Slipstream and dirty air
When one F1 car follows another, two things happen at once. On the straights, the car behind gets a slipstream (also called a tow) and goes faster. In the corners, it's driving through dirty air and loses grip. Overtaking in F1 is mostly about using the first and surviving the second.
The slipstream
A car moving at 300 km/h pushes a huge amount of air out of the way, and that creates drag. Behind it there's a pocket of air that's already moving in the same direction. A car following closely drives into that pocket, meets less resistance and can go faster for the same power.
The effect is strongest on long straights and when the gap is small. A tow can be worth several km/h at the end of a straight, which might be enough to pull alongside before the braking zone.
The slipstream also matters in qualifying. At tracks with long straights, such as Monza, drivers try to find a gap behind another car on their fast lap to get a tow. That leads to the slow, crowded out laps you sometimes see, with nobody wanting to be first.
Dirty air
The same disturbed air that helps on the straights hurts in the corners. An F1 car relies on downforce: its wings and floor use the air flowing over and under the car to push it into the track. Those parts are designed to work in clean, smooth air.
The air coming off the car in front is turbulent and slower. When the car behind drives into it, its wings and floor produce less downforce. The driver has less grip, so they have to brake earlier and corner slower. The tyres also slide more, which makes them overheat. See tyre temperature and blankets for why that's a problem.
This is why a faster car can sit a second behind a slower one for lap after lap. It can catch up on the straights, but it loses the time again through the corners and can't get close enough to try a move.
How the rules have tackled it
Dirty air has been one of F1's biggest problems for decades, and recent rule changes have tried to reduce it.
- From 2011 to 2025, cars had DRS, a flap in the rear wing that a driver within a second of the car ahead could open to cut drag. It was a way of helping the following car on the straights to make up for what it lost in the corners. See what happened to DRS.
- In 2022, F1 moved to ground effect cars, which made much more of their downforce from the floor rather than the wings. The aim was to make the wake from each car less disruptive. It helped, though teams gradually found ways to bring some of the problem back.
- The 2026 cars are smaller, lighter and make less downforce overall, again partly to make following easier.
The 2026 approach
From 2026, DRS has gone. Every car can now switch its front and rear wings into a low-drag setting on the straights, whether or not it's chasing anyone. That's covered on the active aerodynamics page.
Instead of a drag advantage, the following car now gets an energy advantage. A driver within a set gap of the car ahead at the detection point gets access to overtake mode, which lets them use electric power at higher speeds and gives them extra energy to recharge. Read more on the overtake mode and boost page.
Slipstreaming still works the same way it always has. The difference is that the extra help on the straights now comes from the battery rather than the rear wing.
Defending
The driver in front can use dirty air to their advantage. Staying close to the ideal line through fast corners keeps the car behind in the turbulent air for as long as possible. Drivers defending a position also try to get a good exit from the corner before a long straight, so that the slipstream isn't enough to bring the attacker alongside.
The rules on how far a defending driver can go, including moving under braking and leaving space, are on the rules of wheel-to-wheel racing page.