Why F1 cars are built with GOLD, and it's not for bling

Piastri, McLaren, abu dhabi — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Explained

Why F1 cars are built with GOLD, and it's not for bling

Oscar Piastri broke down F1 tech

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Saturday 10 January 2026 16:52

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Oscar Piastri helped explain why F1 cars feature gold - and it isn't just too look impressive.

F1 is defined by its innovative technological designs, which have often translated into a use in everyday life, from a life-saving breathing device created during the Covid-19 pandemic to energy efficient fridges in supermarkets.

Many of the smaller elements of an F1 car go unnoticed, however, tucked away but nonetheless crucial to the high performance we have come to expect of modern machinery.

Article continues under video

Luckily for us in the off season, McLaren star Oscar Piastri was on hand to explain one piece of unique technology - why F1 teams use gold.

Why do F1 teams use gold?

In the video posted to McLaren's social media, Piastri held cylinder in his hands which was covered in gold foil, used to shield heat

"Did you know that there is gold on Formula 1 cars?" he explained.

"And it's not just for bling, I know it's a glamorous sport and everything — but it is for performance. As is everything in Formula 1.

"This is gold foil, real gold. But what do we use it for? We use it for heat shielding, so obviously there's a lot of hot parts in an F1 car. The exhaust for example, the engine.

"There's a lot of things in an F1 car that don't want to be hot, such as all the stuff behind the heat shielding. So it's a very good material at dispersing heat. It's very thin, so it's therefore very light and all of those things are good to have on an F1 car.

"It protects the fuel cell as well from not getting too hot, you don't want your fuel getting any hotter than it needs to be for performance reasons.

"You also don't want it getting really hot because fuel and temperature, I'll let you work out the rest. There you go. Gold in an F1 car and not just to look cool."

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F1 McLaren Oscar Piastri