Witness the groundbreaking first-person drone footage of Max Verstappen’s F1 lap, offering an unprecedented racing perspective.
This marks the first time a camera drone has managed to fly at such speed and duration to capture Formula 1 images never before seen by fans. The first-person view (FPV) sequence of three-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen completing a lap around the Silverstone circuit was filmed using a drone specifically designed for this purpose.
“I never thought I’d see the day a drone could fly that fast just to film,” Max Verstappen remarked after witnessing it in action at the Silverstone circuit.
“I didn’t know it was following me while I was driving on the wet track. I was amazed at how fast it could keep up with me, and how close it could get to me in the turns. It offers a truly different perspective from what we usually see in Formula 1.”
It took over a year to create a drone capable of accelerating twice as fast as a F1 car, reaching 300 km/h in just 4 seconds, with a top speed exceeding 350 km/h. The development was accelerated by access to the expertise and processes of Red Bull Advanced Technologies, a high-performance engineering division of the Oracle Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team. The company designed and manufactured lightweight aerodynamic fairings and structural arms for engine mounting, reducing the drone’s total mass by about 10%.
The pilot controls the drone with a radio controller and only views the flight path through FPV goggles that transmit a low-resolution view from the drone’s eye. The camera angle is then adjusted simultaneously using a trigger, requiring precise hand-eye coordination to achieve smooth footage of a F1 car moving at over 300 km/h.
Having already piloted a variety of FPV drones to follow mountain bikers at events like Red Bull Cerro Abajo, tracking a Formula 1 car at full speed presented a whole new challenge for pilot Shaggy FPV and the company “Dutch Drone Gods”. The challenges were numerous, including navigating turns, acceleration and deceleration, battery life, connectivity between the drone, receiver, and pilot, as well as flying over bridges and under billboards.
“This is a special drone because it’s the only one that goes this fast while equipped with a camera. It’s a very ambitious project to create a drone fast enough to keep up with the car and keep it in frame while capturing interesting footage,” commented drone pilot Shaggy FPV.
“This is certainly the craziest shot I’ve ever made.”
Drone F1 Verstappen Footage. Drone F1 Verstappen Footage
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