Just how hard are F1 cars to drive.
Discussion
There was a Top Gear episode where Hammond tried to drive one. Unusually for Top Gear, it actually seemed like he was really trying his hardest to get it right, and he found it difficult.
I think pulling away without the anti-stall kicking in would be your first problem.
I think pulling away without the anti-stall kicking in would be your first problem.
Edited by kambites on Monday 25th October 13:32
kambites said:
There was a Top Gear episode where Hammond tried to drive one. Unusually for Top Gear, it actually seemed like he was really trying his hardest to get it right, and he found it difficult.
I saw that episode but as with all things Top Gear its hard to work out whats real and whats staged. Looking the Korean GP yesterday even the pro's seemed to find it difficult which made me wonder if I would kill myself in one even in the dry.
carl carlson said:
As in the title really.
Could mere mortals like ourselves drive one round a track and experience WOT withouth killing the car and ones self?
No.Could mere mortals like ourselves drive one round a track and experience WOT withouth killing the car and ones self?
Remember the Top Gear where Hammond tried driving the Renualt one around that little tiny infield track somewhere, and I recon hes driven more cars/high performance than we have.
I think I could pootle about in one, but you couldn't just jump in one and lap a track at close to F1 speeds.
F1 cars only work properly when being used as intended - eg they won't handle unless you can work the tyres and brakes hard enough to get heat in to them, and there's no way I could jump in to one and work it that hard without killing myself.
Same for the aerodynamics - unless you are prepared to fling the car at the corners at seemingly impossible speeds then you won't get the benefits of aero.
In short, the driving experience is so far removed from a normal road car, there's no way you could get anywhere close to using the car properly.
You could of course just hammer it down the straights, then 'miss daisy' round the corners.
F1 cars only work properly when being used as intended - eg they won't handle unless you can work the tyres and brakes hard enough to get heat in to them, and there's no way I could jump in to one and work it that hard without killing myself.
Same for the aerodynamics - unless you are prepared to fling the car at the corners at seemingly impossible speeds then you won't get the benefits of aero.
In short, the driving experience is so far removed from a normal road car, there's no way you could get anywhere close to using the car properly.
You could of course just hammer it down the straights, then 'miss daisy' round the corners.
DanGPR said:
If you had a long enough space, its not the acceleration that's the problem... Its getting enough heat in the brakes and tyres not to spin off, and going fast enough for the downforce to play its part.
Agreed. Driving it I don't think would be too hard. (Gas, brake, steering, up-lever, down-lever) But trying to get any speed in it would be pretty difficult I think.As Hammond found the problem is the tyres, brakes and aero are all designed to work at high speed. So at low speed nothing grips or works like it should. But to get the full benefit of things being in their operating window you have to jump that chasm where you're trying to go fast but everything's cold. So pottering around a car park is easy, but trying to get the performance would be too hard as you'd be going so slow and with a MASSIVE learning curve on the way to proper performance.
carl carlson said:
Is it a learning curve or a case of just putting a bit of faith in the car and the design behind it?
I imagine it's a huge learning curve. In the very few times that i've driven at 150mph+ it's been in a dead straight line. To think about taking corners at those kind of speeds would involve forgetting everything I know about car dynamics and re-learning it from scratch. Learning the physical limits of an F1 car would take a long long time.
I wonder if you can 'learn' the quick reactions that F1 drivers need to have when catching a high speed slide, or is it inbuilt? Is this what seperates an F1 driver from the rest of us.
At Palmersport, they have the ~250bhp JP1 and Formula Jaguar cars. For most people not used to slicks and downforce, it feels like something from another planet. The downforce especially takes some getting used to - turning in way quicker than you'd expect (and beyond the mechanical grip of an aero-less car) in order to have it work.
After 20 mins in each, I was exhausted and felt like I'd not really scratched the surface of what they're capable of. Having over three times that power is almost unfathomable. I can imagine a physically fit person being capable of learning over a few days and many sessions how to get it up to a reasonable speed. Jump straight in and try to be even slightly quick would result in a car in the gravel.
After 20 mins in each, I was exhausted and felt like I'd not really scratched the surface of what they're capable of. Having over three times that power is almost unfathomable. I can imagine a physically fit person being capable of learning over a few days and many sessions how to get it up to a reasonable speed. Jump straight in and try to be even slightly quick would result in a car in the gravel.
mnkiboy said:
carl carlson said:
Is it a learning curve or a case of just putting a bit of faith in the car and the design behind it?
I imagine it's a huge learning curve. In the very few times that i've driven at 150mph+ it's been in a dead straight line. To think about taking corners at those kind of speeds would involve forgetting everything I know about car dynamics and re-learning it from scratch. Learning the physical limits of an F1 car would take a long long time.
I wonder if you can 'learn' the quick reactions that F1 drivers need to have when catching a high speed slide, or is it inbuilt? Is this what seperates an F1 driver from the rest of us.
mnkiboy said:
carl carlson said:
Is it a learning curve or a case of just putting a bit of faith in the car and the design behind it?
I imagine it's a huge learning curve. In the very few times that i've driven at 150mph+ it's been in a dead straight line. To think about taking corners at those kind of speeds would involve forgetting everything I know about car dynamics and re-learning it from scratch. Learning the physical limits of an F1 car would take a long long time.
I wonder if you can 'learn' the quick reactions that F1 drivers need to have when catching a high speed slide, or is it inbuilt? Is this what seperates an F1 driver from the rest of us.
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