> That's honestly not much of a counterexample, since you're talking about a 260hp car. Good on him for doing as well as he did, but it seems unlikely he'd be physically able to handle a Formula 1 car at all.
That was 260 hp car that weighed 607 kg. Power to weight ratio is key here, and trust me, this is nothing like your usual full size car that also sports ~250 hp, but weighs 4 times as much. It might not be F1, but it is a real deal.
I remember reading once they generate more a G of force just letting off the accelerator. Back in the day, Nigel Mansell had to leave for a few months for an injury. His next race back he retired because his neck muscles had lost conditioning despite working out every day.
My car has g-force sensors. I know from experience, it can only handle 1 lateral G before it starts to slide (in a 4-door sedan wrighing around 3500 lbs). Thats with Z-rated tires. What F1 and Indy cars can pull off is absolutely amazing. Most of what they can do is purely because of the aerodynamics and the insane downforce they produce. I remember hearing somewhere that an Indy car produces enough downforce at speed, it'd be able to drive upside down and stick to the inverted road.
You see it on the necks of the Formula 1 drivers, they're quite massive. Doesn't come for free of course, some hard work-outs behind that: https://youtu.be/t0SoPeY8zE8?t=67
