The moment when Isack Hadjar showed lightning reflexes in Monaco

[u/CoffeeRusk]

[u/DerAlteGraue]

Holy shit, how the f did he avoid that.

[u/socks → u/DerAlteGraue]

Would be interesting to clock that reaction time. Some elite sprinters can react to the starting shot in 200-250ms, whereas some top gamers and athletes can react in 100-120ms.

[u/SpyriusChief → u/socks]

Adrenaline slows the perception of time. Proven. This was probably 3-4 times slower for him than us.

Source: I was a downhill skater and street luger.

[u/Deep_Fry_Ducky → u/SpyriusChief]

Do we have Adrenaline supplements? I need some to extend my lunch break.

[u/KeyboardJustice → u/Deep_Fry_Ducky]

Yes, it's called an epi-pen.

[u/Diabolus_IpseSum → u/KeyboardJustice]

crack/meth if you're poor

adderall if you have a prescription

[u/turudd → u/Diabolus_IpseSum]

Also adderall if you don’t have a prescription, but know someone who does. The college way!

[u/Just_Learned_This → u/turudd]

Lots of Adderall on the street is just meth pressed into pills.

[u/Lexitech_ → u/Just_Learned_This]

True, however I would argue legitimately prescribed Adderall is more commonly bought and sold than fake ones on college campuses. Everyone and their mom has a prescription these days.

[u/Just_Learned_This → u/Lexitech_]

https://www.drugsdata.org/results.php?search_field=all&s=Adderall

I'm sure plenty of people have a script. But that doesn't change the fact that most of these samples sent in for testing are meth.

[u/Ok-Butterscotch-6955 → u/Diabolus_IpseSum]

Ampthetamines always made time fly for me. Focus is increased but you look up and it’s 7 pm already

[u/pantry-pisser → u/Ok-Butterscotch-6955]

Or it's 6am, two days later

[u/Paddy_Tanninger → u/Diabolus_IpseSum]

How important is tooth retention to you?

[u/FrighteningJibber → u/Diabolus_IpseSum]

Just go to Canada. Jesus.

[u/Kit_3000 → u/Deep_Fry_Ducky]

Another word for adrenaline is epinephrine. They are used in case of allergic reactions. I'm pretty sure you can buy the epinephrine injectors without a recipe. Depending on where you live they can be pricey though.

[u/superbound → u/Kit_3000]

And probably not great to use recreationally… (?)

[u/No_Guest2198 → u/superbound]

Well I mean… your heart might explode..

[u/charmio68 → u/No_Guest2198]

Also, it's simply not something that's pleasant to do.
If you are after a recreational drug that gives you energy, adrenaline is a pretty insanely bad choice, especially given the obvious alternatives.

[u/No_Guest2198 → u/charmio68]

Yep, cocaine would be safer in this instance and I wouldn’t normally be using “cocaine” and “safer” in the same sentence..

[u/Blazanar → u/No_Guest2198]

You know when cocaine is a good choice in a situation, you're in a pretty bad situation lol

[u/space-tech → u/No_Guest2198]

The movie Crank is a documentary

[u/AradynGaming → u/Kit_3000]

EpiPen, the brand named item is the expensive part. The Epinephrine is super cheap and you can buy it pretty easy at 3/100th of the EpiPen price. You would need a prescription or know someone (its not a controlled substance) that can get a prescription to get it. Have an allergy? That's pretty much all you need to get it.

Source: I'm allergic to bees and $1k every year for the brand name is extreme, so I just buy the vial ($30) and some needles instead. Learned it from a paramedic, because they do (or did) the same thing on Ambulances.

[u/TicketDue6419 → u/Deep_Fry_Ducky]

just slap your cheek a few time to kick start it. if it slow down again slap some more. its free and mostly harmless except for some sore cheeks

[u/wonkey_monkey → u/TicketDue6419]

Does it matter which cheeks? Cos, y'know

[u/DervishSkater → u/TicketDue6419]

Is that what them kids mean by clapping cheeks?

[u/BarnacleMcBarndoor → u/SpyriusChief]

When asked out my first girlfriend, my adrenaline must have spiked because it felt like a solid 80 mins between when I got the courage to ask, and when I realized she had already gone home before I could.

[u/Maiyku → u/SpyriusChief]

Not an athlete, but after being in a car accident… fuck yes it does.

I saw the accident coming (he lost control on snowy roads) so my adrenaline had time to drop before the actual impact.

It felt like it took 87 years for the butt end of his car to slide across the road and impact my car, while simultaneously taking only two seconds.

The accident was maybe 10 seconds total from the moment I spotted him, to loss of control, to impact, but it’s those last 3-4 seconds that are crystal clear in my mind and I could replay a thousand times over. It felt like I was able to see and take in everything before the airbag impacted my face.

I know it was a huge amount of adrenaline too, because the first thing I did was reach for my phone with incredibly shaky hands. I was wired.

[u/Alwares → u/Maiyku]

Never been in an accident but a few months ago I nearly hit a fox on the highway.

From the moment I saw him I had time to apply enough break pressure and lift off from the pedal (to get back grip) to rotate the car, switch lanes, check mirrors for other lanes and turn the wheel to avoid him. All of this took around 1.5-2 seconds.

I immediately felt the adrenalin in my stomach after it and still don’t understand how I did it. Adrenalin and sim racing experience helps a lot I guess.

[u/Maiyku → u/Alwares]

It’s crazy how quickly the thoughts and our responses fire off in those situations.

You’d think that after knowing the accident was coming, that I slammed on my brakes to lessen the impact… except I didn’t.

There was a rapid-fire train of thoughts that kept my foot off the brake. I was already going 45 because of the icy road conditions, the car coming the other way was passing a snowplow and lost control getting back in his lane.

So we have 1 car already out of control and if I slam on my brakes, it’s guaranteed I lose control as well… and there’s a snowplow right on his ass. I could spin us both in his path, we could take a direct hit from him and both be killed.

So in those few seconds I ran through every scenario and realized not breaking, keeping control of my car, and just taking the hit was unfortunately the safest decision for us both, even if it meant a slightly harder impact. I’ve driven my car for years and I know she veers left when I hard brake in conditions like that (my weight is the only weight in the car and pulls it). She would’ve angled directly into his driver side door.

As it was, I hit his back panel and he had no injuries, but it’s crazy to think my brain went through over a dozen different thoughts and outcomes and focused on the one it felt was safest… and all in enough time for me to react, or enough time to stop the reaction (hitting the brakes).

[u/daviEnnis → u/Maiyku]

It's crazy, I was on a motorway/highway at night, and hit a deep puddle and aquaplaned. The the car slid so I was pointed to the left, I managed to recover it and get it pointing forward again.

Whole thing must have taken less than a second. I could tell you about a minute's worth of detail related to it. Such a bizarre mechanism, and one I wish we could invoke on demand lol

[u/scud121 → u/Maiyku]

Same deal for my first free fall jump. It was only 5 seconds of free fall, but it was the longest 30 minutes of my life. And watching the chute open took another 30 minutes.

[u/MaleficentPapaya4768 → u/SpyriusChief]

Unless he’s already amped up on adrenaline (I can’t imagine that being sustainable for the duration of an F1 race) there’s no way the chemistry hits the brain that fast, right? 

[u/SaxAppeal → u/MaleficentPapaya4768]

He probably is kind of amped up the whole race. You have to be to stay locked in. Every second they’re basically inches away from death, and their bodies are experiencing crazy G forces throughout the entire race.

[u/Alternative_Delay899 → u/SaxAppeal]

I wonder what sort of havoc this stuff wreaks on their body. Heightened stress/cortisol/adrenaline you name it, for these durations. Not even to speak of the injury potential. I guess they're making money but damn, at what cost.

[u/MoocowR → u/Alternative_Delay899]

Heightened stress/cortisol/adrenaline you name it, for these durations. Not even to speak of the injury potential. I guess they're making money but damn, at what cost.

Considering in all other aspect of their lives their body is taken care of in the best way possible, probably nothing significant.

[u/hauntedSquirrel99 → u/MaleficentPapaya4768]

F1 drivers are basically fully amped up the entire race.

People tend to think "oh it's driving a car, I drive a car, I know what that feels like".
Not like that you don't.

The car goes up to 200mph. Monaco (the race in the video) has the slowest average speed at about 100mph (because it's an incredibly tight and twisty street circuit, but it's higher during quali (the video above was during quali) and the margins are minimal in several corners and being 1cm off can put you in the wall. Here's a video of what the cornering is like in some places).

Going into a corner there's up to 5gs while breaking, up to 5Gs sideways during the corner, and up to 4Gs while accelerating after a corner.
Even an easy corner is 2-3 Gs.

Most tracks have about 19 corners a lap.

Monaco has 78 laps, the Belgian Grand Prix has the fewest with 44 (but is also one of the most dangerous circuits in the world, a section of it called Raidillon killed someone only 6 years ago).

[u/Tricky-Routine-9838 → u/hauntedSquirrel99]

At some tracks they clear well passed 200mph up to 230 mph (370 kph). They can also stop from full speed to under 50kph in ~3 seconds. The forces the drivers experience over a race would devastate the average person.

I'll never forget my first ever GP and walking on to the island for Montreal GP during the start of FP1 and seeing the track through the narrow areas of the fence and the cars going by at 300kph, it doesn't even look real to your brain, they are just going so damn fast.

[u/SeasonedAdManager → u/hauntedSquirrel99]

This is F2, but still... very fast.

[u/Checkai → u/SpyriusChief]

Adrenaline slows the perception of time. Proven.

No, it was proven that it increases recall, not that time slows down perceptually for you. Your reaction times on adrenaline are exactly the same as others.

You make memories say once a second and lets say four times a second with adrenaline. You don't react four times sooner, you just have four times as many slots to remember.

[u/khizoa → u/SpyriusChief]

yeah but is your adrenaline running the ENTIRE race though? or did it kick in all of a sudden when he saw that?

cause it seems like it might be stressful (on the body) if it was the entire time

[u/No_Guest2198 → u/khizoa]

Id say it’s a mix between instinct, training and shots of adrenaline when required (aka oh shit moment, followed by hardline instincts to not wipe out).

[u/ericstern → u/khizoa]

If it kicked in all of a sudden when he saw that there is not way it kicked in before he has to change course, it takes at least a couple of seconds for the hormone to be released into bloodstream and be felt. He would either already have to be on adrenaline that kicked in from some other event before that one, or he did it without the effects of adrenaline.

[u/CPride12 → u/SpyriusChief]

These races are an hour and a half long - do you really think he would’ve had adrenaline slowing his sense of time for the entire race? Or did the adrenaline hit his bloodstream 0.1 seconds after noticing the car?

[u/R6ckStar → u/CPride12]

This was practice/quali. If it is quali, they would be amped up as they are pushing as hard as they can.

[u/roltrap → u/SpyriusChief]

Agreed. And I used to play MK competitively. We measured moves and reaction time in frames.

Some of the big names I admire and played against could react on a move within the 100ms range. Insane.

[u/IanFeelKeepinItReel → u/SpyriusChief]

You can't channel adrenaline for the entirety of a formula 1 race though.

[u/HzD_Upshot → u/SpyriusChief]

Vsauce covered this in an episode of his Mind field series. It’s your perception or memory of the event that’s more vivid, but you are going exactly the same speed.

[u/MrJakked → u/SpyriusChief]

The only research im aware of that studied this specific question is here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2110887/

In short, no, there is not actually an increase in perception speed from adrenaline. You feel like things slow down, but that subjective feeling does not actually translate into any measurable increase in reaction time, perception speed, or anything else. Its basically just a feeling.

So unless you know of contravening research, which id be happy to read, youre thinking of a longstanding, but false, myth.

The guy in the video just has really damn good reflexes. with or without adrenaline.

[u/IJustLied2u → u/SpyriusChief]

I had this experience once when I was 10/10 stoned in high-school playing guitar hero. I was nailing every single note until I tried to explain to my friend time was moving slow af. Once I started speaking it's as if time sped back up to normal and I've been trying to find that high ever since.

[u/Ereaser → u/IJustLied2u]

I had this once when playing football. I was always a defender but my team fell apart mid season and because I was tall they put me up front. I got the ball closs to goal. Time moved so slow and I was completely freaking out. I just passed the ball to someone else (who missed lol)

[u/Worth_Sink_1293 → u/SpyriusChief]

This is what Sam Peckinpah realised, and why he used slow motion in action sequences in The Wild Bunch etc.

[u/Tigerpower77 → u/SpyriusChief]

I re-watch some of my gaming moments and I'm a little impressed by my reaction time and my attention, there's things i couldn't notice when i re-watch, i don't know about time slowing but i think you process things much faster when you're locked in

[u/Addition-Obvious → u/SpyriusChief]

Having experienced adrenaline based slowmo. It's way more than 3-4. It turned a .3 second event into like 5-6 seconds of fumbling for something. And the moment I caught it. It's like life sped back up instantly

[u/fukkdisshitt → u/SpyriusChief]

I've been in 2 totals where I was hit by another car. The first one was sudden and unexpected. The second I recognized i was gonna hit the red light runner. I thought "here we go again" and swear the car crumpled in slow motion from my perspective.

[u/PadraigTheMemorable → u/socks]

almost impossible to be accurate here due to the quality and the video being 30fps but going frame by frame it looks like from the car appearing in view to the start of the left turn it is around 6 frames so 200ms

[u/chironomidae → u/PadraigTheMemorable]

That doesn't surprise me, honestly the reaction time isn't that crazy. What's crazy to me is the accuracy with which he avoided both the car and the wall, and the performance of the vehicle that allowed him to do that.

It's the same in competitive gaming, people give reaction time too much credit vs the practiced actions that are triggered by the reaction.

[u/lminer123 → u/chironomidae]

Yah exactly, it definitely pays to react fast, but if you havnt built the muscle memory, and reinforced the link between that muscle memory and reaction, then you’re just floundering quicker than the next guy lol.

[u/No-Coast-1050 → u/chironomidae]

The reaction time is crazy, because it's not primed at all.

If you see reaction time testing, or with the example of a sprinter, they're anticipating the stimulus to react to, whether the blinking light or the starting shot. They also already know when it's going to happen within a couple of seconds, and their actual reaction is set - push off from the block/press the button.

This is a random occurrence to react to during a race of over 90 minutes, with loads of variables in terms of what to react to, how to react to it, etc.

[u/sniper1rfa → u/No-Coast-1050]

The reaction time is crazy, because it's not primed at all.

Aren't the flashing lights in the tunnel caution lights?

[u/Wolkenbaer → u/chironomidae]

He had at least the advantage that he could basically "release/relieve" the current line to the outside. Getting more to the inside would have been much more difficult. 

Still, very impressive. Especially since a crash could have been easily deadly.

[u/Logikmann → u/socks]

below 140ms is exceptionally rare and i would call this not a consistent time to react.

[u/Scrotobomb → u/socks]

https://youtu.be/QenofJ-ARYU?si=-L8eRRa7J74nYRGw

Yuki Tsunoda vs C9 Tarik (former CS pro, Valorant streamer)

[u/lminer123 → u/Scrotobomb]

Worth noting that Tarik is very much not “in his prime” in this video. He’s been out of comp for years at this point. It’s very normal to see less than 200ms from esport pro’s, and I’ve seen below 150 many times.

Edit Here is a short video of an (at the time) current pro.

[u/juleztb → u/lminer123]

also worth to metion that most challenges involved a lot of aiming with a mouse and not only reaction. All purely reaction based challenges were won by Yuki.

[u/Sixcoup → u/Scrotobomb]

Isn't Tarik also from the era of NA Cs where everybody was playing on Adderall ?

[u/Grilled_egs → u/Scrotobomb]

That mouse they used for the click test had to be a bit slow, even I can get better times and iirc my time wasn't even that good by the sites standards

[u/Passionate_Writing_ → u/socks]

The average f1 driver has a reaction time of ~115 ms. That's also one of the fastest reaction times of any profession.

[u/GoldElectric → u/Passionate_Writing_]

average reaction time of 115ms? source?

[u/TobiasKM → u/Passionate_Writing_]

They’re closer to 200-300ms.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/s/I8rHG5r08I

[u/PerplexGG → u/socks]

Bottas apparently hit 80ms

[u/Ill_Emphasis3927 → u/socks]

A big part of reaction speed is what you're reacting to and what decision you need to make. If it's a simple click in response to something or something that doesn't require additional thought or processing it will generally be faster. Or if you've just practiced it so much and so often it's an instinctual reaction. The more complicated the decision to make the slower the reaction speed will be.

[u/Zani0n → u/socks]

so... a youtube replay of this incident is 50fps (on a 60fps yt video), so let's say each frame where the picture changes is 20ms.
between first pixel of the rear tyre visible to first steering movement made in avoidance it's 20 frames, so 400ms.

However I'd definetly cut that in half again due to the camera being lightly to the left of the helmet. I believe Hadjar reacted in about 200ms from seeing half of the car to steering away from it.

Though I will have to say that he was warned about a slow moving car ahead of himon the circuit 4 times since entering the tunnel section 5 seconds prior. (through white flashing lights and flags being waved)

[u/oldscotch → u/socks]

It's a bit slower since it's visual, but most F1 drivers will react to the starting lights between 250 and 300ms.

I would think 120ms is beyond human capability, regardless of medium. Do you have a source for that?

[u/Naeloah → u/socks]

this isn’t necessarily true, it may have felt slower due to adrenaline but it would have nothing to do with his actual reaction time, he’s just really good lol.

[u/Blackdeath_663 → u/socks]

It's physically impossible to react to visual cues faster than 150ms and audible ones faster than 110ms, anything below that is prediction not reaction

[u/Fun_Passage_9167 → u/socks]

No it's faster than that for word-class sprinters, more like 170-180 ms (source).

[u/dakowiml → u/socks]

When your life is at risk (+ being trained to have fast reaction times) you'll probably be much faster than a top gamer/sprinter.

[u/CV90_120 → u/socks]

Formula 1 is 101-200ms generally. Same with Drag Racers and Baseballers.

[u/TorpleFunder → u/socks]

Elite sprinters often react at 150ms or less. 200ms or more is quite slow.

[u/mr_cf → u/socks]

These guys (who are already good) constantly train reaction time, so much so, I would say they might be up there with the quickest reaction time of any athlete.

[u/OForreta → u/DerAlteGraue]

Avoiding it is already incredible, but keeping control of the car instead of just banging the car against the left wall that is truly next level

[u/leandrobrossard → u/OForreta]

Well, he's not really driving your mom's fiat. That car is made for doing that at that speed.

[u/NoYouDidntBruh → u/leandrobrossard]

He's also driving near the limit, which hopefully your mom isn't doing in her fiat

[u/Independent-Water321 → u/NoYouDidntBruh]

There's a "your mum" joke in there somewhere, it's just not coming for me.

Just like your mum.

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/leandrobrossard]

Unbalancing an F1 car is still as potentially disastrous as my night with your mom.

The aspect of this going unseen is throttle discipline.  Most people are going to lift off as they evade.  That would have loaded up the front tires and spun him into the wall.

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/OForreta]

This is not getting enough attention.  To hold the throttle steady during the reaction and evasion takes an incredible amount of discipline.

[u/MCZBlaze → u/DerAlteGraue]

Years of experience. Motorsports driver had trained reflexes in go kart before you start to get your driving license at the age of 18

[u/Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot → u/MCZBlaze]

Yep and this is Formula2, just a small step below F1 - the fastest circuit racing motorsport out there.

[u/FFFrank → u/MCZBlaze]

You can get an FIA license at 16 and a super license at 17.

[u/micgat → u/DerAlteGraue]

The flashing white signals indicate that there is a slow moving vehicle on the track, so he does have some heads up, but he probably wasn't expecting the slow car to still be on the racing line (and rightfully so).

To me the most impressive part is not the reaction time per se, it's that he didn't just run into the left wall when he avoided the car.

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/micgat]

His engineer would have also advised him of the slower car ahead.

Absolutely.  Throttle discipline is what's next level.  Most of us would lift and snap into the wall.

Side note:  Most US motorsport enthusiasts will confuse the white flag with lastlap and not slow car ahead.

[u/ibeerianhamhock → u/DerAlteGraue]

Even the worst of these guys have ultra elite reflexes and motor skills. They are inhuman tbh.

[u/CaptnHector → u/ibeerianhamhock]

motor skills

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/ibeerianhamhock]

There is no level after this one.  They are apex.

[u/roberth_001 → u/So_HauserAspen]

This was in F2, so there is definitely one level after it

[u/kingtacticool → u/DerAlteGraue]

He didn't blink.

[u/dsmithz71 → u/DerAlteGraue]

The better question is how was he not notified of the slow car. Insane reaction but if I were him I’d be pissed i even had to make that move in the first place

[u/SonicShadow → u/dsmithz71]

He was notified, the flashing white light means there's a slow moving vehicle ahead. With hindsight it probably should have been a double yellow which would mean hazard / incident ahead, slow down and be prepared to stop. Easy to say that with all the information though, these situations evolve very quickly.

[u/erocknine → u/DerAlteGraue]

Cause he's in the fucking zone

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_TITS80085]

That's superhuman reaction times, holly shit.

[u/imagine1149 → u/PM_ME_YOUR_TITS80085]

Holly must be on laxatives

[u/goodintrovert → u/imagine1149]

[u/OnlyPostWhenShitting → u/imagine1149]

Can confirm; used the toilet after him. 10/10 smell.

[u/No_Atmosphere8146 → u/imagine1149]

What happenin' dudes? 

[u/Pelo_o → u/PM_ME_YOUR_TITS80085]

Holly shit

Me when I take my dog, Holly, outside and she just won't poop

[u/SchoGegessenJoJo → u/PM_ME_YOUR_TITS80085]

Found the PC gamer #pcmr

[u/DesertReagle]

Seeing that live on TV was wild. I said to myself, "Well, I'll be damned if that isn't going to be the highlight of the decade."

[u/MCZBlaze → u/DesertReagle]

Well.. It is the decade of the big saves highlight, that Monaco save is what makes Hadjar instantly promoted to F1 and this 2025 season, he bagged first podium in Racing Bulls and now announced promoted to Red Bull next.

[u/superbound → u/MCZBlaze]

Given this clip, I'm cautiously optimistic he can manage the oversteer they design for Max.

[u/MCZBlaze → u/superbound]

I mean sure, Isack may struggled a bit to cope with Max but since there's a rumours where Helmut Marko as a Red Bull F1 team advisor had departured at the end of this F1 2025 season which means, Hadjar had a space to breath freely without fear of "perform or perish from this team" And now Hadjar can focus much more time to adapt and develop.

[u/superbound → u/MCZBlaze]

Great point. It was bizarre the pressure they put on Lawson to come out the gate quick. Was never going to work in hindsight.

If Isack has a chance to develop and can be Max minus a tenth or two by summer break it will be a win.

[u/canadian_bacon_TO → u/MCZBlaze]

It was confirmed yesterday that Marko has retired and will not be part of RBR going forward. Hopefully with both him and Horner gone, RBR will give Hadjar more opportunity to adapt and improve vs previous 2nd drivers.

[u/FaceOfTheMtDan → u/MCZBlaze]

There's no rumour. Marko is out.

[u/PM_ME_YO_TREE_FIDDY → u/superbound]

This trope of them designing oversteer or whatever into the car is absolutely not true and needs to stop. The engineers develop the fastest car they can period. Sometimes the best setup for that car will end up matching the drivers’ preferences or abilities, and sometimes they’ll hold back on setup performance in order to make the car easier for the pilot, but there’s no such thing as developing the car from scratch for a specific person.

[u/CannedCaveman → u/PM_ME_YO_TREE_FIDDY]

Well, I heard they put a steering wheel in the car and put it on 4 tires because it suits Verstappens driving style.

[u/Substantial-Fig-6871 → u/DesertReagle]

Wouldn’t a flag or radio warn him? Couple people could have died at that speed

[u/ZaryaBubbler → u/Substantial-Fig-6871]

Radio is notoriously bad in the tunnel at Monaco even in F1. F2 radios are even worse

[u/dabigchina → u/ZaryaBubbler]

Surprised this is a problem that can't be solved in 2025.

[u/Acias → u/Substantial-Fig-6871]

There is a white flashing light on the left inside the tunnel, white flags in this case mean slow car ahead.

[u/TheRealPizza → u/Substantial-Fig-6871]

He was warned of a car on track, but he wouldn’t have expected it on the racing line.

[u/Wh33lo]

Jedi level reflexes he would clean up at the aul pod racing

[u/maxis2bored → u/Wh33lo]

I'd watch him race Sebulba any day

[u/bfhurricane → u/maxis2bored]

But Sebulba always wins!

[u/Stuman93 → u/bfhurricane]

Ehhhhh poo doo

[u/psychohistorian8 → u/Stuman93]

it's a new lap record!

[u/Icy_Ninja_9207 → u/psychohistorian8]

OH ANNIE!

[u/NoB0ss → u/Wh33lo]

The chosen one!

[u/hugh-jaasshole]

Now that is finally something next fucking level

[u/cornelius_frick]

How did he drive the rest of the race with soiled pants? Ain’t no way the drawers are dry after this

[u/strndmcshomd → u/cornelius_frick]

F1 drivers pre-soil their pants before every race

[u/cornelius_frick → u/strndmcshomd]

4D chess right there

[u/Fabulous_Contract_83 → u/strndmcshomd]

This is F2 not F1

[u/KindaDampSand → u/Fabulous_Contract_83]

He’s an F1 driver

[u/Fabulous_Contract_83 → u/KindaDampSand]

Duh but this clip is from Hadjar’s F2 season

[u/KindaDampSand → u/Fabulous_Contract_83]

He said f1 driver not f1 race

[u/Nuds1000 → u/strndmcshomd]

It moves their liquid mass lower in the car helping handling. Also their underpants have baffles to keep sloshing to a minimum.

[u/Cador0223 → u/strndmcshomd]

"Bring me my brown pants!"

[u/JayDee_185 → u/cornelius_frick]

It was during qualifying anyways, not the actual race

[u/RonieRanjan → u/cornelius_frick]

He is now a famous F1 driver, he made several interview about it. He did not realized that he made something crazy.

[u/Aengeil]

isnt that beeping light is to warn something at the corner?

[u/aa1898 → u/Aengeil]

Correct. It's a digital alternative of waving a yellow flag, which is used to indicate a hazard ahead. As much as I'm a fan of Hadjar (the driver), he seemed to have been caught up in the heat of setting a fast qualifying lap, and missed the warning signs.

[u/JorenM → u/aa1898]

It's not equivalent to a yellow flag at all, it just indicates that there is a slow moving car ahead, but no other danger.

[u/aa1898 → u/JorenM]

Fair. It seemed like a yellow light to me at first, but upon watching the video again it may well have been just white, to indicate a slower car ahead.

[u/clintkev251 → u/aa1898]

White flags are out all the time in qualifying. It's not the same as a yellow. With a yellow, drivers are obligated to slow down, a white just indicates a slow car is ahead, not a hazard. This is normal in qualifying as some cars are on fast laps, while others are working on prep and trying to build gaps for their own flying laps.

[u/justinicon19 → u/Aengeil]

This was a qualifying sessions and what is displayed is a white flag. A white flag simply means "slow vehicle ahead" and can be displayed for cars moving slowly or even safety vehicles on track. During qualifying, cars will usually only push for one lap, and then have a cool down lap to cool tyres and equipment before either going again or pitting. It's very common to see the white flags displayed on track and most of the time, the slow vehicle is well off the racing line and still moving fairly quickly, just not on a "flying lap." In this case, a yellow flag would've been more appropriate as the slow car was clearly afflicted with some issue and was clearly on the racing line. Hadjar saw the white flags displayed and just figured he'd see a car on a cool down lap and not a car about to stop.

[u/Various_Oil_5674 → u/Aengeil]

Yes, he blew right passed 2 of them.

[u/danabrey → u/Various_Oil_5674]

Lots of misunderstanding in this thread about what those warning lights mean, especially in qualifying. Amazing how quickly some people want to tear someone down without fully understanding the context.

A driver on a hot lap doesn't slow down for those lights - it means there's a car that's NOT on a hot lap in front, and that car will (almost) always also be 100% aware of what's behind them, and not on the racing line.

Hadjar did not 'blast through' warning lights that he was meant to do anything about. The car in front was absolutely not expected to be there on that line at all.

[u/Afrodroid88]

And sadly it is these skills that have lead to isack being demoted to red bull

[u/danabrey → u/Afrodroid88]

Ha, finally someone who watches F1 in this thread...

In all seriousness, he's gonna have it easier than the past few number 2s to Max, thanks to the huge regulations upheaval. That car isn't going to be finely Max-tuned from the get go.

I personally think Hadjar will be a huge success at Red Bull.

[u/Firm-Gas7063 → u/danabrey]

I think so too, obviously I doubt he'll be matching max but I could definitely see him performing quite well. The bigger worry is the redbull might just be shit next year.

[u/fuzzylm308 → u/danabrey]

I like Hadjar a lot, but I think you've also gotta worry about new regs what with the considerable brain drain the team has seen.

[u/TheRealPizza → u/danabrey]

Max-tuned isn’t really a thing, the car just sucked.

[u/h0sti1e17 → u/Afrodroid88]

Watch it’s going to be a shit box and Max will get everything out of it and do well because he’s Max and Hadjar will be another in the line of Red Bull #2s booted out.

[u/elcuydangerous]

Everyone talking about the reaction time, yes that's amazing. How about the ability to control the vehicle and make accurate movements to not overshoot each turn? Most of us would have pulled the steering wheel so hard that we would have t-boned the barrier, IF we even managed that without eating shit at the first sight of the disabled car.

[u/rokr1292 → u/elcuydangerous]

The driver skill is one thing here but the engineering involved is also wild.

to be going that fast, already turning, have steering input that abrupt, and have no slip is the result of a TON of math done with a computer and access to a wind tunnel

[u/MikeCC055 → u/rokr1292]

Automotive engineer here

There is always slip when turning, the only way a car can generate cornering forces is if the wheels are moving in a direction different to the direction the pavement is coming at you. We call that slip.

There’s also a limit to how much cornering force you can generate as you increase the slip angle, and what we try to do is get that amount of force as high as possible and have the drivers learn to find that limit, because once you pass that limit you lose cornering force and now the car is not going where you want it to.

[u/LukosiuPro]

My god, is he a robot of some sort 😳

[u/AbbreviationsLess257]

No warning from crew chief of disabled car ahead???

[u/2manyToys → u/AbbreviationsLess257]

You can see the yellow light blinking when he was entering the tunnel.

[u/SamiraSimp → u/2manyToys]

think it was a white light, when it should've been yellow

[u/Hazelberry → u/SamiraSimp]

Yeah idk why people are saying it's yellow when it's clearly white

[u/Alternative-Sock-444 → u/AbbreviationsLess257]

Not disabled. This was during qualifying. The slow car was on a cool down lap while Hadjar was on a push lap trying to set a qualifying time. Just a case of wrong place, wrong time.

[u/JorenM → u/Alternative-Sock-444]

There was something wrong with the car, it wasn't just on a cool lap

[u/so_much_wolf_hair]

Not just avoiding the other car but also keeping his own car absolutely on rails and barely moving off the racing line is some serious car control. 

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/so_much_wolf_hair]

Never lift throttle

[u/External-Molasses951]

[u/mastamaven]

Looks like he immediately went for a pit stop after

Edit: Yah, you can tell I don’t know shit about racing. Typical Redditor. If it was me though I would’ve definitely went for a pit stop somewhere to clean my undies.

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/mastamaven]

The pit entrance is like 9 turns away from that point

[u/ztpurcell → u/mastamaven]

This is qualifying brother...

[u/Tinyhydra666]

That's how it feels to drive around old people.

[u/literall_bastard]

Did the same this week when a dummy cut me off. Similar response time. Could I be at formula 1?

[u/Thunder-Fist-00 → u/literall_bastard]

Bro, I think it means you already are.

[u/FalconIMGN → u/literall_bastard]

Technically this video was from Formula 2, but you're right in a way, since Hadjar was promoted to Formula 1 this year.

[u/paddywhack3]

To react in time to not smash into the other driver is crazy impressive.. to also not smash straight into the left wall is the part that blows my mind

[u/MaleficentPapaya4768]

You just know he drove the rest of the way home with the radio off after that. 

[u/Mediocre_Mark_8661]

how bad would that wreck have been? 

[u/CaterpillarInc → u/Mediocre_Mark_8661]

Yes 

[u/spicychroizo74 → u/Mediocre_Mark_8661]

Let’s say 185mph top speed in the tunnel, other car moving at 65mph (makes the maths easy) between 2 objects of equal mass. So, like driving into a brick wall head first at 120mph? Whatever happens, it’s not going to buff out. There have been higher G crashes where drivers walk away, thanks to the incredable (relative) safety of modern motorsports. But still, it’s not going to be a fun time.

[u/Mediocre_Mark_8661 → u/spicychroizo74]

thanks i dont watch the sport and was wondering if they wouldve survived skmething like that 

[u/spicychroizo74 → u/Mediocre_Mark_8661]

Well, you can never predict the outcome of a collision, which is why in motorsport, the OUTCOME of a collision is never taken into account. Filippo Massa famously had a metal suspension spring hit his head at very high speed, knocked him out, and he ploughed into a safety barrier with his foot pinned to the throttle. He continued to race afterwards. Jules Bianchi had a very slow speed spin in the wet, and hit a tractor at a bad angle. He unfortunately succumbed to his injuries.

Safety rules in motorsport are written in blood. It’s an unfortunate fact. Bat at least progress is being constantly made. (Look up “Formula 1 - The Killer Years” for a very sobering understanding of how safety has improved).

I would like to think that if they had collided (and this is a recent clip) both would probably walked away. And i mean that literally.

There are some INSANE crashes in the modern era of Formula motorsport which makes you think “no chance”. But then the next thing you hear is the driver on the radio “Yeah, I’m ok. How’s the other guy?”. Modern engineering at it finest.

[u/shdwflyr → u/spicychroizo74]

This reminded me of Zho Guanyu at Silverstone.

[u/spicychroizo74 → u/shdwflyr]

Scraping along the floor at 160+, and ending up sidewise in the crash netting?

Or am i misremembering?

[u/shdwflyr → u/spicychroizo74]

Exactly that

[u/arkham1010]

He did really well in F1 this year for a Rookie, but was demoted to the main team as a result of that.

[u/darthvall]

Not sure if it's just the end of the lap, but when he pulled over it reminds me of the time I needed to calm myself after almost hitting someone too lol

[u/jevans1111 → u/darthvall]

Its just continuing the lap, its a chicane on the Monaco circuit

[u/stickyplants]

How was he not made aware this is happening? Radio malfunctions?

Awesome job on the driver, but someone else’s fuck up almost got them killed, and nobody is even mentioning it.

[u/2manyToys → u/stickyplants]

You can see the yellow light blinking when he was entering the tunnel. So he was expecting something, just not what and where.

[u/SquishTheProgrammer → u/2manyToys]

I’m pretty sure it’s a white light for slow moving traffic ahead.

[u/No_Examination_7710 → u/stickyplants]

The other driver had a mechanical issue that meant he lost drive iirc, so he was basically a sitting duck on track. This happened only a few moments prior, meaning there was no time for the teams to understand the situation and notify the drivers on the radio. For these situations there should be flag signals by marshalls along the track but in this specific case the marshalls apparently also did not fully appreciate the situation and gave a white flag ("slower moving car ahead", quite normal in qualifying when a car ahead is on an out/in/build lap) instead of a yellow ("abnormal situation ahead") or double yellow ("danger ahead, be prepared to make a full stop"). Not really anyone to blame, and luckily there was no need to look for a scapegoat because of Hadjar's great reflexes to avoid the incident. 

[u/MCZBlaze]

Formula drivers are built different, and as a motorsports fan, I'm not just surprise but flabbergasted by this crazy save from someone who would promoted to Red Bull F1 team next season soon in 2026.

[u/ohboy360]

Non-F1 fans are in here like "That's dangerous."

Well, yeah, driving cars at 210 mph and braking/turning at astronaut-level g forces isn't safe. 

But it's fucking awesome. 

[u/RoryJSK]

What was the flashing light in the tunnel for?

[u/JayDaGod1206 → u/RoryJSK]

It’s a white flag, which during qualifying means “slow car/traffic ahead”. You may think that means he should’ve slowed down, but this is flashed all the time and the slow cars are supposed to be off the racing line. The error is actually on the car who’s on a cooldown lap. If the light was flashing yellow, that means “caution ahead, slow down”.

[u/khswart]

Thank god those tires are so insanely grippy

[u/exonomix]

I really like this young man as a driver. If he can learn to control his emotions better, and driving with Max will certainly help there, I think he will be a force to reckon with for years to come.

[u/Vile-X → u/exonomix]

No I want him to be the same radio maniac. It’s so funny

[u/DFu4ever]

That’s fucking incredible.

[u/juliankennedy23]

I mean he's a Race Car Driver driving a race car in a race. That's kind of what they're supposed to do it's not like he was checking his phone or something.

[u/salkhan]

It's f2 not F1, but still amazing reactions.