Chapter 07
Corners
A race track is a string of straights joined by corners. On the straights you go flat out. Corners are where drivers make up time, and every kind asks for something different.
- Braking
- Cornering
- Throttle
New for 2026: watch the wings. On the straights they open into to cut , then snap back to for grip the moment the driver brakes or lifts. Every driver gets it. Together with , it replaces .
Builds on Chapter 03: The car.
Anatomy of a corner
Watch the car. It doesn’t follow the middle of the road. It starts on the outside, cuts to the inside, then drifts back out. This makes the bend as gentle as possible, and the car can take a gentler bend faster. Every corner is driven in four beats.
Seven kinds of corner
Commentators name corners by their shape. Each graphic below runs the same simulated car through its corner, so you can compare how hard it brakes and how fast it goes.
Hairpin
A U-turn at the end of a straight
The slowest corners in F1. Drivers brake from over 300 km/h180 mph to a crawl, swing the car round, then fight for grip as they get back on the power. That long braking zone is where most overtakes happen. The chasing car brakes a few metres later and dives down the inside.
- Slowest point
- 5635km/hmph
- Peak sideways
- 1.8g
Where to see one
- Fairmont Hairpin, Monaco: the slowest corner of the season
- Turn 10, Montreal
90-degree corner
The building block of street circuits
Street tracks follow city blocks, so they are full of right angles. There is no trick to it: brake in a straight line, , clip the , and get on the throttle as early as the car allows.
- Slowest point
- 9358km/hmph
- Peak sideways
- 2.0g
Where to see one
- Baku City Circuit
- Marina Bay, Singapore
Chicane
A quick left-right squiggle
Tracks often add a chicane to slow cars down before a dangerous section. The fastest line through is the straightest one, so cars bounce over the . Every bit of kerb they use is steering they don’t have to do.
- Slowest point
- 8352km/hmph
- Peak sideways
- 1.9g
Where to see one
- Variante del Rettifilo, Monza
- Final chicane, Montreal (the Wall of Champions)
Esses
Linked bends that flick left, right, left
Each corner sets up the next, so the driver has to compromise: a slightly slower first bend can mean a much faster exit from the last. One small mistake ruins the whole sequence. Engineers use esses to judge how balanced a car is.
- Slowest point
- 187116km/hmph
- Peak sideways
- 3.9g
Where to see one
- S Curves, Suzuka
- Maggotts and Becketts, Silverstone
High-speed sweeper
A long, fast curve held on downforce
F1 cars make , and the faster they go, the harder it presses them into the track. In a sweeper drivers barely brake. The question is how much speed they dare to carry. They feel pulling them sideways.
- Slowest point
- 261162km/hmph
- Peak sideways
- 4.9g
Where to see one
- Copse, Silverstone
- 130R, Suzuka
Double apex
Two corners welded together
A long corner the driver attacks as two: they touch the inside once, let the car drift out slightly, then come back to a second apex. Getting the second one right matters most, because it sets the exit speed.
- Slowest point
- 9056km/hmph
- Peak sideways
- 2.0g
Where to see one
- Turn 8, Istanbul Park (it has four apexes)
- Luffield, Silverstone
Kink
A bend taken flat out
Barely a corner at all. On the the car hardly turns, so drivers keep their foot down. Kinks still count: they matter in the rain, on cold tyres, and when a damaged car loses .
- Slowest point
- 320199km/hmph
- Peak sideways
- 1.3g
Where to see one
- The seafront run at Baku
- The fast bends of Jeddah
Banked corners
Almost every F1 corner is flat. A few tilt inwards like a velodrome. When the road leans, it pushes the car partly sideways, towards the inside of the corner. That push does some of the turning for free, so the tyres have less work to do and the car can go faster.
Zandvoort in the Netherlands has two of the steepest banked turns F1 has raced on, steeper than the oval at Indianapolis. Drag the slider to see how much grip that saves.
Slow, medium, fast
Engineers sort corners by their minimum speed, because each band needs a different car. Slow corners reward and a nimble front end. Fast ones reward . No car is best at everything, which is why the pecking order changes from track to track.
- Hairpin5635 km/hmph
- Chicane8352 km/hmph
- Double apex9056 km/hmph
- 90-degree corner9358 km/hmph
- Esses187116 km/hmph
- High-speed sweeper261162 km/hmph
- Kink320199 km/hmph
What to watch for on race day
- The at the end of long straights. That’s where most overtakes happen. The chasing car brakes a few metres later and dives down the inside.
- Cars riding the through chicanes. Every bit of kerb a driver uses is steering they don’t have to do, so the best lines bounce right over them.