There are plenty of contenders for the best Formula 1 car of all time and lots of ways to categorise ‘best’, but which is the fastest ever?

Since teams underwent considerable regulation changes in 2022, each have been slowly building back up to the mind-bending speeds which we saw in the last generation of F1 cars.

In 2020, Lewis Hamilton set the record for fastest average lap at Monza, securing pole position in his W11 on a 1min 18.887sec at an average speed of 264.362km/h (164.267mph) over the lap. But does that make his car the fastest ever?

Record for the ‘fastest’ F1 lap

Hamilton’s 2020 pole lap holds the record for fastest average speed across a lap in F1 history. It topped the previous record held by Kimi Räikkönen, set two years prior during the same session with the Ferrari SF71H, allowing the Finn take a memorable pole position in front of the Tifosi for Ferrari.

Räikkönen’s own record topped a long-standing benchmark left by Juan Pablo Montoya from the 2004 qualifying session at Monza. His pole lap, set in the BMW FW26, held the single lap record with an average speed of 259.83 km/h (161.451mph) until the new, wider cars came along.

Nevertheless, that Monza lap was enough to beat Keke Rosberg’s record that had stood for 19 years previously. The Fin completed a memorable pole position lap at an average of 259.01km/h (160.94mph) at Silverstone in 1985 without the same technology in place to help him do so, albeit around a much faster layout than the modern version.

But there are plenty of variables to go along with Hamilton’s record too. Older cars from the late 1990s to late 2000s used grooved tyres as a method of slowing them down, though there are still some that hold the record for fastest lap at circuits still on the calendar today.

For example, Pedro de la Rosa holds the record in Bahrain from the ’05 race in his McLaren MP4-20, whilst Rubens Barrichello holds the Italian GP lap record, completed in the iconic F2004.

Previous F1 average lap speed records

Driver Team Car Speed Year Keke Rosberg Williams FW10 259.01km/h (160.94mph) 1985 Juan Pablo Montoya BMW FW26 259.83 km/h (161.451mph) 2004 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari SF17H 263.586km/h (163.785mph) 2018 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes W11 264.362km/h (164.267mph) 2020* Current record

Which F1 era had the fastest cars?

Of the 23 races currently on the F1 calendar, 18 of them have lap records held by F1 cars made between 2018 and 2021.

Whilst the current generation of F1 cars were designed reduce the gaps between drivers and make it easier to follow, the previous iteration was all about shaving off lap-time, and the changes certainly had the desired effect.

As a result of wider slick tyres and wings along with greater efficiency of hybrid power units and torque delivery, F1 cars made between 2018-2021 were some of the quickest over a single lap to have raced.

But even so, though race lap records from the early to mid-2000s have fallen, some of the older machinery still has the newer models beaten elsewhere – top speed.

The early years of aerodynamics and fairly basic understanding of using them to increase speeds meant that while the sights and sounds of the older eras stand the test of time, the speeds don’t quite stack up.

But greater sophistication of designs by aerodynamicists and engineers in the 1990s and 2000s pushed the envelope further and further, resulting in some of the fastest F1 cars ever machined – in a straight line at least.

What is the highest ever top speed of an F1 car?

Montoya holds the highest top speed for an F1 car outright, set during the 2005 Italian Grand Prix. The Colombian led the race from pole and recorded his second win of the ’05 season with McLaren-Mercedes. During the race, his MP4-20 achieved 372.6km/h (231.52mph).

That record has been beaten albeit unofficially. Williams claimed that data from Valtteri Bottas’s car said the Finn achieved a top speed of 378km/h (234.9mph) during practice for the 2016 European Grand Prix but believe it or not the mid-2000 machines have that beaten too. Technically.