Driving an F1 car. One word, GRIP!!
Discussion
OP said.....
"And thanks to all of you for not making me regret posting. I assure you my intention is only to shine a light on the experience, warts and all. Most threads seem to descend into an argument, and this one hasn't, at least yet..."
OK... let's have an argument.. You drive like my Granny!!
There it is done....
An amazing experience and thank you for sharing....
When I place my flag on the moon - I'll drop you a PM
"And thanks to all of you for not making me regret posting. I assure you my intention is only to shine a light on the experience, warts and all. Most threads seem to descend into an argument, and this one hasn't, at least yet..."
OK... let's have an argument.. You drive like my Granny!!
There it is done....
An amazing experience and thank you for sharing....
When I place my flag on the moon - I'll drop you a PM
Really enjoyed the read and the on-board. Having done a couple of experiences at Yas Marina, would say yours is an experience worth every penny (although still not cheap!).
Would love to have seen the reaction/heard the swearing as you nailed it down the straight for the first time. Thanks for posting.
Would love to have seen the reaction/heard the swearing as you nailed it down the straight for the first time. Thanks for posting.
Like all driving experiences I don't think the gravity of the vehicle you're driving ever really registers with people when it comes to the cost.
£15k for 10 laps sounds like an awful lot but you're getting a less than a decade old F1 car of the highest calibre, a full F1 event venue, all the backup from the people that run it and presumably the whopping insurance for allowing Joe Public the chance to drive one and all the inherent risks that entails to person, track and especially car.
Actual content on an experience day is pretty limited but when else are you ever gonna get to drive something so out of the ordinary unless you really strike it lucky in life? I did 5 laps of Prodrive's airstrip track in a DBS with 6th Gear and even though it was over before I knew it I enjoyed every second of it and absolutely loved the car itself, same for the Gallardo and 360 Modena I got to drive at Bruntingthorpe. Two birthday/Christmas presents I'll not soon forget.
In any case, the V8 sounds like it's rev-limited or at least, doesn't sound like the original so perhaps it's been swapped out for something a little easier to run that gives the same experience more or less. I think I'd have still stuck with the Jaguar because of the V10 but either way it's something you'll cherish the rest of your life.
If I had £15k to spend on something like this I'd be damn sure having a go. You did well from the footage you've shown!
£15k for 10 laps sounds like an awful lot but you're getting a less than a decade old F1 car of the highest calibre, a full F1 event venue, all the backup from the people that run it and presumably the whopping insurance for allowing Joe Public the chance to drive one and all the inherent risks that entails to person, track and especially car.
Actual content on an experience day is pretty limited but when else are you ever gonna get to drive something so out of the ordinary unless you really strike it lucky in life? I did 5 laps of Prodrive's airstrip track in a DBS with 6th Gear and even though it was over before I knew it I enjoyed every second of it and absolutely loved the car itself, same for the Gallardo and 360 Modena I got to drive at Bruntingthorpe. Two birthday/Christmas presents I'll not soon forget.
In any case, the V8 sounds like it's rev-limited or at least, doesn't sound like the original so perhaps it's been swapped out for something a little easier to run that gives the same experience more or less. I think I'd have still stuck with the Jaguar because of the V10 but either way it's something you'll cherish the rest of your life.
If I had £15k to spend on something like this I'd be damn sure having a go. You did well from the footage you've shown!
Edited by F1GTRUeno on Friday 7th July 23:51
Edited by F1GTRUeno on Friday 7th July 23:53
Thanks for recording and sharing your experience - it looked absolutely ace.
I watched the short clips first and when I clicked on the first one I was wondering if it be the full-fat F1 but when you booted it down the straight it sure answered that question. That V10 shriek is really something else. Then onto the gopro footage and it was like Barrichello heading out into practice back in the day. Understandably the other-wordly pace of F1 qualifying wasn't there but the way you sliced those corners from pretty much the first bend looked like you've driven thousands of laps there before! Add those witches hats on the corners which I believe are hard to see, and it was very impressive. If it were me I'd have collected at least half the witches hats on the out lap, a few would have ended up in the radiator ducting and I'd have cooked the engine on the second lap!
I watched the short clips first and when I clicked on the first one I was wondering if it be the full-fat F1 but when you booted it down the straight it sure answered that question. That V10 shriek is really something else. Then onto the gopro footage and it was like Barrichello heading out into practice back in the day. Understandably the other-wordly pace of F1 qualifying wasn't there but the way you sliced those corners from pretty much the first bend looked like you've driven thousands of laps there before! Add those witches hats on the corners which I believe are hard to see, and it was very impressive. If it were me I'd have collected at least half the witches hats on the out lap, a few would have ended up in the radiator ducting and I'd have cooked the engine on the second lap!
but of the say F50/ CGT ?
I'm not going to try and multi quote as it ends up being unreadable, so please don't take offence if I haven't attributed a reply to you.
I don't believe the car (FW33) is massively rev-limited, but I think they've toned it down a bit ie 16,000 versus 18,000 as it was originally. The forces through the engine go up with the square of the engine revs I believe, so you'd probably do the same if it was your car. My only sensitivity is whether that changes the sound quality, and one other guy was driving the Williams, hearing the car then sounded to me like F1 in it's heydey. The irony is, you can't hear that when you're driving the car. It sounds to you just as it does on the gopro footage. I tried it with and without earplugs and it made no difference; I think you feel rather than hear the engine when you're in the car. I've got a few bruises from driving, on the insides of my upper arms for some reason (probably getting in and out of the cars), and maybe it's adrenalin, but I got out of the car fresh as a daisy.
What was interesting is that the other cars they were running were the Prost AP1, one with a V10 the other a V8, and the Benetton with a V8, ie early 2000's cars. They didn't sound that good to my ear, certainly less howl. I think we have some footage somewhere, and my missus said that when I went past the Benetton on the main straight the difference in the engine notes was night and day. I really don't know why the Benetton was so slow, but it felt like I was stuck behind a pensioner. Someone else said that it was a handful to drive, and I think the Williams is a faster, more well sorted car so more flattering. They don't allow you to overtake unless the guy ahead has been given the blue flag, and it was obvious he hadn't seen me so I bided my time.
Every time down the main straight was grit your teeth and hang on. I think it was one long ffffuuuuuucccccckkk actually, so just as well they didn't turn on the radio! It's just so incredibly intense, the car is vibrating away, the wind buffeting is like someone boxing your ears and your helmet is trying to fly. You can feel everything. Jinking across the track imperfections, how stiff the chassis is and how tight all the controls are. Nothing is too heavy, not even the brake. Though it's unassisted, there was more travel than there is in the 930 or the F50. But I still wasn't hitting the brake hard enough. Don't know if you can see on this trace (they're monitoring everything from the pits) but the maximum force I was applying to the brake was 40psi; apparently that should be 80; brake trace is green throttle is white. Need to stock up on weetabix then since I was bloody trying!
There's at least 5 seconds in braking later and harder and another 5 in carrying more speed in the corners. Then there's actually troubling those apexes. You have to be wary of going off line though, since you must pick up dirt on the tyres when you go off line or over the rumble strips- there was definitely less grip available for a couple of corners after that The mechanics say that the biggest ingredient to going faster is confidence, that the car will slow down, and is going to stick.
And this is the problem. I look at those laps and I know where 10 seconds live without any real thought, And you think, hmm, that looks like unfinished business. Before you know it you're looking at a return visit. Chatting to one French guy there on his fourth visit; I thought he was crazy at the start of the day, but at the end of it I completely understood how this could be addictive. There were 7 or 8 other people driving the F1 cars, but I was the only Brit there, the others were French and German guys and the team running the cars is French. I do think you have to be careful who you book with because one of the things that put me off for so long was the fear of being out on a mickey mouse circuit in a rev limited car. I think these guys were the real deal though, and I don't feel short changed at all. I've done what I think most of us have, and seen that you can buy an ex-F1 car for the price of a modern supercar. Hello! Then you look into the details of how much time and effort to run it, where to run it etc, and you rapidly come to the conclusion that the purchase price is merely a down-payment, and it's a colossal PITA to boot. So, no, I don't feel like I was rinsed, and I'm happy to stick with my road cars. We were out in the Carrera GT last night and while it was nowhere as intense, it didn't feel a world away to be honest.Though I'm resisting the urge to steam into corners then hit the brake like I'm standing on a snake.. Yes I know I'm a massively fortunate b
d, something I absolutely do not take for granted as I've spent the greater part of my life skint.
The take away from all of this, IMO, is that anyone reading this could do the same or better, it really is that accessible. For a price of course!
I don't believe the car (FW33) is massively rev-limited, but I think they've toned it down a bit ie 16,000 versus 18,000 as it was originally. The forces through the engine go up with the square of the engine revs I believe, so you'd probably do the same if it was your car. My only sensitivity is whether that changes the sound quality, and one other guy was driving the Williams, hearing the car then sounded to me like F1 in it's heydey. The irony is, you can't hear that when you're driving the car. It sounds to you just as it does on the gopro footage. I tried it with and without earplugs and it made no difference; I think you feel rather than hear the engine when you're in the car. I've got a few bruises from driving, on the insides of my upper arms for some reason (probably getting in and out of the cars), and maybe it's adrenalin, but I got out of the car fresh as a daisy.
What was interesting is that the other cars they were running were the Prost AP1, one with a V10 the other a V8, and the Benetton with a V8, ie early 2000's cars. They didn't sound that good to my ear, certainly less howl. I think we have some footage somewhere, and my missus said that when I went past the Benetton on the main straight the difference in the engine notes was night and day. I really don't know why the Benetton was so slow, but it felt like I was stuck behind a pensioner. Someone else said that it was a handful to drive, and I think the Williams is a faster, more well sorted car so more flattering. They don't allow you to overtake unless the guy ahead has been given the blue flag, and it was obvious he hadn't seen me so I bided my time.
Every time down the main straight was grit your teeth and hang on. I think it was one long ffffuuuuuucccccckkk actually, so just as well they didn't turn on the radio! It's just so incredibly intense, the car is vibrating away, the wind buffeting is like someone boxing your ears and your helmet is trying to fly. You can feel everything. Jinking across the track imperfections, how stiff the chassis is and how tight all the controls are. Nothing is too heavy, not even the brake. Though it's unassisted, there was more travel than there is in the 930 or the F50. But I still wasn't hitting the brake hard enough. Don't know if you can see on this trace (they're monitoring everything from the pits) but the maximum force I was applying to the brake was 40psi; apparently that should be 80; brake trace is green throttle is white. Need to stock up on weetabix then since I was bloody trying!
There's at least 5 seconds in braking later and harder and another 5 in carrying more speed in the corners. Then there's actually troubling those apexes. You have to be wary of going off line though, since you must pick up dirt on the tyres when you go off line or over the rumble strips- there was definitely less grip available for a couple of corners after that The mechanics say that the biggest ingredient to going faster is confidence, that the car will slow down, and is going to stick.
And this is the problem. I look at those laps and I know where 10 seconds live without any real thought, And you think, hmm, that looks like unfinished business. Before you know it you're looking at a return visit. Chatting to one French guy there on his fourth visit; I thought he was crazy at the start of the day, but at the end of it I completely understood how this could be addictive. There were 7 or 8 other people driving the F1 cars, but I was the only Brit there, the others were French and German guys and the team running the cars is French. I do think you have to be careful who you book with because one of the things that put me off for so long was the fear of being out on a mickey mouse circuit in a rev limited car. I think these guys were the real deal though, and I don't feel short changed at all. I've done what I think most of us have, and seen that you can buy an ex-F1 car for the price of a modern supercar. Hello! Then you look into the details of how much time and effort to run it, where to run it etc, and you rapidly come to the conclusion that the purchase price is merely a down-payment, and it's a colossal PITA to boot. So, no, I don't feel like I was rinsed, and I'm happy to stick with my road cars. We were out in the Carrera GT last night and while it was nowhere as intense, it didn't feel a world away to be honest.Though I'm resisting the urge to steam into corners then hit the brake like I'm standing on a snake.. Yes I know I'm a massively fortunate b
d, something I absolutely do not take for granted as I've spent the greater part of my life skint.The take away from all of this, IMO, is that anyone reading this could do the same or better, it really is that accessible. For a price of course!
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff