This is What It’s Like to Race a Drone at Full-Throttle

When we're racing, it's head to head but at the same time

you're battling the clock.

They say that if you're not crashing, you're not flying.

[Alex] When you have a bunch of pilots

that are all at the top tier,

they're running so tight next to each other

that mid-airs are kind of common.

Yeah, I crashed in the finals

which everyone had crashed out already

and it was pretty much my competition to win

and nerves got to me and I crashed out.

The drones that we're racing are high performance craft

and they're specifically meant for racing.

We actually maintain an entire fleet of drones,

so we have about 100 that we bring from event to event,

maintained by drone technicians.

Absolutely, I'm taking more risks.

I don't have to fix it at the end of the day.

I'm flying that thing at 100% the whole time.

Whatever happens, happens.

One of the things that's interesting to watch

as we launch the league

is that there are some really talented pilots

but they've never been tested in a competition format.

If you're concerned with doing back flips

and making it look pretty,

you're not concerned with being fast.

When it comes to racing, you just want to finish the race.

[Announcer] Welcome to level one, Miami.

The first race of the 2016 season.

[Steve] The nerves were higher

than any other race I've ever been in.

When we see people get the most excited

about drone racing content, it's that proximity flight.

It's drones flying through a space

that you might be able to walk around and think,

what would it be like to fly through this at a high speed?

And the winner can credibly say

they're the best pilot in the world.