While watching the practice laps at the Australian Grand Prix, my
friend and I started having a discussion about the engines in Formula
1 cars.  He claims that the engines on these vehicles are built to
such exacting tolerances that they do not require gaskets.  Now I
don't purport to know much about engines but it seems nearly
impossible to have the high compressions that these things have, with
just two pieces of metal next to each other.

So, do F1 cars have head gaskets?

Thanks!

This site says that the engines now need NO gaskets:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A906572

as does a guy here, but he may not be a better or different source for
the information:
http://discuss.pittsburghlive.com/viewtopic.php?t=74334&

Your friend is correct. The tolerances for F1 engines are so exacting
that they don't have any gaps to fill so they don't need to use
gaskets.