As drone piloting team the Dutch Drone Gods well know, the fastest FPV drone tops out around 180 km/h (112 mph). But over a year ago, Red Bull asked them if they could design, build and pilot a drone that could film a complete overhead lap of a Formula 1 car going full-tilt.

The request was insane. It's not just that F1 cars can surpass 350 km/h (217 mph); it's that during a lap, the cars are also braking, accelerating and turning at neck-snapping rates. To match the pace, a drone would not only have to be quick, but nimble; and it would have to be light enough to keep up, yet carry a battery large enough to sustain its insane output for the entire lap. No such drone exists.

The DDG guys got to work, first prototyping this interesting fish-shaped design, that takes off vertically but flies horizontally.

After some trials, the design was further refined into this bullet-like shape:

After more testing, the team finally had to turn to the F1 engineers for help, allowing them to arrive at this powerful but ultra-lightweight version:

While the entire video below covering the development (and eventual success) is fun to watch, the footage they were able to capture is flat-out astonishing. All of the F1 drivers, reviewing the footage, are agog; no race has ever been covered from these angles, and more than one driver comments that it relays the true sense of speed to the viewer. Even if you don't watch the vid, do scrub through to get to the lap footage. Between the visuals and the engine noise, it's pretty thrilling.

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Assuming they can clear the safety regulations, surely all F1 races will be filmed in this way in the future.