FULL GUIDE to F1 Driving Styles

I have watched hundreds of hours of F1 onboards and analysed every driving style I’ve seen so far. There have been many F1 driving styles throughout the years, but I have categorised all of them into 4 styles. Smooth Oversteer, Smooth Understeer, Aggressive Oversteer and Aggressive Understeer.

First of all, let me explain how I named these styles. Smooth and Aggressive are like the prefixes to the terms I use to categorise driving styles. Smooth drivers are gradual and consistent with the steering. Aggressive drivers are the opposite, they have to correct the car quite often and hack at the steering wheel. I assigned the terms understeer and oversteer to the styles, to describe the preference of the driver. Some drivers like understeer and some like oversteer. For example Michael Schumacher is aggressive and prefers oversteer. Therefore his style would be described as Aggressive Oversteer. 

I’ll get more in-depth later, but first I have to warn you that most driving styles are very subtle. Not all drivers who prefer aggressive oversteer drift the car around corners because that is frankly very slow. Driving styles are different techniques of being on the grip limit of the tyres. It doesn’t mean sliding around, because that would be over the limit. And it doesn’t mean going incredibly slow, because that would be under the limit. Being on the limit is a borderline between being over the limit and under the limit. 

So enough of that, let’s get into the in-depth analysis of each driving style.

Here’s the format of how I’ll explain it.

Drivers who used it

Cars that liked it/ suited the style

Car setup

U shape or V shape line

Entry (with telemetry)

Mid-corner 

Exit 

Benefits or Disadvantages

First of all, the most crowd-pleasing style, Aggressive Oversteer. Some drivers who prefer this style include Michael Schumacher, Jean Alesi and James Hunt. This style mainly worked back in the 80s and 90s when the cars were light and nimble and tyres needed aggression to warm up. The modern F1 cars nowadays do not like this style because of the softer tyres, they’re heavy and not as nimble as before. The Aggressive Oversteer style requires a strong front end, with a car setup biassed towards front grip. This allows the driver to rotate the car easily, at the cost of the rear tyres scrubbing due to over rotation. To complement this, drivers tend to take a more V-shaped racing line. Here’s what a typical corner would look like for them.

On entry, they would brake hard and late, deep into the middle of the corner. They would do their rotation quickly, to set the car up for a straighter exit. This would require quite aggressive steering inputs to force the rotation in a short period of time. On the exit, since their car was already rotated they could focus the tyre’s grip on accelerating. This is because they had a straighter exit, allowing for faster throttle application. Overall, they could brake late into the corners, rotate the car quickly and then get a good exit speed. 

This style does have its benefits, in that the tyres can get warmed up to the optimum temperature quickly. However, it scrubs the tyres more than other styles and can lead to higher tyre degradation over a race stint. Typically, this would lead to inconsistent laptimes and cost them during a race. Overall, this style was more suited towards one-lap specialists in qualifying and its not really used today.

But a style that is used quite often today is the Smooth Oversteer style. Some drivers that have this style include Max Verstappen, Mika Hakkinen and to an extent Alex Albon. This style is most suited to the cars of the 2000s and all the way to today’s modern f1 cars. The Smooth Oversteer style requires a strong front end, with a car setup biassed towards front grip. This allows the driver to rotate the car easily. To complement this, drivers tend to take a more V-shaped racing line, but are also inclined to take U-shaped lines. Unlike the aggressive oversteer drivers, the smooth oversteer style is more refined. It requires an insane amount of feeling for the grip limit to be smooth with an edgy, oversteery car.

Here’s what a typical corner would look like for them. On entry, they brake earlier than others, as the rear stability is limited. They gradually turn the steering into the corner to load up the front tyres smoothly. To stay on the limit of grip, they modulate the pedals, manipulating the weight transfer. Trailing the brakes mid-corner to give the fronts more grip, and getting on the throttle to give the rears more grip. They tend to be more gradual while modulating the pedals to avoid upsetting the twitchy rear end. On the exit, they can get on the throttle early as the smooth inputs allow for a more stable platform. Overall, Smooth Oversteer drivers make the twitchy car setup able to reach its grip limit more consistently by being smooth.

This style is mostly beneficial to the driver, as it doesn’t wear out the tyres as much and it rewards smooth driving. Not to mention the incredible feel for the limit that the Smooth Oversteer drivers have. Being smooth with a twitchy setup takes a lot of skill to feel where the grip limit is. Drivers who master the Smooth Oversteer style are generally faster than those who have an aggressive style. This is because they can be consistently on the limit of grip by having smooth inputs. Overall, this style can be consistently fast when paired with a driver who has an innate feel for the grip limit.

The next style is similar, but it requires a different car setup. The Smooth Understeer style is used by Jenson Button and Carlos Sainz. The style is suited to most cars today and even dates back to Jackie Stewart in the 60s. The Smooth Understeer style requires a strong rear end with a car setup biassed towards rear grip. This allows the driver to carry lots of speed in the corners while having the stability to do so. To complement this, drivers usually take a more U-shaped line to carry lots of speed through the mid-corner. Unlike the smooth oversteer drivers, the smooth understeer style is slightly more aggressive on the pedals. It requires the driver to induce more rotation with the pedals, to carry lots of speed in the corners meanwhile. 

On corner entry, they brake and turn in early to allow for a more stable platform in the mid-corner. Their steering is smooth and gradually loads the front tyres up to the grip limit. They stay on the limit of grip by manipulating the weight transfer with the pedals. They aggressively modulate the brake pedal to induce as much rotation as possible while carrying speed through the mid-corner. The strong rear end allows them to have stability while being aggressive with the weight transfer during trailbraking. At the exit, they are able to get on the throttle earlier than others because of the stable rear end. Overall, the U-shaped line allows Smooth Understeer drivers to carry lots of speed through the corners.

This style benefits the tyres the most, as the rear barely slides and the fronts are taken care of by the smooth inputs. Smooth Understeer preference drivers are faster throughout race stints and are more consistent, as they can take care of tyres. This allows them to have a better race pace, since the looked-after tyres can be on the grip limit for longer. Overall, this style is seen most commonly in today’s modern F1 and is beneficial for long race stints.

Last but not least, is a variant of the Smooth Understeer style. The Aggressive Understeer style is one of the least common styles today. Drivers like Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have this style today, but dialled it down to be smoother. The style requires a strong rear end to cope with the drivers’ aggression. The understeer helps the drivers heat up the front tyres faster and get the tyres into the optimum temperature. Alonso in particular used the strong, stable rear end to be aggressive with the steering and chuck the car into corners. Most of the modulation was done in the steering, as they had a good feel for the fronts’ grip limit.

They would brake late and turn in aggressively early to induce rotation. On entry, the strong rear end helped them to carry lots of speed into corners without losing stability. In the mid-corner, they would correct the steering often to keep the car on the grip limit. The strong rear end allowed them to be more aggressive with the inputs and push the car harder than others. On the exit, they could get to 100% throttle faster as the strong rear end helped them maintain stability. Overall, the Aggressive Understeer drivers like to carry lots of speed into and out of corners with the safety net of a strong rear end.

This style wore out the front tyres a lot, as they were put under lots of stress when the drivers tried to keep the car on the grip limit. However, this style when paired with a driver that can extract the most out of the fronts can be fast. Overall, this style was popular back when the tyres required aggression to stay on the grip limit. However, like all aggressive styles it is not practical for todays’ cars.

Out of the four driving styles, the smooth ones are more practical for the modern F1 cars as the tyres do not like to be scrubbed. Driving styles in 2024 are homogenised, as all drivers have to be smooth and look after the tyres to be fast. In my opinion, all driving styles are just preferences of how the driver likes to drive the car on the limit. There is no ‘best driving style’, rather the best drivers are the ones who can adapt their style to the car.