McLaren driver Oscar Piastri pulls out his calculator and explains why Formula 1 drivers cover an astonishing distance with their eyes closed
How far does a Formula 1 driver actually drive blind? Hardly any fan has ever asked themselves this question. But during the 2025 Formula 1 summer break, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri caused a stir with a surprising insight into the physiology of racing.
In a video posted by his team on Instagram, the otherwise reserved Australian transforms into a math professor and calculates in detail the distance he and his colleagues cover with every blink of the eye.
Piastri begins his explanation with a basic observation: “Basically, all race car drivers blink at almost the same point on a lap. Because, of course, you don’t want to blink in a corner—especially when high g-forces are at work,” he explains.
That’s why drivers train themselves to consciously blink on the straights. Added to this is the high airflow in the cockpit, which further irritates the eyes and increases the need to blink.
Almost a football field with closed eyes per lap
But instead of leaving it at that, Piastri becomes a scientist: he pulls out his smartphone and begins to back up the theory with hard numbers. “A blink of an eye lasts between one-tenth and four-tenths of a second,” he says, setting an average value of one-quarter of a second (0.25 seconds) for his calculation.
Then comes the big math lesson: starting with a speed of 200 km/h, he first converts this into meters per hour (200,000 m/h) and then into meters per second. The result: at 200 km/h, a Formula 1 car covers around 55.5 meters per second.
“If you divide that by four, for the quarter-second it takes to blink, you get 13.88… so almost 14 meters,” concludes Piastri.
But that’s not all. The McLaren driver estimates that a driver blinks about five times during a lap of the race. Multiplying the 14 meters per blink by five gives an astonishing total distance of 70 meters per lap that a driver covers “blind.” A distance that is almost the length of a soccer field. “To be honest, that was more than I expected,” admits a visibly impressed Piastri at the end of his calculation.
Fans celebrate “Professor Piastri”
The fans’ reactions to the video were overwhelmingly positive. In the comments, Piastri is affectionately celebrated as “Professor Piastri” or “math tutor.”
“I learned more in this video than in a whole year of math class,” writes one user, while another jokes, “Kimi [Antonelli] asked the wrong driver for help with his math homework.”
Many fans are impressed by the young Australian’s analytical and intelligent approach, which has already earned him a reputation as a “thinking” driver on the racetrack. “The summer break turned Oscar into a math tutor,” one fan comments amusedly.
The video not only highlights a fascinating detail of the sport, but also shows a new, likeable side to the Formula 1 driver, whose personality, according to the comments, “is becoming more apparent every day.”
