaction times, and their hand-eye coordination, year-round.

These videos are great examples of why they put in that work, and why they might not blink when they’re in the cockpit.