Can F1 Cars Reverse?

Formula 1 cars are extreme machines that go around the track at about 200 miles per hour. The cars are usually optimized to go as fast as possible without having much drag. They’re designed to push harder and with the new regulations in the process, the next generation of cars can follow each other in a better way. However, can these engineering marvels reverse?

The answer is yes. The F1 cars can go in reverse. As per the rules, every F1 car has to have a reverse gear and can be used to go in reverse. However, they’re rarely used. Shifting into reverse gear is only required when a driver spins or goes off the track. The driver then uses the reverse gear to come back to the track safely or put his car in a safe position (for example, away from the track).

Interestingly, most F1 circuits these days have enough runoff areas. This means that the cars can accelerate, do a 180 spin and return to the track in case of any spin or slide. In that case, drivers are less likely to use the reverse gear and get back to the track as it is considered unsafe too (due to marginalized visibility on the rearview mirror and short head space).

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On a side note, using the reverse gear in an F1 car is an extremely tough process. Since F1 cars are not really designed to go backward and hardly use the reverse gear, drivers at times face real difficulties shifting to reverse.

One such example is AlphaTauri‘s Yuki Tsunoda, who couldn’t reverse his car in the street circuit of Baku, Azerbaijan, and had to ask his engineer, “How?” 

Can F1 cars go in reverse in the pit lane?

Even though every F1 cars have the ability to go in reverse gear, they can’t go in reverse in the pit lane. Going backward in the pit lane is strictly prohibited in the sport and can fetch the drivers severe penalties for the same.

This is the reason we often see pit crews roll back the cars to the garage even though the car has reverse gear. Moreover, the cars have to roll back to the pre-defined pit position if the cars cross the pit stations, just in case.

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All in all, the rule that states every car needs to have a reverse gear exists mainly for safety. If a car gets stuck in an incident near the track or away from the track, the reverse gear can be used to put them back instead of Marshalls pushing hard to get them back to a safer place.