Senna's pole lap 1991
Discussion
Just watching Senna's lap from 1991, he did a 1'47. I know the bus stop chicane has been changed but looking back over the last 20 yrs the times are pretty much the same, give or take <>2secs maybe. 2002 aside, I'am I missing something regarding track changes? What I'am asking is have the lap times been so close for the last 20 years?
Senna's lap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5b5xi7idlE
Senna's lap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5b5xi7idlE
rhysenna said:
EDLT said:
Its a fairly low downforce track, so all the aerodynamic advances don't make much difference, and Senna has probably got more power/torque than current F1 cars too.
The cars at the end of the V10 era had 950-1000hp. In 1991 they had about 750hp.La source has been reprofiled since then. As has Eau Rouge. As has Les Combes. As has Fagnes. As has the bus-stop. All very important sections of the track for laptime.
Like a previous poster said, Spa is a low downforce track. Aerodynamic advance here will not be as apparent as, say, Monaco where the laptime has come down by over 10 seconds within that time(including circuit changes there too.
Bear in mind how the cars have changed over that time. Senna's 1991 car was wide track, wide slicks, wide wings, front wing endplates with Ti strips on the bottom so they could run very close to the ground.
The car he drove was a lot purer (purer is the wrong word to use, but I can't think of a better one) than the heavily regulated and compromised cars that we have now.
God that looks good!
The circuit seems remarkably unchanged as far as I can see, though the road section from La Source looks bumpier to me.
When you think about all the restrictions they have now it's quite amazing that they aren't even slower these days. In 1991 they had 3.5 engines, big wide cars with wide wings, huge sticky Goodyear Eagles (in competition with other tyre makers). Not to mention driver aids etc
The circuit seems remarkably unchanged as far as I can see, though the road section from La Source looks bumpier to me.
When you think about all the restrictions they have now it's quite amazing that they aren't even slower these days. In 1991 they had 3.5 engines, big wide cars with wide wings, huge sticky Goodyear Eagles (in competition with other tyre makers). Not to mention driver aids etc
That was great! Thanks for posting.
Hmmm - the cars were fab then and isn't it lovely to have nothing but the sound of what's going on on-track so you can listen to the car and what the driver is doing, Senna's mid corner 'tap,tap,tap' on the throttle for example, instead of some retard prattling on about his haircut...
Hmmm - the cars were fab then and isn't it lovely to have nothing but the sound of what's going on on-track so you can listen to the car and what the driver is doing, Senna's mid corner 'tap,tap,tap' on the throttle for example, instead of some retard prattling on about his haircut...
Asterix said:
That was great! Thanks for posting.
Hmmm - the cars were fab then and isn't it lovely to have nothing but the sound of what's going on on-track so you can listen to the car and what the driver is doing, Senna's mid corner 'tap,tap,tap' on the throttle for example, instead of some retard prattling on about his haircut...
Yes very interesting to just hear the car(Ayrton's famous throttle style), I think the BBC coms should shut up for a bit sometimes like in NASCAR, except I think the US coms have more of an idea what their director is up to over there.Hmmm - the cars were fab then and isn't it lovely to have nothing but the sound of what's going on on-track so you can listen to the car and what the driver is doing, Senna's mid corner 'tap,tap,tap' on the throttle for example, instead of some retard prattling on about his haircut...
AJS- said:
When you think about all the restrictions they have now it's quite amazing that they aren't even slower these days. In 1991 they had 3.5 engines, big wide cars with wide wings, huge sticky Goodyear Eagles (in competition with other tyre makers). Not to mention driver aids etc
Driver aids?McLaren were still using an H pattern manual gearbox on the MP4/6
Todays cars have far more 'aids' on then than that car did
To a certain extent I am with you. But in 1991, we were onlý 2 years away from the cars that would reputedly drive themselves around the track. I think that McLaren were a bit behind Williams in the electronic war that went on in F1, but they weren't that far behind. I couldn't say for sure what the MP4/7 had or didn't have though.
^ I tend to agree - I think that McLaren had worked out the paddleshift gearbox by that point in the 91 season (Williams started the year with it and it was only really reliability problems that were caused by the new semi automatic that allowed Senna to pull out a lead early on that in the end was enough to take the championship) and there were certainly lots of clever things going on during this season and the couple after. That being said, an epic lap "for sure" - traffic didn't seem to be a problem then did it... 
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