Today’s Formula 1 cars are technological masterpieces — sculpted by wind tunnels, supercomputers and enough CFD to fry a server farm. The 2025 grid, after four seasons of refinement under the current ruleset, has been blisteringly quick. Yet even with all that progress, the crown for fastest Formula 1 car in history belongs to a machine from not-so-long ago.
What To Know?
- Verstappen now holds the fastest ever F1 lap at 164.466mph (Monza 2025).
- Norris first broke Hamilton’s 2020 benchmark before Verstappen lowered it further.
- Montoya’s 231.52mph (2005) and Honda’s 246.9mph Salt Flats run remain top-speed markers.
The title used to go to Mercedes’ extraordinary W11, which in the 2020 Championship helped Lewis Hamilton unleash the fastest lap ever recorded at a Grand Prix, at the time. In qualifying at Monza — the cathedral of speed — Hamilton averaged an eyeball-flattening 164.267mph around the full lap. It took another five years for anyone to go faster over that distance in F1.
At the 2025 Italian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen set a new fastest lap in F1 history, recording the highest ever average speed over a full lap — 164.466mph (264.703km/h) with a 1min 18.792sec pole lap. It was the moment F1 reset its limits.
And it wasn’t just Verstappen. Moments before him, Lando Norris crossed the line at 164.323mph (1:18.869) to become the first driver in history to surpass the long-standing benchmark previously held by Hamilton. The 2025 session was a barrage — one record bettered, then obliterated again.
But if we’re talking top speed, the stopwatch alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Wind the clock back 19 years to the same track, and you’ll find Juan Pablo Montoya punching through the air in 2005 with a McLaren-Mercedes at a formally recorded 231.52mph — the highest speed ever officially verified during a Grand Prix weekend.
Williams later claimed that Valtteri Bottas unofficially eclipsed the record, reaching 234.9mph at the 2016 European Grand Prix in Baku. Not logged by the FIA, but still a number worth raising eyebrows at.
Modern cars still flirt with 230mph, but the pre-2022 era remains king when it comes to outright speed — before downforce-focused regulations dialled the insanity down a notch.
Formula 1 Speed Records
Fastest Single Lap in F1 History
| Driver | Car | Event | Average Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull RB21 | 2025 Italian GP – Qualifying | 164.466mph (264.703km/h) — New all-time record |
| Lando Norris | McLaren MCL39 | 2025 Italian GP – Qualifying | 164.323mph (264.474km/h) — Also beat previous record |
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes W11 | 2020 Italian GP – Qualifying | 164.267mph (264.362km/h) — Former record |
Hamilton’s 1min 18.887sec pole lap stood untouched for five years — a lap so quick it rewrote what was thought possible in the hybrid era, with average speeds north of 264km/h around the famously unforgiving Monza asphalt.
Highest Official Top Speed
Car: McLaren MP4-20
Driver: Juan Pablo Montoya
Event: 2005 Italian Grand Prix – Monza
Top speed: 231.52mph (372.6km/h)
Montoya’s number is still the officially recognised peak speed. No one has moved the marker since — and plenty have tried.
The Chase For Faster
Hamilton’s mega 2020 lap bumped a record set two years earlier by Kimi Räikkönen, who hustled his Ferrari SF71H around Monza at 163.785mph on average. Before the Finn, the benchmark belonged to Montoya again, this time thanks to his 2004 Monza pole in the BMW FW26.
And before that? A long-standing piece of Silverstone folklore.
Keke Rosberg’s 1985 lap in the Williams FW10 — 160.94mph on average — held the record for 19 straight years, set on what was then a significantly faster Silverstone layout. He was, for one famous weekend, the fastest man ever to circulate a grand prix lap.
Hamilton, Norris and Verstappen owe their records to modern innovation — DRS, cutting-edge aerodynamics, and sticky slick tyres. Older machinery from the V10 era had raw power but less grip, especially in the grooved-tyre years. Yet many of those screaming early-2000s rockets still hold records today.
Pedro de la Rosa still owns Bahrain thanks to a 2005 McLaren MP4-20 flyer, while Rubens Barrichello’s 2004 Ferrari F2004 lap still rules Monza’s record books.
Previous Average Speed Records
| Driver | Team | Car | Speed | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keke Rosberg | Williams | FW10 | 259.01km/h (160.94mph) | 1985 |
| Juan Pablo Montoya | BMW-Williams | FW26 | 259.83km/h (161.451mph) | 2004 |
| Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | SF71H | 263.586km/h (163.785mph) | 2018 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W11 | 264.362km/h (164.267mph) | 2020 |
| Lando Norris | McLaren | MCL39 | 164.323mph (264.474km/h) | 2025 |
| Max Verstappen | Red Bull | RB21 | 164.466mph (264.703km/h) | 2025 — Current record |
Which Era Built the Fastest F1 Monsters?
Of the 24 tracks on the 2025 F1 World Championship, 16 circuit records belong to cars built between 2018–2021 — the short window where F1 teams were unleashed to chase downforce and speed like never before. Six are held by today’s post-2022 cars, and only three remain in the hands of pre-2005 machines.
The 2018 regulation shift was designed to inject pace into F1, and it worked — viciously well. The 2022 rulebook then reversed direction, trading peak downforce for closer racing. Lap times slowed. Teams are only now clawing performance back.
Some 2024 machines were 1.5 seconds faster than themselves a year before in qualifying trim. Ferrari and McLaren found around half a second per lap in race pace. And 2025 stretched the current rulebook to breaking point.
2026, however, could bring a reset. Radical chassis changes, new engine rules and early murmurs of doubt from engineers suggest lap times could initially take a hit. Straight-line speeds of 320kph remain possible — but with slower cornering, lap averages could balloon.
Simulations hint the FIA’s latest tweaks may claw back about two seconds per lap, but don’t expect instant pre-2022 pace everywhere. Some older cars — with V10 lungs and lighter aerodynamic loads — might continue to stand unbeaten at certain circuits.
Fastest Lap Times: Every Track on the 2025 Calendar
| Grand Prix | Circuit | Lap Time | Driver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian | Albert Park | 1:20.235 | Sergio Perez (2023) |
| Chinese | Shanghai | 1:30.641 | Oscar Piastri (2025) |
| Japanese | Suzuka | 1:26.983 | Max Verstappen (2025) |
| Bahrain | Bahrain Int. | 1:31.447 | Pedro de la Rosa (2005) |
| Saudi Arabian | Jeddah | 1:30.734 | Lewis Hamilton (2021) |
| Miami | Miami Autodrome | 1:29.708 | Max Verstappen (2023) |
| San Marino | Imola | 1:15.484 | Lewis Hamilton (2020) |
| Monaco | Monte Carlo | 1:09.954 | Lando Norris (2025) |
| Spanish | Catalunya | 1:16.330 | Max Verstappen (2023) |
| Canadian | Gilles Villeneuve | 1:13.078 | Valtteri Bottas (2019) |
| Austrian | Red Bull Ring | 1:05.619 | Carlos Sainz (2020) |
| British | Silverstone | 1:27.097 | Max Verstappen (2020) |
| Belgian | Spa | 1:40.510 | Oscar Piastri (2025) |
| Hungarian | Hungaroring | 1:16.627 | Lewis Hamilton (2020) |
| Dutch | Zandvoort | 1:08.662 | Oscar Piastri (2025) |
| Italian | Monza | 1:18.792s | Max Verstappen (2025) |
| Azerbaijan | Baku | 1:43.009 | Charles Leclerc (2019) |
| Singapore | Marina Bay | 1:33.808 | Lewis Hamilton (2025) |
| United States | COTA | 1:36.169 | Charles Leclerc (2019) |
| Mexico City | Mexico City | 1:21.334 | Lewis Hamilton (2023) |
| São Paulo | Interlagos | 1:10.540 | Valtteri Bottas (2018) |
| Las Vegas | Las Vegas | 1:34.876 | Lando Norris (2024) |
| Qatar | Lusail | 1:22.384 | Lando Norris (2024) |
| Abu Dhabi | Yas Marina | 1:25.637 | Kevin Magnussen (2024) |
So — What Is the Fastest F1 Car Ever Made?
Officially, Montoya owns the fastest F1 top speed ever logged at a race weekend — 231.52mph at Monza in 2005. Williams insists Bottas beat that, clocking 234.9mph in 2016, but it never joined the FIA record books.
But the wildest number of all belongs to Honda.
A 2006 Honda RA106, driven by Alan van der Merwe, was taken to the Bonneville Salt Flats with one purpose: to break the world record for sheer speed.
It reached 246.908mph (397.360km/h) officially — the fastest speed any F1-based car has ever achieved.
Honda even cracked 413.205km/h (256.753mph) during testing. It just couldn’t back it up on the return run to seal the number for the record books.
Even so, the RA106 remains the quickest Formula 1 car ever built, if not in a homologated race configuration.
So:
- Verstappen owns the fastest lap ever driven.
- Montoya holds the fastest official top speed.
- Honda built the fastest F1 car to ever move on land.
Three answers. One question. Welcome to Formula 1.
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