How Overtaking Really Works in F1: Slipstream, Late Braking and the Crossover

By Giacomo Fava ·

Watch an onboard of a great overtake and it looks like a single moment: a car darts out of the slipstream, brakes later, and it’s done. In reality it is a sequence, built over a lap or more. There are four ingredients: the tow, the braking zone, the line, and the rules of wheel-to-wheel racing.

This guide explains each one the way an engineer would. It also shows how we modelled them in Pocket GP, our one-finger racing game, where these four things are the whole game.

1. The slipstream: borrowing the air

At 300 km/h most of a single-seater’s engine power is spent pushing air out of the way. Aerodynamic drag grows with the square of speed: double the speed and the drag is four times higher.

A car punches a hole in that air and leaves a wake of slower, turbulent air behind it. The car that follows, if close enough, drives into air that is already moving forward. It meets less resistance, so with the same power it accelerates harder and reaches a higher top speed. That’s the tow.

Two things matter:

  • Distance: the effect fades quickly with the gap. A tow from 50 metres back is a breeze, from 10 metres it’s a gale.
  • Alignment: you have to be directly behind. A metre to the side and you’re back in clean air.

The catch: the same turbulent air that helps on the straight hurts in the corners. It reduces the downforce of the car behind, which is why following closely through fast corners is so hard in real F1.

In Pocket GP: when you follow a car on the same line, drag drops by up to 45%, scaling with the gap within 50 metres. An indicator on screen shows how strong the tow is. Pull out too early and you lose it. Pull out too late and you are stuck behind at the braking zone.

2. The braking zone: where overtakes are made

Most overtakes are completed under braking. Why? Because a braking zone is where the difference between two drivers is largest. At the end of a long straight the cars arrive at similar speeds, but how late each one brakes, and how much speed each carries into the corner, can differ by many metres.

The physics behind it is the friction circle: a tyre has a fixed amount of grip, and you can spend it on braking, on turning, or on a mix of the two, but never more than the total. That’s why:

  • You can brake hardest in a straight line.
  • As you start turning you have to release the brake, trading braking grip for cornering grip (“trail braking”).
  • Ask for too much at once and the tyres lock (smoke, flat spots, a run wide) or the car understeers.

The overtaking move is simple to describe and hard to do: brake a little later than the car ahead, on the inside, and still make the apex.

In Pocket GP: every corner has a braking zone computed from its real radius and the car’s grip, with braking markers you can switch on in the menu. Lift your finger too late and the car can’t shed enough speed. Brake hard from above 200 km/h and the fronts lock, smoke and run wide.

3. The line: inside, ideal, late apex, outside

The ideal racing line uses the full width of the track to make the corner as gentle as possible: outside on entry, apex on the inside, outside on exit. When you are defending or attacking you can’t always use it, so drivers choose among alternatives:

  • Inside line: shorter and defends the position, but the corner is tighter, so it’s slower on the exit.
  • Outside line: longer, you need the other driver to leave you room, and it’s rarely the winning one.
  • Late apex: turn in later and hit the apex further round the corner. You give up entry speed for a straighter, faster exit.

The crossover (or switchback)

The crossover is the most elegant move in racing, and it’s the reason the late apex exists. Your rival has just dived down the inside under braking. Instead of fighting on the outside and losing:

  1. You brake slightly earlier and let them go ahead into the corner.
  2. You cross behind them in the middle of the corner.
  3. You take a late apex on the inside and get on the power earlier.
  4. They exit on a tight, slow line. You exit faster and re-pass on the next straight.

In Pocket GP: every slow corner has the four lines. Drag toward the inside before a slow corner while a car is alongside and your car performs the switchback by itself: it lifts in the braking zone, slots in behind, takes the late apex and lines up the counter-attack.

4. Wheel-to-wheel: who has the corner?

Two cars side by side into a corner can’t both take the ideal line. Racing has a well-established etiquette (and, in F1, stewards to enforce it). It boils down to this:

  • The car on the inside generally has the corner if it is sufficiently alongside. As a reference, its front wheels should be at least level with the other car’s.
  • A car on the outside that is clearly ahead keeps its line.
  • Both must leave a car’s width of room. Squeezing someone off the track is penalised.

In Pocket GP: the same rule decides every side-by-side corner. The inside car has priority unless the outside one is at least half a car ahead, and the car that yields leaves room instead of crashing. Contacts cost real speed, so you can’t use a rival as a brake.

A note on 2026 F1

Real Formula 1 changed its rules for 2026: DRS made way for active aerodynamics and an electrical “overtake” boost for the car behind. The tools are new, but the four ingredients above haven’t changed. You still need to be close on the straight, brake later and choose the right line.

Try it

The best way to understand racecraft is to feel it. Pocket GP lets you set up a slipstream pass, outbrake a rival into the Prima Variante at Monza or pull off a switchback at Barcelona’s La Caixa, all with one finger.

FAQ

How does the slipstream work in Formula 1?

A car moving at speed leaves a wake of slower, turbulent air behind it. A car following closely meets less air resistance (drag), so with the same power it reaches a higher speed and closes the gap on the straight. The closer the car behind, the stronger the effect.

What is a switchback or crossover move in racing?

It is a counter-attack against a car that has just passed you on the inside under braking. Instead of fighting on the outside, you brake slightly earlier, cross behind the other car in the middle of the corner and exit on the inside line with more speed, often re-passing on the next straight.

Who has priority when two cars are side by side into a corner?

As a rule of thumb in racing, the car on the inside has the corner if it is level enough with the other car, typically with its front wheels at least alongside. A car that is clearly ahead on the outside keeps its line. Both drivers must leave a car's width of space.