Yea, that's pretty amazing. I didn't realize they were naturally aspirated. So I suppose detonation at such high RPM is not a big deal.

I was also wondering if they use direct injection (like a diesel), but didn't see any info on that.

What's interesting is to compare the F1 motor performance to current street bikes. A $10000 street bike can put out nearly 200 hp/liter at around 12000 RPM. The F1 puts out about 300 hp/liter at 18000 RPM, a perfect ratio.